About a month ago I got a call from a buddy I grew up with here in town, he moved to the west coast right after school.
He asked me to go check on what was his grandfather's farm, they planned to sell the place and he wanted to know what was still in the building and if I could handle selling it all for him. Apparently his grandmother moved into a home and they are looking to unload the farm. His grandfather died over 40 years ago.
I took a ride over there after he mailed me a set of keys, what I found was a 6 car garage full of tractors, along with a good amount of tools. The house was empty except for the basement which again was full of tools and tractor parts.
There's two larger tractors, one an old Case 520 and the other a 70's Massey Ferguson 130.
In smaller tractors the one that stands out is a rather clean looking Bolens 1250, plus two more Bolens that look the same but I don't see any numbers. The one is missing some parts.
There's a huge pile of attachments, several Bolens and Brinly dirt plows, two snow plows, a rear rototiller, two Brinly 3pt discs, a cultivator rake, a homemade york rake, two small trailers made from old 30 something pickup beds, and two front end loaders.
There is also an older Gilson S14, two newer but huge MTDs, and several sets of tires for the Bolens machines, plus some extra hitch parts, a weight box, a rear box grader, and two buckets. Each of the two complete machines have both ag and turf tires and two sets of wheel weights each. There is also a complete new set of 12" rims and turf tires as well.
When I went over there I was expecting a bunch of old junk, but I like the look of the Bolens.
Keep in mind that I doubt if anything has run in at least 40 years, but its a clean, dry building. All engines turn by hand, someone did remove all the batteries, and most have empty fuel tanks.
The problem is I have no clue as to what this stuff is worth. I snapped a pic of the Bolens, the second machine is identical in every way, its just parked back in a dark corner. The Bolens in the pic was the only one up near the door where I could get a decent pic of it. The rest of the pics came out dark, I have to go back during full daylight with some spot lights to really get a better look.
They all belong to a buddy from school, so I'm not looking to steal them but I'm also not looking to pay eBay type prices.
He wants me to log and document everything to got to a consignment sale May. From what I've read online about consignment sales, he'd be giving them all away.
I tried to get a ballpark figure from him as to what he figures its all worth, or at least what he valued one of the Bolens 1250's at but he said to just make an offer.
I don't suppose it would take much more than a carb cleaning and some fresh gas and a battery to get any of the machines running. I also don't suppose these have much use at all since no one has touched them since he died in 1975. The newest machine is an almost new looking MTD Lawnflight from a local hardware store that closed up in 1981. I don't put much value on that one but it is clean and probably runs fine. None have mower decks, they didn't have grass to cut, the Bolens was probably used to service the barn, the one loader has a huge hay spike on the bucket.
I was also told tonight that I somehow missed a tractor, he swears up and down his grandfather had a diesel lawn tractor, he thinks its in one of the sheds outback, which I didn't get back to yet. He seems to think its a Bolens too but wasn't sure. If its in one of the wooden sheds, it can't be much bigger than a Bolens, but once the weather clears a bit I'll go back and dig some more. All in all there's a few trailer loads of farm stuff, but my only interest is the tractors.
The building has to be empty by June 15th of this year.
& keep us posted. Pics of everything you can get a good shot of. I'm sure the guys here would be interested in some of if not most of it.
