Thursday, April 24, 2008
Room At The Inn?
Rumor has it that the rooms are going quickly and only a handful remain under the Doughty 500 reservation. If you haven't gotten your room yet, hop to it else you may be left out in the cold.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm?
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on old tractors that are fetching Maserati prices (subscription required):
An auctioneer barks out numbers in rapid-fire rhythm. In a standing-room-only crowd, proxy bidders hunch over their mobile phones and cover their ears. Auction-house assistants fan out and move close to bidders who seem most intent on winning.
What's at stake isn't contemporary sculpture or an Old Master painting on the block at a Manhattan auction house. It's an old tractor, a 1960s John Deere, at a recent auction in New Paris, Ind. After it sells--for $57,000--and it's time to drive the tractor away, there are so many spectators trying to get a closer look that the sleek machine can only inch its way gingerly off the block.
Old tractors like this one are exerting a new kind of pull. As collecting interests a broader, wealthier audience, prices for many models, especially those more than 40 years old, have surged. Some of the oldest tractors -- early 20th-century machines often powered by steam --can now fetch $100,000 or more, up from about $10,000 a decade ago. Rarer models can sell for much more.
While farmers have dominated the antique-tractor market in the past, they are now bidding against a new, well-heeled breed of collector. The influx mirrors the trend of city slickers buying up farmland for vacation homes in rural parts of the country.
An auctioneer barks out numbers in rapid-fire rhythm. In a standing-room-only crowd, proxy bidders hunch over their mobile phones and cover their ears. Auction-house assistants fan out and move close to bidders who seem most intent on winning.
What's at stake isn't contemporary sculpture or an Old Master painting on the block at a Manhattan auction house. It's an old tractor, a 1960s John Deere, at a recent auction in New Paris, Ind. After it sells--for $57,000--and it's time to drive the tractor away, there are so many spectators trying to get a closer look that the sleek machine can only inch its way gingerly off the block.
Old tractors like this one are exerting a new kind of pull. As collecting interests a broader, wealthier audience, prices for many models, especially those more than 40 years old, have surged. Some of the oldest tractors -- early 20th-century machines often powered by steam --can now fetch $100,000 or more, up from about $10,000 a decade ago. Rarer models can sell for much more.
While farmers have dominated the antique-tractor market in the past, they are now bidding against a new, well-heeled breed of collector. The influx mirrors the trend of city slickers buying up farmland for vacation homes in rural parts of the country.
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