This week’s Pete’s “Pick of the Week” is a 20-plus-year-old tractor that came in just south of $150,000, but you can argue the buyer actually secured a nice bargain when you put it in the context of how much a new high-horsepower row crop tractor will run you.
At a farm auction in Asbury, Mo., a 2004 John Deere 8420 tractor with only 1,053 hours on it sold for $146,250. Pete says it’s the 16th highest auction price of all time on an 8420, and nine of the past 10 high auction prices have all been recorded within the past four years. It’s a trend line that continues to show farmer preference for older, good conditioned, pre-DEF used tractors.
“It was one owner, so it checked all [the boxes],” Pete says. “And to push $150k, 21 years old … it was interesting when I posted this across social media, you get a lot of discussion and people were saying ‘Yeah, it’s a big check, but again for the horsepower and given it’s good condition [used] with a little age on it … the belts are tightening, and it’s sort of indicative of … the gap between a brand new and a good used one, those price increases on the new have gotten so high the past three to four years, you’ve opened this chasm.”
Pete also notes a “beautiful 1980s tractor” from Nebraska that sold last Tuesday in a DPA Auctions online sale.
A 1986 Versatile 1150 with what Pete calls that “beautiful orange and yellow color combo” sold for an even $50,000. It had 8,117 hours on it.
One of the more noteworthy transactions from last week, according to Pete, was a 2025 John Deere 616R sprayer with 127 hours selling for $309,000 in the DPA online sale. This sprayer was noted as “severely damaged – driven into a creek.”
“Driven into a creek and hard cash, it still goes over $300,000,” Pete says. “For comparison, our good friends at the Steffes Group sold a ‘24 model 616R sprayer with 464 hours in June and that went for $450K. The one that sold Tuesday, if it had not been driven into a creek, it’s going north of $450K. So, if you wonder what does that cost, driving into a creek? Well, you’re talking $150K to $160K. So, now you know.”
As far as rare, unique machinery selling over the past week on the auction circuit, Pete highlights a couple pieces of iron there as well.
A New Holland 1283 self-propelled baler — Pete says you just don’t see many of them around anymore — sold for $6,200, which is the highest auction price Pete can recall on that particular machine.
And in the same Big Iron online auction, an Allis-Chalmers 60 pull type combine with a two row corn head sold for $4,510.
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