National Public Radio talks tractors

Today npr has a piece on antique tractors being a good investment since real estate and the stock market are troubled. If you have a chance to listen this morning the report is very interesting.

Just great, now auctions will be jammed with abundant noobs with too much money!

One problem with this investment is a place to store it.

And just storing it, it will detereorate unless used some and looked after.

Then if you want to cash in your investment in ten years you need to find a buyer.


So unless you enjoy tractors and will maintain them while in your ownership it could be a bad investment 10 years from now when the engine locks up the tin rusts away.

I would still call it a hobby and not an investment.

Gary

I"ll believe it when it happens. If you have a JD 420V/LP or some of the exotic high-crops, then maybe. But do you really expect to see selling prices of Farmall M"s, Ford N"s and JD B"s going through the roof?

Hey, My wife is a big abundant, NPR type, maybe she will buy the investment aspect now. I think I will tell her this evening that I need to spend $10,000 on a nice SMTA!!!! Think it will work?


Gene

One of our best friends......raised just like we were, same values........had a one hour commute for 15 years, so.......she spent 10 (commuting) hours per week with her radio tuned to NPR; you wouldn't believe how it screwed up her mind (but, but..........I heard on the radio that......)

The BEST way to double your money is fold it in half and stick it back in your wallet. Good advice from an old guy I once knew.

If someone wants to be critical of the story how about listening to it FIRST. NPR does have a web site if you didn't get to hear the story, and it was of interest to antique tractor owners whether you have a beef with NPR or not.

I have been jokingly saying this same thing for about 10 years. I noticed that a farmall H is usually worth about $950 to $1500 dollars depending on the shape of it. Never much more, never much less. We have discussed it many times.

Real estate will ultimately in the long haul keep going up becasue, unless you are on a volcanic island, they aint makin' any more of it.

I really don't have a beef with NPR, other than why are we (the taxpayers) paying for it? Where in the constitution does it say "Oh, by the way, you have to pay to listen to drivel that can't support itself in the free market"!

The BEST way to double your money is fold it in half and stick it back in your wallet. Good advice from an old guy I once knew.


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Agreed

However a coffee can in the backyard is starting to look like a good idea too.

I heard it this morning, thought it was pretty good. I guess it kind of caught me off guard...

I think they were talking about the more collectible tractors. The Super MTA mentioned above is a decent example, I've seen them double in price the last few year. Now that old Farmall H that's common as dirt, well that's not going to be the best investment (unless your looking for a working tractor on the cheap of course). One of the fellows they had on said that a lot of "collectors" are buying them and sending them over seas. Never heard of that, but interesting none the less, maybe there's better markets in Europe?

Now my rant...why can't folks just talk about the story and not about the evil liberals destroying the world. Seem the boards gotten pretty darn political these days, to bad really, I come here to read about tractors not about why I'm so crazy just for having and opinion that differs from someone else.

I usually just avoid that stuff and stick to tractors, but picking on NPR goes a little to far I guess. It's a great source of news from around the world, stuff you just don't get anywhere else. I don't listen to all their programing, some of it's even a little annoying to me, but the news and a lot of the weekend programming is great. Oh year it's funded primarily by it's listeners, that and grants/endowments etc. The tax dollars spent are a very small percentage of they're overall budget. I should mention that when I refer to NPR I'm using that to refer to the whole public radio system.

For those who are interested:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95016730[/url]

Thanks for the comment. There used to be a part of this website for OT (other topics). It got so rank I guess they had to do away with it. Thanks for keeping the focus on the topic of tractors.

No way. At best they'll hold their value in the long run but I doubt even that. There'll be fewer and fewer old farmers every year with an interest, and hobby money is the first to disappear in bad times.

I'd kinda like to have one or two around myself, but there's no way I can afford to have a machine around that isn't paying it's way.