Nobody seems to know why Danny Spence bought a new JD 4760 back in 1992 and then stored it until he passed away last January.
“Nobody actually even knew he had these until he died,” said Dallas Simmonds, owner of Raptor Enterprises.
“I knew there were a couple new tractors in the shed, but I didn’t know what they were. He mentioned it before, but he didn’t like to talk about too many things. He wasn’t a bragger.”
Spence farmed his entire life, and owned a heavy equipment rental company that offered equipment such as cats, track hoes, and wheel loaders.
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Simmonds had always been Spence’s neighbour, but it wasn’t until Simmonds started renting his land back in 2016 that Spence would periodically come over to visit.
Simmonds bought the Spence estate, lock stock and barrel, including the land, bins, buildings and everything inside of them.
“I didn’t want to buy all that stuff. I just wanted to buy the land. But the way his family wanted to sell it, they wanted to sell it as one package, so it was either buy it all or buy nothing so I bought it all.”
Before Simmonds bought the estate with the 23 quarters of farmland, he opened up the equipment shed and found a 1992 John Deere 4760 tractor with only 3.6 original hours and a 1988 John Deere 4450 2WD with just 256 original hours.
Raptor Enterprises brought Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers up to Speers, Sask., to sell the estate items on Oct. 28, which garnered a lot of attention because of the low-hour tractors.
“The 4450 was cool but it was used, so nothing super special it just had low hours. The 4760, it just doesn’t happen there is a 30 year tractor that is brand new,” Simmonds said.
In the end, the 1992 JD 4760 with 3.6 actual hours sold for $260,000 to a buyer who wants to remain anonymous, and the 1988 John Deere 4450 2WD with just 256 original hours sold for $125,000.
Video where I talk about 1992 JD 4760 w/ 3.6 hours sold last week on @RitchieBros farm auction in Speers, SK for $197,028 (U.S). Owner bought new as investment in ’92 and put in shed. I analyze how investment worked out vs putting $$ into long term CD’s: https://t.co/UkQqghydTz pic.twitter.com/O4iuKgikDZ
— Greg Peterson (@MachineryPete) November 3, 2020
Simmonds said the JD 4760 likely sold for around $80,000 when it was bought in 1992.
The previous record high sale price was US$85,500 at a 2017 farm auction in central Indiana that was a 1992 model with 484 hours, according to Machinerypete.com.
“What was the purpose of him buying them? I have no idea and I don’t think anybody will ever know. He never was married, he never had kids, I don’t even know a girlfriend he had, and he’s been my neighbour all my life,” Simmonds said.
Contact robin.booker@producer.com
