Rare IHC 7588 Tractor Sold for $151K Today on Iowa Auction

About as much pre-sale interest in this tractor as any I've seen.

The IHC 7588 4WD sold today on the Stanley and Elaine Spencer farm auction in Moravia, IA. International Harvester only made a few 7588's, some say 2 were made, others saw couple more. But the 7588 sold on today's Moravia, IA auction was No. 1.

Last night, 6:45 pm CT I made post to our Machinery Pete Facebook page, invited our audience to "Guess What the 7588 will Sell for". By this morning we had over 1,700 price guesses.

So, what did the 7588 sell for today?

$151,000.

Wow. I wish I could have been at the sale today in Moravia, IA, but a speaking engagement yesterday in northeast Wisconsin kept me away. But better believe I followed the sale today online. Absolutely fascinating.

When Lot #31 rolled around and it was time to sell the IHC 7588, SN#501, the online bid was up to $68,000. Auctioneer Dan Sullivan (http://www.sullivanauctioneers.com) set in on the 7588 at 12:12 PM CST. First thing he did was tell the auction crowd he had a special fella on the line, John from the Quad Cities. John turns out was guy who bought the 7588 from an IHC dealer back in the mid 1980's. Dan Sullivan put John on speaker phone and positioned the phone near the auction mic.

The auction crowd on site and online listened to John tell us about buying the 7588. He said IHC made him sign a waiver regarding parts as the tractor was considered "Experimental". John would have liked to have been at the auction today to watch the 7588 sell, but had recent heart surgery and is recovering...nicely we can happily add.

Immediately when Dan and John's cell phone conversation we all listened to ended the online bid just went WILD. $80K, $84K, $86K, $87K, $89K, $92K, $95K. Then Dan handed the mic to current owner Stanley Spencer. He told about owning it over the years.

By 12:21 PM CST when Dan Sullivan was ready to begin his auction chant the online bid was up to $100,000. That $100K figure was the one I kept hearing bantered about in the days leading up to the auction..."Will it hit $100K?" Of course on a tractor so rare as this IHC 7588 4WD it can be very difficult to know what to compare it to. 

Not so in this case.

As most of you know, and as I blogged about back on August 15, 2017 on a farm auction up in Ochre River, MB, a retired IHC dealer sold an IHC 7788 and 7388 4WD tractors, only 2 of each made, both of his were No. 1. 

The 7788 sold for $140,631 (U.S dollars) while the 7388 went for $95,075 (U.S dollars). Both were in beautiful condition, under 2,600 hours. 

Not so with the 7588 today. A few more pics of it:

 

 

 

The bidding flew, right past the $140K mark the 7788 sold for four months ago. By 12:27 PM CST the bid was up to $142,500. Boom, boom, it just kept going. John from the Quad Cities was still on the cell phone listening in. At that point Dan Sullivan asked John a question.

"Want to bid and own it again it?"

Another couple minutes and it was done. $151,000 sale price. So who bought it? Turns out the same guy who bought both the 7788 and 7388 on the Manitoba auction back in August. Nathan Swenson from North Dakota.

Quite the rare, red trio of 4WD's you've got there Nathan. Congratulations.

You can watch video of the IHC 7588 selling on today's auction at Sullilvan Auctioneers Facebook page, here's a link:  https://www.facebook.com/Sullivan-Auctioneers-LLC-262819473052/?ref=br_rs

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http://www.machinerypete.com

 

Do you know where the second ones are of the three tracors if you could please get back to me that would be great