About this old iron.

Saw the post below asking how old each one of us are. My question is what is going to happen to all this old iron when we are gone? Every auction I go to it is the elders buying up the antique tractors and engines. I commented to a friend at an auction about 5 years ago that all this stuff will be for sale again in 20 years because it was 55 and older people buying most of it. Your comments.

unless i find some kids i dont know about my only heir is my sister...if i go first she wont even come to house and look thru stuff...she'll call an auctioneer and tellem to send her a check.
i'm planning on outliving her to watch her family try to turn that crap she collects into cash lmao

I have 2 son's in their early 30's with bigger collections than I do. Still lots of younger guys at the auctions I've been to I think. There's always that " my dad had one of those so I want one too" attitude out there.

I'm 35 and have been collecting for my whole life. I have the sheds so full of old stuff now, just think how much I will hall home by the time I'm 70. I think there is a lot less young guys buying too, but our generation also has no money, we live for the "now" not the past or future.
Kevin

You have a very good question , wondering what is going to happen when we "older guys " are finished with our prized posesions. I am 73 and have bought 2 more tractors in the last 45 days . Will I ever learn ? How many are enough ? clint.

I'll bet a lot of it will be sold alright- for SCRAP. There will be just so many fewer around who might appreciate what it is or what it stood for.

I'm just about 30..

I have 7 tractors, SP cornpicker, couple plows, disc, 3 old garden tractors, and 6 old sleds (JD and MF sleds)

I have one more thing I want to buy before summer, then I'm going to stop buying for a while and try to finish up a few of the projects I already have. Everything but 2 of my tractors ran at one point.. Today I think 2 will run.

New year's I decided that my resolution was to get everything back moving under it's own power again, or get rid of it.. If I could get 75% up and rolling this year, I'd be happy.

Brad

I'm only 20 and have 5 tractors, plows and couple other things. Definatly doing my part to keep it going but everybody else sure likes them tractors whenever they come up on auction too.

They'll go the way horses and horse machinery went in the 1920s and 1930s.

Antiques never go out of style. There will always be somebody that will buy them. If it were not the case, there would not be any spinning wheels left to be found.I got something you don't got. na na nana!(pride)

I think there are 2 reasons it is the 55 + crowd buying this stuff at auctions. 1: Time - they have it! 2: Money - they have it!

The few of us younger collectors are going to have to buy up tons of this old iron before it all goes to China. I'm 18 and I don't plan on letting any of my dad's or grandpa's collections slip out of the family as long as I can help it. I strongly believe that there are many young people who would love this old stuff if they got introduced to it. That's why I think tractor clubs are so great. Shows put on by tractor clubs allow people to come out and enjoy history and maybe even get hooked on a new hobby. It's up to us to spread interest.

Elementary, My dear Watson. The young people will become the old people. We Ain't a gonna run outta old people. I usta be young too

(quoted from post at 15:40:07 02/07/11) The few of us younger collectors are going to have to buy up tons of this old iron before it all goes to China. I'm 18 and I don't plan on letting any of my dad's or grandpa's collections slip out of the family as long as I can help it. I strongly believe that there are many young people who would love this old stuff if they got introduced to it. That's why I think tractor clubs are so great. Shows put on by tractor clubs allow people to come out and enjoy history and maybe even get hooked on a new hobby. It's up to us to spread interest.

Click to expand...

Hey Farmall.......

Where in west Mich??? I am near Coopersville.

Brad - your story sounds similar to mine.

I'm 31, with 8 tractors, 7 sleds (Scorpions and a JD), 50+ chainsaws. When I bought tractor #8 last summer I decided I was done until I could catch up on the repairs.

Good luck with your resolution. I think I'm going to fail at mine...

While you say it's the older crowd buying up the old equipment, I say it's the smart crowd doing the buying. I say this because the older stuff may be 'out of date' but it will never be obsolete. By that I mean gears, levers, linkages, etc have all been around for thousands of years, and will be around a thousand years from now. With this newer equipment they come up with something new electronically on them just about every year and then in just a few years quit making the electronic parts that they obsoleted with the new stuff. Basically when a $100,000 machine is setting broke down and unrepairable because the obsolete computer is dead and can't be bought anywhere because the OEM isn't making it or telling anyone how to make it, the old machines will still be in the field doing their thing with repairs made using readily available or easily duplicated parts....or worst case using 'bailing wire and duct tape'.....

Good question.
It's also part of another BIG question.
A hundred years ago, there were 100 people on the farm, and one person in the city.
Now, there are 100 people in the city, and one on the farm.
The demand for food, goods, and services to cities is still climbing.
Most of the big farmers who are surviving are receiving government subsidies to keep their corporation afloat.
I have two sons, one makes way more than I with a window cleaning business, and the other is the manager of the computer room where he works.
Point is, neither farms, and neither have the money to break in.
The way of farm life I grew up with in the past century is gone.
Just my thoughts on this snowy day.

quite honestly,I think it will continue for the smaller tractors simply because they will be used more instead of less. Lots of advantages to using older tractors on a small place or as some would call a hobby farm.All equipment cost something to own,if nothing else just simple storage or upkeep.a older tractor requires more upkeep,but the fact that it doesnt generally have the monthly payments makes them more economicly viable to a person who wouldnt run one as much as a farmer who depends on one for a living.But then again,with rising costs of fuel,time constraints,etc most rural areas are losing population.The trend seems to be turning more to folks moving back to the city now instead of out of the city,simply because the price of commuting has got so high and continues to rise.this is ,in my opinion ,what will hurt the most.There simply wont be the need for a simple older smaller tractor.I think its already being felt in the market.you can now buy say a good midsize tractor for what you can buy a small one.A 9or 8n ford is often worth more money than say a 7-800 series are even though they would be a much better tractor for folks in lots of cases to run a small farming concern.the biggest problem in my humble estimation will be parts in the future.Now would be the time to purchase and rebuild some of the midsize tractors while parts are still available new.The smaller ones generally hold their interest and value well, but the say 50-85 or even 100 hp ones are where the bargains are now for collectors and they are getting cheaper all the time.But as interest in them goes away the need for parts will also.When that happens even more will go to scrap. Good maybe for the true die hard collector but not for the part time or weekend warrior with a small concern he's trying to farm economically.

Very few auctions around here. Very few farms left.

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal some time back that said that one of the best investments that could be made now is antique tractors.Maybe they read this too.

A least around here to scrap yard for most of it.
Maybe the best pieces find a buyer for a nickel and a dime but i don't hold my breath.

Related to what you're saying... over the years I bought two 1950's era 2 wheel walk behind tractors (Simplicity) and got them really cheap. One's a 5 h.p. with a gear shift. From the same era came Cushman scooters, there's not much to them with an 8 h.p. engine. Those things sell for $5,000 or more in good shape. I wonder when the interest in Cushmans will fade.

I'm 65 and have 10 tractors, and don't even live on a farm. I'm going to try and buy 1 more this spring. I think we "seniors" are trying to bring back part of our youth, in collecting old iron. I always say "A man can't have too many tractors, or too many guns, he can however, have too many women telling him he has too many tractors and guns." Dale

I say it's the smart crowd doing the buying. I say this because the older stuff may be 'out of date' but it will never be obsolete.
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I can't saw that I agree with your outlook. I suppose it depends upon what age of tractors we are speaking of.

Here on the plains not a lot of row crops were grown until minimum tillage and no-till really took hold. That was in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Prior to about the mid 1960s there were few tractors around that even had 3 point hitches on them. Everything was done with drawbar implements.

No longer are those kinds drawbar implements even used, and modern implement are so large that the old tractors couldn't even pull them for field work.

In many counties you'd be hard pressed to find a gravity box to even pull with an oldie.

Without 3 point hitches for blades or implements to use behind them aren't they really obsolete? A once a year tractor parade doesn't really make them useful.

I guess what it boils done to is what each of us is thinking of as old iron.

Ive wondered the same thing myself, where will things go in a few years and what will they be worth.Alot is being hauled off for scrap.Old gas station things seem to be hot right now, but that can change,I think alot of old tractor things have gone down in price the last few years.Sometimes I am one of the younger ones at the auctions and I am 53.

Some factors like not growing up on a farm may reduce collectiblity of this old stuff, but for others the attachment to a way of life that they can only dream about may increase it. The reality of farming today is far from the image most non-farm people have of it so the old equipment represents something idyllic. I do think the models in demand are the ones we used in our youth, so collecting tends to newer models all the time. Most of us don't have enopugh disposable income to spend on a collector tractor until the kids are grown and gone, every group entering the collector field is constantly changing, so the tractors they want change also.

I like your statement. Going to have to remember that one.

im 18 and have an absolute love for old tractors and equipment. i just dont know if there will be anyone who knows how to work on my tractors when i grow older!!

I'm in Alto (east of Caledonia). Not far from Coopersville at all.