When I bought my first n-series I thought the prices of these wonderful tractors would only go up due to the simplicity, easy and affordable parts etc. 25 yrs later these prices have stayed relatively flat. Was wondering if this will continue. When I first started I would buy anything cheap and rare hoping to cash in,,, someday. Now I rarely use them and was thinking about selling the whole lot. Interests change and after building a garage , finally, I seem to be getting back into square body chevys and am nearing the completion of an 86 K30, my first project in the garage. Just wondering what you thought.

I didn’t buy my 8N as an investment, I bought it to use as a tool, and it has served me well, indeed, even working well today and I expect it to continue to do so.

Sad, to be sure, that the vintage and antique tractor market isn’t running in parallel to the classic, vintage and antique car market. Although it seems to be settling down some, classic cars are selling for record numbers.

Again, not having bought any of them as investments, my collection of early Datsun Z cars has become a small gold mine. I bought a 1971 Datsun 240Z race car in 1989, for $3,000. Today I could sell it for over $30,000. In 1992 I bought the second Z, a 1972 240Z (not a race car), for $2,000, for my first wife. All original, numbers matching 77,000 miles. WhenI divorced the first wife, I kept the car. It was in storage for 22 years, when Covid came along. I was sent home for quarantine after contact tracing identified me as exposed (a two week paid holiday!), so I pulled it out of storage, charged the battery overnight and it started right up! A few days of cleaning and polishing and it looks awesome. I checked values, and it could fetch well over the $30,000 that the race car.

In the years following the purchase of the race car I somehow managed to acquire 12 more Datsun Z cars, mostly as parts cars, all for little to no money. Even the incomplete ones should net a couple thousand bucks, complete but non running Z cars can fetch around $10,000.

So, why not these cool old tractors?

Out here New Mexico Craigslist you typically see a running N with a $2500-$4000 price tag. I notice the ads disappear at the same price. Don't know if the market here is hot or haggled down to half the asking. Back home in Central Texas the same tractors seem to be in the $1000 to $3000 asking range. I think the price of fuel and labor to transport dampers out of state sales.

I'm trying to sell off my late father in laws (Dave Smith) tractors. They have all been restored and well taken care of and I'll be lucky to get $1500 a piece for them. No value in this old iron anymore. Trying to sell a Jubilee with a Sherman backhoe for $2500 and I've had zero hits on it.

John, you may want to consider joining the Ford/Fordson Collector's Association. Members can post free ads in their quarterly magazine. It would bring Dave's tractors to the attention of many people who still want to collect and restore them. Dave's projects were always very well done and all included neat little touches/enhancements that made them somewhat unique.

• Click here to visit the F/FCA website for more info

Desire for an old tractor is dwindling fast enough. No one willing to work to fix a machine and this generation is a dispose all. Buy new chinese.

The sad part with any collectable is the people who appreciated and collected these are slowly dying of old age. Young adults for the most part are not interested in old farm tractors or any collectable it seems.

Add to that the fact that the younger people think a 4020 or 1066 is an OLD tractor!

I am not young and I agree with them. At 50+ years old they are definitly "old" tractors.

TOH

I also think the internet has a part in it. When something seems scarce it cost more, now all you have to do is google it and you'll find 100's.

The antique tractor hobby has run it's course. Moreover, users these days prefer used CUTs rather than N Fords for low cost mowing duty with small mowers.

The days of yearly price increases for vintage Ford tractors (as well as others) are over.

I hate to admit it, but I have to agree, Dean. In my area, you can find good working 800 series Fords for what we used to routinely pay for an 8N. Even some of the blue/white thousand series Fords (2000/3000) are falling into that price range. The N's still make great little workers for lifting/toting type tasks and you can find a decent one for 1/3 of what it will cost for a new lawn tractor at a big box store, but I don't see prices ever going up again like in the past. Even the Funk conversions have fallen in value in the eyes of buyers.