[AT] Spam> FYI: Antique Tractors: A Real Investment Vehicle

[Chuck Saunders]

I heard that this morning and have never felt richer. Must be Mattias buying
up all of our iron. ; )
Chuck Saunders
Kansas City, MO

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 8:03 AM, Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net> wrote:

> [My wife's reaction to this article was "good, let's get rid of some of
> those old tractors you have lying around". My reaction is that it is
> going to make it tough for guys like me who don't have big bucks to
> spend on old tractors. MS]
>
> Antique Tractors: A Real Investment Vehicle
>
> by Joyce Russell
> <
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95016730&sc=emaf&sc=emaf
> >
>
> Morning Edition, September 25, 2008 · Skittish about the stock market
> and credit crisis? There's another place to park your money: collectible
> tractors. The sector is growing like never before — it has even
> attracted European investors.
>
> Before a recent auction on a farm near Shelby, Iowa, dozens of old
> tractors were lined up in a field, ready for the auction block. Some
> were shiny and restored, others were long unfamiliar with paint. And
> some of them started right up.
>
> They had names both familiar — John Deere and Case — and obscure, like
> Oliver and Silver King.
>
> "We started collecting tractors in 1974, and been collecting mostly ever
> since," said Doreen Wonder, 79. "I love tractors. I'm really a tractor
> nut."
>
> Wonder and her husband, both retired farmers, recently started seeing
> some unfamiliar faces at their tractor collectors club: doctors, lawyers
> and bankers. The sleepy world of collecting tractors, it seemed, was
> becoming a high-stakes investment game.
>
> Some of the tractors the couple bought for four figures early on now
> bring six figures at auction, they said.
>
> The auction brought a good turnout. Auctioneer Lonnie Nixon says that as
> more and more tractor aficionados got in over the years, prices
> gradually went up, as they would for any collectors' item not being made
> any more.
>
> But, he said, prices jumped dramatically in recent years. The reason?
> Foreign investors.
>
> "The Europeans, because of the exchange rate, if they spend $100,000
> that's the same as spending $60,000," Nixon said.
>
> "Any time you have the big old tractors, the Europeans will be there.
> They buy them and ship them back to Europe."
>
> And, Nixon explained, as the rarer models leave the country, demand
> grows for the ones that remain.
>
> Ken Eder, a 55-year-old railroad contractor who lives in Carthage, N.C.,
> travels from auction to auction to buy tractors.
>
> One of the new breed of investors, Eder started sinking dollars into old
> tractors five years ago. He thinks of it as his retirement plan and has
> seen prices sometimes double in a year. He also collects coins and
> motorcycles.
>
> "But tractors seem to be about the strongest market right now as far as
> collection items," Eder said. "You can put your money into it, and you
> can't lose."
>
> Part of the fun, he says, is going to the shows and meeting people. But
> you can also drive the tractor around, show it off to your friends —
> something, he said, that's more difficult with a standard stock portfolio.
>
> In Iowa, the Wonders have boosted their retirement income with a few
> strategic sales. And the boom has reached a related sector of the
> economy: Tractor restorers report that business is brisk.
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