did I pass up a great deal???

Was at a local auction, knew the family as a kid. Well,. the equipment had been sitting sicne '91. Any way, very poor prep for the auction, tractors were just pulled out of the shed, not cleaned up or even batteries put in to make sure they started. Well there was a Case 1070 with turbo, later model. 3000 hours, like new 20.0x38 rubber. Well, I was leary because she had been sitting so long with out being run or anything. I didnt bid on it, and it sold for $2300 as I was questioniong myself if I should jump in with $2400. Old gent bought it, bout 80 years old. Father in law says I should have bought it, batteries are cheap. I dont know. Hind site is hindsite, but I kind of wish I had bought it. The tires were worth close to that. Kind of a weird auction, auctioneer seemed to cut off bidding on items, and would say, thats enough for that item, was a real back and forth going on a irrigation hose real, all of a sudden auctioneer says sold, thats enough for that, just as the 2nd bidder was nodding to up the bid, this wasnt a waiting for bids item either, both guys wanted it and neither had hit their limit they intended to pay. Kinda sad, and frustrating. I think I messed up on that Case though.

I went to a sale a few weeks ago that went something like that. Bids would be rolling in and all at once the auctioneer would just cut it off. I found out later there was some sort of pre-arrainged deal where family members and friends would have to bid in a minimum amount for some items, but once the price reached that amount, they could have them uncontested. The will stated items had to sell at auction, but I guess it didn't say it had to be a LEGITIMATE auction. On one item, I was bidding, had my hand up, and the auctioneer was looking right at me when he declared the item sold...to someone else. At that point I went home.

for that price I might have gambled on it if it was nice as I can do the mechanical repairs, on the other hand it would be nice to able to run and drive it to spot potential problems, we have or had a 970,1070,1370,1570 and I maintain that the powershift is better than most give it credit as being.

Probably was a great deal passed up, especially with $ in tires to cover you. If all it needed was batteries, and then it ran well, it was worth 2 to 3 times that. On the other side of the coin, you weren't the only person at the sale that passed up the deal. Seems like vendor (beneficiary) didn't care too much.

In our area auctioneers work two ways. Most
popular is commission. Sometimes they work
on a fixed amount for an auction. Needless to
say which way they work harder.
On the Case tractor, If you had some extra cash
on hand I would have put a few bids on it.
(I am a White-Oliver guy but have owned a Case
870).

Guess we're both kicking ourselves today Dave. I went to a consignment sale Saturday looking for 3 things. Fence posts,a 15.5 38 tire and a big 16.1 tire for the manure spreader. I got there,got a number then made a swing out through the miscellaneous rows out to where the wife was selling in the flea market to see if she wanted coffee and a donut or something. Didn't see any posts like I wanted,no 15.5,saw a pair of 17 inch tires on rims with the center cut out. About an hour later,there was a pair of 16.1s on rims with some body's buyer number written on them. I hadn't even seen them. A guy standing there said,yea,they only brought a dollar! *&%^%%^^*&!!

That sounds like a really crooked auction. Was it an estate auction? Maybe a relative wanted some stuff and they were in cahoots with the auctioneer? There are are some very crooked auctioneers out there. Dave

Dave, where was the auction in MN? Sounded like a very interesting sale, who ever got the 1070 got a bargin.

A 1070 did not come from factory with a turbo, somebody added it. You missed nothing by passing on it

East of st cloud

No,, I think things were on the up and up, just seemed odd how some things had the gavel dropped so fast and others didnt. A son of the deceased did buy a tractor he wanted. I knew the family when I was young and did visit with them, they said they had an auction because they just didnt know what to do with all the stuff. Yes , estate sale. Auction bill should have been a little better designed and distibuted and equipment should have been spiffed up in my opinion.

If my neighbor's experience was any indication, you done good. He had transmission problems constantly, finally gave up on it (after he had bought it about twice in repair bills). It was his first cabbed tractor, and he was sure proud of it. . . for awhile. . .

Well, the thing of it is that it went cheap because this older fellow was the only bidder. Chances are that if you had started bidding, he would have also run it up aways--probably would not have sold to you for $2,400.

Regardless, no use crying over spilled milk. For the record, I would have been bidding on that had I been there.

No worries-no regrets. Life is what it is.

That's one good reason the owner should be there to watch the sale. He/She could have jumped in and told the Auctioneer to keep bidding it up. I would have and then told the guy if he wanted to sell any more of my stuff he better not pull that again.
Walt
PS you passed up a very good deal.

Takes more than batt to make a tractor run. Most vehicles I have bought, and that's a lot, non running; usually had a serious defect like a bearing spun or cracked head or worse. I was a sucker cause I always liked buying something dead and bringing it to life again or something that "Nobody can fix." Never look back.