The pent-up demand we’ve been seeing in the collector car marketplace apparently also applies to those who collect vintage farm equipment as Mecum Auctions’ Gone Farmin’ division opened its 2021 calendar with a 96 percent sell-through rate and transactions worth more than $8.4 million at its Spring Classic sale at Davenport, Iowa.
The sales total represented a 68 percent increase compared to the same sale in 2020.
Four vintage tractors each sold for six figures, two of them for more than $200,000.
A 1915 Wallis Cub Model D, produced by the J.I. Case Plow Works of Racine, Wisconsin, sold for an auction-record $231,000. Also setting a record sales price was a 1938 Minneapolis-Moline UDLX from the Dave Anton Collection that sold for $215,250 (prices include buyer’s fee).
Also going for six figures were a 1960 John Deere 8020, considered by Mecum to be “a trailblazer in the muscle-tractor market,” for $194,250, and a 1960 John Deere 730 All-Fuel Hi-Crop, one of only four produced and also from the Anton collection, for $105,000.
The auction also included some vintage trucks and an array of farm-oriented “Road Art.” Topping the trucks were a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair 95 pickup at $49,500 and a 1951 Chevrolet 3100 at $48,400.
Among Road Art and farm relics, the top seller was a 1900 John Deere Plows single-sided smalt dealership sign that sold for $82,600. An “Approved Used Tractors” double-sided porcelain neon sign brought $38,940 and an Oliver double-sided porcelain neon sign went for $35,400.
Top-10 sales, Mecum Gone Farmin’ Spring Classic 2021
- 1915 Wallis Cub Model D, $231,000
- 1938 Minneapolis-Moline UDLX, $215,250
- 1960 John Deere 8020, $194,250
- 1960 John Deere 730 All-Fuel Hi-Crop, $105,000
- 1922 Waterloo Boy Model N, $86,100
- 1969 John Deere 5020, $68,250
- 1960 John Deere 630 Hi-Crop, $66,150
- 1975 International 1568 Black Stripe, $63,000
- 1974 International 1468 Western Special 4×4, $63,000
- 1917 Waterloo Boy Model $, $60,375
(Prices include buyer’s fee.)
The next sale for Mecum’s Gone Farmin’ division is scheduled for June 4 at Solomon, Kansas, and features 125 “muscle” tractors from the Abilene Machine Collection.
For more information, visit the Mecum Gone Farmin’ website.
