Steal Deals - Combines

The fleet of combines is aging on American farms. As a rule, farmers stopped buying new combines about five-years ago. It's a buyer's market, so this might be a good time to upgrade or consider purchasing a second or third machine.

Dave Mowitz is the machinery and technology editor for Successful Farming magazine and researches the price trends of used machinery. He says prices in a buyer's market at auction tend to fluctuate quite a bit, which opens up opportunities to get a good buy on a down day at auction.

"I went to an auction where I saw a John Deere S690 with just a little over 1500 separator hours, and it sold for $90,000. That was a stunner, that's way under market value. So, that means we're in a buyer's market at auction," he says. "That means you've really got to know what you're dealing with when it comes to prices."

If you see a good late-model combine up for sale at an auction, do comparisons online and use that as your price guide.

Dealer prices, on the other hand, are more stable in either a buyer's or seller's market. They set their values on nationwide averages.

"Dealers now are not only interacting with each other, but they're using a source like Iron Solutions. Iron Solutions is the place that dealers go to report in their trade-in values, their used equipment values. So, that has really leveled the playing table," says Mowitz. "You will find similar combines selling for similar prices even if they're ten states away from each other."