Kind of an echo of what Paul had said. In engineering terms, I see each generation as a "half life" of a chemical reaction. Each generation, there will still be those who carry on but equal of which will move over into the ranks of not.
Myself, I have always loved antique tractors and equipment. I am younger but not so young and was really excited when I finally had the space and means to have a "hobby" antique tractor at my house (I haven't lived on the farm since I was 18). But then I realized that this really neat Farmall F14 I had was cool, but too slow for driving and I personally couldn't find a use for it so it sat in my garage, only to be driven once or twice a year.
Fast forward (to save time), I've been through a few tractors now. I am working on a recovery/restoration that will cost me 3-4x what I could actually sell the tractor for but this one I am doing "for the love of the game". I have a John Deere 70 with power steering and live PTO that I can take over to the farm and use for making hay. I have the desire to own so much more, including older tractors equipment. Certain brands are falling faster than others so I have been really selective in what I purchased. Heck, there is a late 1920's Farmall Regular I know about that would need a full going over. In the past, I was dying to get the opportunity. Now, I just don't know if I could.
As was said previously, suddenly those 1970's and 1980's tractors are getting restored. But most of those sure take a lot more space an a 1930s narrow front end tractor.
To collect tractors, it takes space. Space costs $$$. To display tractors, it takes a truck and trailer. Trucks and trailers take up space and cost $$$. The days of keeping a tractor in grampa's barn don't exist much anymore. The old small farms are gone and having a farm to "tinker on" takes a perfect combination of things to go right. I looked into buying 30 acres of average land to have an "antique tractor farm", but once I priced that out, I went home and used my JD 70 to pull some trees out of the woods and parked it next to the garage again.
I don't think the market is going to crash, but it'll slowly fade into the sunset. There are still enough good people to keep pockets of it alive. I would say, keep something you enjoy and part ways with the things you don't get as much enjoyment from. Its always nice to have a project no matter how weak the market gets!
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Today's Featured Article - Earthmaster Project Progress Just a little update on my Earthmaster......it's back from the dead! I pulled the head, and soaked the stuck valves with mystery oil overnight, re-installed the head, and bingo, the compression returned. But alas, my carb foiled me again, it would fire a second then flood out. After numerous dead ends for a replacement carb, I went to work fixing mine.I soldered new floats on the float arm, they came from an old motorcycle carb, replaced the packing on the throttle shaft with o-rings, cut new ga
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