[Farmall] F20 questions

[szabelsk at gdls.com]

John,

The first thing you have to determine is what is it worth to you. 

If you're just looking for a rusty old tractor to pull logs out of the 
woods and don't care about having to add oil every now and then, then you 
shouldn't be willing to offer anymore than a few hundred dollars for a 
tractor that has four wheels and runs most of the time.

If you're planning on doing a total restore and showing it at fairs and 
meets, then you probably what to spend more for a tractor that is clean, 
has all the required parts, and won't cause you to have mortgage the farm 
to get it to where you want it to be.

I always try to get things for as cheap as possible, realizing I've got to 
spend more getting it fixed up.  Figure out what it would take to get it 
back into the condition you want it to be (money and labor), subtract that 
from what you think it would be worth when you're done, and that should be 
what you should offer. 

Keep in mind that the guy who is selling it realizes that somebody is 
going to offer less then what is being asked for. With that in mind he 
probably raised the asking price so he get talked down to a lower price, 
but still get what he really wanted. You're under no obligation to simply 
fork over the asking price. You have a right to make an offer, and have it 
rejected. If it's rejected, leave the guy a phone number, and tell him to 
call you if he changes his mind. If the tractor sits there long enough, 
and he doesn't have any other offers (or offers as high as yours), you may 
get a call. 

Meanwhile, spend a Saturday or two driving around looking for sales and 
attending local auctions. You should be able to get a taste of what things 
are going for and in what condition.

Before I bought my first tractor, I spent a couple of months looking at 
tractors in the local papers, stopping off at ones that were parked on the 
side of the road whenever I was going someplace. In one case I saw a local 
junk yard park a somewhat sad looking 9N with a front loader in their 
front yard ( I was on the way to work and didn't have time to stop and 
look at it). I was building a new house and needed something to backfill. 
When I got to work, I called the junk yard and started to ask a few 
questions apart the tractor. The guy said he had numerous calls on the 
tractor already and if I was interested I should stop by on my way home 
from work since he was pulling the asking price and was going to auction 
it off that evening to the highest bidder. I passed on the offer. 

I eventually ran across an ad in one of the local papers for a '50 Cub 
with "some attachments". When I called the number, the lady who answered 
the phone told me as much about the tractor as she could (it belong to her 
deceased brother-in-law), and was apologizing to me because the tractor 
had some minor rust and the seat cushion was torn. I went to see the 
tractor and made the deal on the spot. I got the Cub, an IH mowing deck, 2 
sickle bars (one red, one multicolored), a plow, a grader blade, a set of 
cultivators, 3 spring tooth harrows, 2 sets of rear tire chains, a box of 
various IH accessories and spare parts.  The lady's husband spent almost 
two hours with me in the barn looking for anything that was painted red or 
even looked liked it belong on a tractor to throw into the deal. All for 
$2000. It ran from the get go and needed no work on it what-so-ever.

If I hadn't decided to shop around, I would probably have picked up 
something else for more, gotten less, and wouldn't have found the Cub. 

Hope you didn't find this too long winded.

Carl Szabelski



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