This week’s Pete’s Pick of the Week carries a historical theme: We’re talking about two over-a-century-in-age tractors and an antique Case steam engine bringing in notable returns on the used farm equipment auction circuit.
Last Tuesday, at an Almond Auctions pre-1930 auction in Illinois, a 1911 Imperial model 4070 tractor (above) sold for $955,500. There are only three that are known to exist in the entire world, Machinery Pete says.
And then over the weekend in Machinery Pete’s home state of Minnesota, a Minneapolis 35-70 tractor (above) that “AgriTalk” host Chip Flory notes, “looks like it had been sitting in a fence row someplace,” sold for $125,000.
“You know, really in the grand scheme of things, what blows me away is it really wasn’t that long ago,” Pete says. “I mean, 100 years, we all have a — our attention span is nothing. But, you know, in agriculture, the innovation over the last century is just breathtaking. And you look at those two tractors, and it just drives it home.”
Pete also highlighted a Case 65 horsepower steam engine tractor (above) that sold for $15,000 at the same Minnesota auction where the Minneapolis 35-70 sold.
“It’s just starting to become clear to me over the last 10 days to two weeks, but I’ve never seen this in 35 and a half years in this business, a situation where the sales of new equipment are bad but the values on good, used just keep going up,” Pete says. “And I mean, noticeably. And it’s like I said, I have not seen that before, but that’s where we’re at right now.”
For the week ahead, Pete is focusing on three auctions that take place on Tuesday:
In Mitchell, S.D., Weeman Land and Auction are auctioning off tractor collector David “Mutz” Mutziger’s 35 prized Farmall and Cub Cadet machines.
An online no-reserve auction helmed by Sullivan Auctioneers will feature a lot of late-model, high-horsepower machines.
In Nebraska, there’s an online, no-reserve Adam Marshall Auction that Pete thinks is going to be a “fun sale” with a low-hour, late-model Polaris UTV for the taking.
Check out the video preview Pete shared on Facebook if you’re interested in that Farmall and Cub Cadet auction in South Dakota:
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