Jim H. from northern Illinois: "Hi Greg, I’ll get right to it. I’m another longtime follower of yours, would appreciate your thoughts regarding a farm auction, given the latest market and political climate. I’m a recently retired farmer in Northern Illinois with a full late model line of large primarily JD equipment. I thank you in advance for your time. Best Regards,
Jim H.
My reply: Jim, Thanks for your note, and thanks for following Machinery Pete all these years 
Used equipment values have held strong here since Nov. '17. Better than expected yields late in '16 and '17 definitely helped. It’s ALL about condition right now in the used market. Folks want GOOD condition used, sounds like just what you have. It has really been interesting…since April 4 when China came out and said they were biting back on POTUS trade war/tariff threats used farm equipment values (on the good cond. stuff) have held remarkably steady/strong. I think an underlying force has been so many folks NEEDING to update their equipment lines after sitting on sidelines past 3-5 years in tough ag economy. Now they have to update and lot of folks voting to good the used route to save $$ as new iron just continues to climb. Has created condition where, amazingly, 1-3 year old large used ag equipment been selling pretty well at hard cash auction. Surprises folks, but again, folks voting to go the used route and they want/need the best used.
Avg. cond. used equipment values did begin to fall in mid June, still soft.
Keep me posted on your retirement plans, if you’ll be having a sale, etc. Timing can be important. Think we’ll likely be seeing another increase in No. of sales 2nd half of '18 into '19. We’ll see.
Keep me posted and we’ll sure try to promote your sale from my end.
Hope this was helpful. Keep in touch!
Pete
Machinery Pete
www.MachineryPete.com