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

[Mattias Kessén]

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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