Did anyone else attend this auction? I just returned from Minnesota where they had a huge auction in Spring Valley. This auction was a collection of one man, all within the last seven or eight years. There were about 150 garden tractors, maybe more. There was a lot of extra stuff also, like decks, blades, snow blowers, a couple of 3-point cultivators, 3-point plows, and three or four front loaders. There were a whole lot of partial tractor assemblies too. There was John Deere, Cadets, Case, Ford, Allis Chalmers, Wheel Horse, Oliver’s, Cockshutt, New Idea, and a few other makes. Some tractors had decks or tillers on them, most did not. A few of the tractors had loaders attached. One AC had a sickle mower on it and there was a separate sickle mower too. One of the JD 110’s had the 540 front mount PTO. There was also a separate front mount PTO for the 110’s and the like. I would say that all of the equipment was laid out in an area that would probably cover two football fields.
Then there were thirteen trailers of toys to be auctioned off the second day. There was some modern die cast toys, new in the box. There was die cast toys partially assembled, such as missing steering wheels and front axle assemblies. There was about fifteen or so of the partially assembled tractors that all were missing the same parts. They were new but not fully assembled. He must have bought out a manufacturing facility that had just ceased operations and left any unfinished toys as they were. There were also some old tin toys and die cast toys from the 40’s and 50’s in used condition. One trailer was covered in molds for casting toy tractors, parts, and even semi-tractors. There were a lot of un-assembled die cast tractors and some assembled but un-painted tractors also.
I managed to snag a New Idea EGT-200 and one of the John Deere 90’s. There was a GE E12M that went for $30.00. The wiring and switches were really cobbled up but the sheet metal was not real bad. I should have thought and bid higher on this unit for sheet metal parts, rear end, etc. The worst part about not bidding on this unit was that it still had the original GE Elec-Trak tires on it! I did not see that until it had sold. There was also a smaller New Idea that would be like the GE E8 or so. It went for about $225.00.
All in all, this auction was worth seeing. I am from Michigan and was glad I went. My son lives in Rochester Minnesota which was only about twenty minutes away so I stayed with him and his wife. My mother and father, who also live in Michigan, were over to Rochester to be treated at the Mayo Clinic there. So this trip served various purposes for me. If you click on the link below, or copy and paste it to the browser bar, it will take you to the advertisement on the auction and a list of tractors. There is a link on this site to go to a two-page broacher on the auction.
Enough for now. See ya later,
Ron from Michigan.