SEE WHAT'S NEW IN USED

This 1992 JD 4960 Tractor with 3,600 hours sold for $86,000 on a February 11, 2012 farm auction in south-central Illinois

The hottest used tractor around?

Easy. That would be the 200 horsepower John Deere 4960, made by Deere from 1992-1994. Prior to September 2012, the highest auction sale price I had ever seen on a JD 4960 tractor was $76,500. Since September? I’ve seen a whopping (6) 4960′s sell for $80,000 or more at auction.

Wow.

Talent, Imagination & Passion.

A winning recipe for any endeavor in life. Last week in Mississippi I met two retired buddies who are high on the talent, imagination and passion scale and have produced some amazing things with their heads, hearts and hands, unique testaments to their devotion to all things John Deere.

Check out the YouTube video above and you’ll be introduced to Raymond Miller of Stantonville, TN. Raymond used to work on oil rigs in South America back in the day. Lately he’s been busy crafting (3) exact replicas of his favorite tractor, his own 1939 John Deere B. Miller’s (3) minature replica JD B’s had tons of folks stopping to look at the farm show last Friday and Saturday.

This 2001 JD 7510 tractor with 830 hours sold for a record auction sale price of $82,000 on a December 28, 2011 farm auction in Memphis, MO

I’ve seen record auction sale prices fall throughout 2011 on used tractors from 130 horsepower, 180 HP, 200 HP on up the big monster 4WD model tractors. But it isn’t just the big boys going up in value.

A 2001 John Deere 7510 mechanical front-wheel drive tractor (115 HP) with 830 hours sold for a new record high auction price of $82,000 on a nice farm auction December 28, 2011 in Memphis, MO (northeast Missouri).

This 2002 JD 1760 8-row no-till planter with liquid fertilizer sold for a record high auction price of $59,000 on a December 3, 2011 farm auction in north-central Indiana. This was the second time in three weeks a new record high sale price was set on JD 1760′s.

Auction sale prices on good condition used John Deere planters shot significantly higher late in 2011.

This “1 owner” tractor sold on a September 2, 2011 farm auction in north-central Missouri

Modern farming is a big diverse world.

Easy to focus on the ever increasing size & complexity of all types of equipment needed to farm these days, but the daily stream of auction sale price data that comes across my desk and into our www.machinerypete.com web site speaks to the wonderfully diverse nature of farming today.

Two recent examples are a used 31-year old John Deere 90 horsepower tractor and a small used 6-row John Deere planter pushing 20 years old, both sold on recent farm auctions. An ageing 90 HP tractor and a two decade old 6-row planter, big deal, right?

This 1995 John Deere 7800 2WD tractor with 3,454 hours sold for a record high auction price of $62,250 on a November 23, 2010 sale in north-central Iowa.

I’ve always liked the “back in time” hook. 10 years ago today, this happened. 50 years ago today, that happened. Love it. Valuable perspective to be gained I think from occasionally looking in the rear-view mirror.

I had a little fun recently on our Machinery Pete Facebook page. On July 24th I went back in our auction price database and found a farm sale from July 24, 2001. So the 10 Years Ago Today hook. What I found was most interesting:

HOT DAY: HOT SALE PRICES IN ILLINOIS

I’ve been calling my auctioneer friend from central Illinois, Mike Maske of Maske Auction Service, for a lot of years now. A lot of years. Mike’s a great guy, always fun to visit with. Last Thursday (July 21st) Mike had a small but very nice farm auction in Lincoln, IL. 98 degrees, sticky, hot, humid, wow! But a nice lineup of equipment produced some very strong sale prices. I just posted a picture & little note on our Machinery Pete Facebook page about the 2006 Ford F350 Super Duty 4×4 pickup with 40,400 miles (Power Stroke diesel) that sold for $32,000.

Illinois Auction is a Big Hit

This tractor sold on a July 21, 2011 farm auction in Lincoln, IL for $71,000. That is the 2nd highest auction sale price Machinery Pete has seen in past 15 years on a 2WD 8200

The price of Gold has been skyrocketing. Gold is seen as an alternative investment with an upside.

What else is “as good as gold” as an investment? Well, based on the auction sale price data on all types of farm & construction equipment I’ve been compiling now for nearly 22 years, you could make a strong argument for John Deere tractors being “as good as gold”.

“LIVE” COMMENTARY ON 2 AUCTIONS

I had a little fun here this afternoon (July 13th) and did some “live” running commentary on our Machinery Pete Facebook page on a pair of nice farm auctions going on today: one in west-central Minnesota by Zielsdorf Auction & Real Estate, the other farm auction in Hillsboro, North Dakota by Steffes Auctioneers. Check out my comment trial by clicking on our Facebook feed on the right side of our homepage here.