Buying Advice What did I miss?

[Creamer]

Today there was an auction here locally by the school corporation to get rid of some old stuff. One of the items was a 1988 White Farm Boss FB-31 tractor with BushHog loader (48" bucket) and a 60" back blade. It is an Iseki built 3 cylinder diesel.) It had 2036 hours on it. To put it mildly this tractor looked rough. Numerous dents in the sheet metal with some serious rust in the wheels and sheet metal. Very faded paint - even that silver. It had FWA and ag tires but the tires barely had any tread. I opened the hood and saw that the engine was covered with a layer of oil and dirt - the same was true for the front axle. The top of the bucket on the loader was ripped in the center all the way to the vertical portion of the scoop and some of the hydraulic lines were bent severely but not kinked. The back blade had absolutely no paint and had been severely abused - not good for anything but very rough work. About half of the seat was down to bare metal and some of the gauges were fogged. they did start the tractor and it sounded fine and the 3 pt and loader hydraulics seemed to work fine.

I thought this tractor might go cheap because of its condition but it went for $6100. I was thinking about half of that. Is there something special about this tractor? the guy who bought said he wanted it for his collection - my first reaction is that it would be a lot of work to rebuild. is there something special about this tractor or am I just that far off on my pricing?

 

[Ivan49]

I just traded one in of that same model. Mine was in good shape always kept inside and had 1600 hours on it. I was very surprized at the trade in price. They gave 7500 for it. When I bought it new in 1988 I paid 8200 for the tractor and loader. I was told they would ask in the range of 8500 for it

 

[Creamer]

Wow! Somebody must like them. I know they are a solid little tractor but there weren't very many of them sold! I didn't think they would be very popular.

 

[Ivan49]

There were a lot sold but it was an area thing depending on the dealers.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I don't know anything about that model, but from your description of that one it sounds like you missed an opportunity to put a lot of time, labor and money into a tractor that wouldn't have been worth much more afterwards than before.

 

[TSO]

Iseki builds excellent tractors ... But I agree with the op, I wouldn't have expected it to fetch a price that high.