[Ford-ferguson] Spam> FYI: Antique Tractors: A Real Investment Vehicle

[CWebb]

(What has tagged the original post as "Spam" in the subject line?  I 
can't tell by looking at the header details - I hope it isn't my 
provider, as it comes into my mailbox. Anyone know?)

I agree with you Mike, our old-tractor _parts_ will now become more 
expensive, too.

I feel the same way about 'rural living' becoming all the rage. Property 
values go up, which is good if you want to sell property, but it also 
makes it more expensive for us who want to stay - higher taxes, more 
noise, more light, more pressure to join the 'race' and mow my field as 
'lawn', and all the way up to the edge of the road!


Mike Sloane 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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