The 1928 tractor could sell for US$100,000, an expert said
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Machinery enthusiasts will have the chance to bid on a rare piece of John Deere history soon.
A 1928 John Deere GP tractor will be sold at on Oct. 27 at the annual Antique Tractor Fall Harvest Auction at Aumann Auctions in Nokomis, Ill.
The proceeds from the sale will benefit Vision Way Christian School, a school operated by the Taylorville Christian Church.
The 90-year-old tractor’s serial number, 200211, makes the piece of equipment extra special.
That number means it’s the very first cultivating tractor Deere rolled off its assembly line.
“An employee told me it was serial number 200211. And I said, ‘You’re busting me, no it’s not.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it is.’ And I said, ‘It can’t be,’” Kurt Aumann, owner of Aumann Auctions, told The Columbus Dispatch yesterday. “So, I had him get a cellphone picture of the serial number, and sure enough it was the first John Deere GP tractor ever made, which was crazy.”
Other tractors in Deere’s GP line have sold for between US$1,450 and US$2,900, auction results show.
But this piece of history could sell for much more than that, an expert said.
“I hope this thing really does well at auction,” Jack Cherry, founder of Two-Cylinder Magazine, which focuses on pre-1960s Deere tractors, told The Columbus Dispatch. “I would think that this tractor, with anybody who’s got deep enough pockets, ought to bring a good, strong US$80,000 and I would not be surprised to see it fly past US$100,000.”
Vision Way Christian School received the tractor from an anonymous donor who also gave a Farmall M.
After realizing the significance of the GP, James Jones, pastor of Taylorville Christian Church, contacted the donor to make sure he was certain about giving the tractor away.
“We would certainly have been understanding if he had wanted to make other arrangements, but his attitude was he had donated it to the church and school and he wanted us to use it for that benefit,” Jones told The Columbus Dispatch. “We were shocked. We had no idea going in that’s what we working with, so it was a great surprise.”
Farms.com has reached out to Aumann, Jones and Cherry for further comment on the tractor donation.
Kennedy Nolen photo