Machinery Pete’s “Pick of the Week” honorees are normally polished machines in very-good-to-great condition that draw record or near-record high bids on the used equipment auction circuit.
This week Pete threw his fans a bit of a curve-ball, highlighting three machines that have clearly seen better days. Pete talked about the rust buckets Monday during his weekly appearance on AgriTalk with host Chip Flory.
“People like to tease me a little bit and say ‘Machinery Pete, all you ever do is talk about record prices’,” Pete says. “Well we’re going a different direction today because for 35-and-a-half years I’ve been covering auctions, and I don’t really care whether it’s shiny or rusty, in super condition or a piece of junk.”
At a consignment auction last Friday in Hillsboro, Texas, these three salvage-condition machines caught Pete’s attention:
An Oliver 23 B cotton stripper that had trees and grass growing up through it’s body sold for $140.
A Minneapolis-Moline combine that looks like it “sat in the Texas heat for six or seven decades” sold for $120.
And a Case IH 970 tractor with trees growing up through the exposed engine compartment sold for $500.
Notable Auction This Week
Pete is watching one notable used equipment auction this week as the calendar turns to mid-May, and farmers continue to advance spring planting progress across the country.
Purple Wave Auction is holding its annual Ag Equipment Auction on Wednesday, May 14, at 10 a.m. Central. The mega-sale features farm equipment located across 14 states, and Pete says there is some late-model John Deere equipment listed by Tri Green Equipment that looks promising. Head over to PurpleWave.com to register to bid.
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