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

[Chuck Saunders]

My debts are in dollars. It doesn't make me feel much better, Of course my
earnings are in dollars ( cents) too.

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 9:18 AM, Mattias Kessén <davidbrown950 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Chuck, I wish I could. I also wish my debts were in dollars ;-)
>
> Mattias
>
> 2008/9/25 Chuck Saunders <gooberdog at gmail.com>:
> > 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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> >> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> >>
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