My day at the tractor auction

   / My day at the tractor auction #1  

flusher

Super Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2005
Messages
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Location
Sacramento
Tractor
Getting old. Sold the ranch. Sold the tractors. Moved back to the city.
Spent about 4 hours at a local tractor auction today. Took about 3 hours to sell the small stuff (tools, welders, implements, boxes o junk, etc). Then 13 tractors were sold in about an hour.

They were all running OK, but, as expected, were not cleaned up at all. Used mostly for orchard work. Wasn't able to get the year info for these tractors (auction guys didn't know) and I didn't have time to find the serial numbers. I glanced at the hour meters on some of them and the numbers ranged from 3000-8000 hours.

Here're the results in the order that they were auctioned:

JD 2640/FEL (70hp) $8000
Ford 4600/FEL (50hp) $4750
David Brown 885 with spray trailer (43 hp) $1750 (bad rear tires)
JD 2755 (88hp) $6500
JD 5400 (60hp) $7500
NH 8010 Low Profile w/cab (96hp) $10,500
MF 390 w/cab (81hp) $6750 (had bad 2nd gear)
JD 2640 (70hp) $4750
JD 2240 (50hp) $3000
JD 2440 (60hp) $4750
JD 2240 (50hp) $5000
Ford 4600 (52hp) $3600
Ford 5000 (69hp) $6250

When I got home I took out my 2005 Tractor Blue Book (just ordered the 2006 edition) and did a little digging. Much to my surprise I found that most of the tractors without an FEL sold the "Average Used Trade-in Price" range shown in the TBB.

The one exception was the Ford 5000 that sold at what the TBB calls the "Average Used Retail Price", which, I suppose, is what you would expect to pay a dealer for that particular tractor. I guess that buyer was really motivated and was willing to go all the way to retail. It looked like a pretty nice tractor to me.

I would have guessed that the auction prices would be somewhere between the used trade-in price and the used retail price. You learn something new every day.

My impression was that the people bidding on the tractors were pretty sharp and had obviously had a lot of experience in tractor buying and had done their homework.

Anybody out there notice similar results at other auctions?
 
   / My day at the tractor auction
  • Thread Starter
#2  
Spent about 4 hours at a local tractor auction today. Took about 3 hours to sell the small stuff (tools, welders, implements, boxes o junk, etc). Then 13 tractors were sold in about an hour.

They were all running OK, but, as expected, were not cleaned up at all. Used mostly for orchard work. Wasn't able to get the year info for these tractors (auction guys didn't know) and I didn't have time to find the serial numbers. I glanced at the hour meters on some of them and the numbers ranged from 3000-8000 hours.

Here're the results in the order that they were auctioned:

JD 2640/FEL (70hp) $8000
Ford 4600/FEL (50hp) $4750
David Brown 885 with spray trailer (43 hp) $1750 (bad rear tires)
JD 2755 (88hp) $6500
JD 5400 (60hp) $7500
NH 8010 Low Profile w/cab (96hp) $10,500
MF 390 w/cab (81hp) $6750 (had bad 2nd gear)
JD 2640 (70hp) $4750
JD 2240 (50hp) $3000
JD 2440 (60hp) $4750
JD 2240 (50hp) $5000
Ford 4600 (52hp) $3600
Ford 5000 (69hp) $6250

When I got home I took out my 2005 Tractor Blue Book (just ordered the 2006 edition) and did a little digging. Much to my surprise I found that most of the tractors without an FEL sold the "Average Used Trade-in Price" range shown in the TBB.

The one exception was the Ford 5000 that sold at what the TBB calls the "Average Used Retail Price", which, I suppose, is what you would expect to pay a dealer for that particular tractor. I guess that buyer was really motivated and was willing to go all the way to retail. It looked like a pretty nice tractor to me.

I would have guessed that the auction prices would be somewhere between the used trade-in price and the used retail price. You learn something new every day.

My impression was that the people bidding on the tractors were pretty sharp and had obviously had a lot of experience in tractor buying and had done their homework.

Anybody out there notice similar results at other auctions?
 
   / My day at the tractor auction #3  
Flusher,
My dad went and previewed these the day before the auction. He is a critical sort, just the type of guy to send to look over something like this, but he said they were high hour and well used, so we didn't attend. It is great that you took the time to note the selling prices. The prices sound about right, but no real bargains.

Dave
 
   / My day at the tractor auction #4  
Flusher,
My dad went and previewed these the day before the auction. He is a critical sort, just the type of guy to send to look over something like this, but he said they were high hour and well used, so we didn't attend. It is great that you took the time to note the selling prices. The prices sound about right, but no real bargains.

Dave
 
   / My day at the tractor auction
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thought I would see you there, but now I understand. Saw one dealer's truck/trailer there, but don't know if he bought anything.

So, if I interpret your words correctly, the trade-in prices for this particular group of tractors would have been considerably below the TBB's Average Used Trade-in Price.
 
   / My day at the tractor auction
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Thought I would see you there, but now I understand. Saw one dealer's truck/trailer there, but don't know if he bought anything.

So, if I interpret your words correctly, the trade-in prices for this particular group of tractors would have been considerably below the TBB's Average Used Trade-in Price.
 

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