1988 JD 4450 tractor with 2,612 hours

Above is a 1988 John Deere 4450 with 2,612 hours which sold for a new record auction sale price of $70,750 on a 3/9/13 farm estate auction in Alpha, MN

I’ve been covering machinery auctions for 23 1/2 years. I’ve seen a lot of tractors sell.

None quite like the 1988 JD 4450 I watched sell on a March 9, 2013 farm estate auction in Alpha, MN. This was a beautiful tractor with only 2,612 “1 owner” hours in fantastic condition. The 4450 never pulled any tillage. As good used tractor values are up 7-15% so far here in 2013 I was very interested to see how high this super nice JD 4450 would sell.

I’ve compiled (523) auction sale prices on JD 4450’s going back 17+ years. The record high sale price I’d had seen was $50,750…for a 1985 model 2WD 4450 with, amazingly, only 735 actual “1 owner” hours on it, on a November 2, 2012 farm auction in west-central Missouri. I thought the 1988 John Deere 4450 with 2,612 hours may approach or creep just over $60K on the March 9th farm auction in Alpha, MN. Turns out I was too conservative in my guess.

It sold for $70,750…a new record auction sale price….by a whopping $20,000!

Oh, and this 1988 JD 4450 sols WITHOUT the duals ($1,800) or the weights ($1,400). The same buyer from Tennessee bought the tractor, dauls and weights, so all told he paid $73,950. Plus he has to ship it from Minnesota to Tennessee.

I shot Youtube video of this 1988 John Deere 4450 as it sold on the March 9th auction. I’m glad I did, if for no other reason than to prove to folks who say, “No way, I don’t believe a 25-year old 4450 could sell for over $70K at auction.” Yep, it did. Here’s the video:

About Machinery Pete: Greg “Machinery Pete” Peterson has been working in the agricultural industry for 21 years and details agricultural equipment prices and trends at his website, Machinerypete.com. Greg also writes columns for Successful Farming magazine, Implement & Tractor magazine, Agriculture.com web site and also appears on the Machinery Show on RFD-TV.

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