Market Status

[RCP]

I have been trying to sell some 550 parts using FB Marketplace, it seems to me that demand is down. I have priced the parts to sell, but apparently, I am still too high. How is the market in your neck of the woods?

 

[scootergmc]

Demand is waning for sure. It's even worse out here on the West Coast as most people don't even know what an Oliver is.

 

[farmersamm]

It would be my guess that the antique tractor market is going the way of the classic car market. Less people with the disposable income to spend on what are essentially playthings. And.........I'm thinking there's an age thing going on. The people interested in old tractors are aging out of the market.

On the flip side............If you actually work with the fairly modern old tractors, there's a parts desert developing. It's becoming almost impossible to find good parts for stuff built in the 60's. Fairly popular wear parts are still available for now, but I see this going away in possibly the near future. Lot of these machines will probably get parked, or find their way to the scrap yard. It's not feasible to work a machine, as intended, if you can't get parts for it.

That's my take anyway(shrug)

 

[rrlund]

I guess if it ain't broke, you don't need parts to fix it.

 

[JOCCO]

I will add its all over the place some stuff you cant give away other stuff you scratch your head and wonder what the buyer smoked!

 

[JOCCO]

I have been trying to sell some 550 parts using FB Marketplace, it seems to me that demand is down. I have priced the parts to sell, but apparently, I am still too high. How is the market in your neck of the woods?

So by the way what do you have to sell? I do have a 550.

 

[ss55]

It would be my guess that the antique tractor market is going the way of the classic car market. Less people with the disposable income to spend on what are essentially playthings. And.........I'm thinking there's an age thing going on. The people interested in old tractors are aging out of the market.

On the flip side............If you actually work with the fairly modern old tractors, there's a parts desert developing. It's becoming almost impossible to find good parts for stuff built in the 60's. Fairly popular wear parts are still available for now, but I see this going away in possibly the near future. Lot of these machines will probably get parked, or find their way to the scrap yard. It's not feasible to work a machine, as intended, if you can't get parts for it.

That's my take anyway(shrug)

I agree. Newer equipment is much more capable and handier to use. Sixty plus year old equipment is becoming pretty much obsolete, so demand for repair parts drops even further. Domestic parts suppliers can now shift to making more profitable car parts.

 

[trackrat]

i have found that if i have it to sell nobody wants it but if i need it nobody has it

 

[JOCCO]

i have found that if i have it to sell nobody wants it but if i need it nobody has it

well said!

 

[89 MJ]

I rarely see parts for sale for a 550 in WI. What do you have that you're trying to sell?

 

[Jpvano28]

I just finished up a '59 550 I found in a field about a year ago, It was in pretty decent shape. I still hard a really hard time finding parts, thank god for Kent Gordon. I caught him right before he retired. I have to agree with FarmerSamm, unfortunately, these Tractors aren't going to be around much longer, the market is just not there anymore as well as the farms they used to plow. Very sad.

 

[JOCCO]

I just finished up a '59 550 I found in a field about a year ago, It was in pretty decent shape. I still hard a really hard time finding parts, thank god for Kent Gordon. I caught him right before he retired. I have to agree with FarmerSamm, unfortunately, these Tractors aren't going to be around much longer, the market is just not there anymore as well as the farms they used to plow. Very sad.

Around me they were used for utility type work and small farms like where one would have a Ford 8n. I use mine for lots of odd jobs.

 

[Not db4600]

I just finished up a '59 550 I found in a field about a year ago, It was in pretty decent shape. I still hard a really hard time finding parts, thank god for Kent Gordon. I caught him right before he retired. I have to agree with FarmerSamm, unfortunately, these Tractors aren't going to be around much longer, the market is just not there anymore as well as the farms they used to plow. Very sad.

Disagree.
The Rumely that wasn’t claimed by the scrapper and can’t be hauled by a bumper trailer, and can’t be stored in your garage, and is not applicable useful in any sense of today’s agriculture is worth more now than ever.
This vintage tractor will live on.

 

[Jpvano28]

Disagree.
The Rumely that wasn’t claimed by the scrapper and can’t be hauled by a bumper trailer, and can’t be stored in your garage, and is not applicable useful in any sense of today’s agriculture is worth more now than ever.
This vintage tractor will live on.

You have valid point, sort of, but, hear me out.. I don't disagree with you. These old tractors fed the country. They are a huge part of Americana. That's one of the main reasons I grabbed out of that field. But, with all the technology out there today for farming as we know it to be, You can basically plant 800 acres of corn from your kitchen table on a lap top. I wish I was around back then to do the grunt work and help feed America. As you stated, The vintage tractors will live on. Just not in the same way they were intended to back in the day.