The antique farm hobby comes in many sizes. Some collectors collect a single tractor, and others amass a quantity of antiques. In those antique collections some focus only on one brand, while others on a series of tractors, like those in the Sears Sold collections, which include Graham Bradley, Bradley, Thrifty Farmer, David Bradley and a few other outliers like the Parrot Tractor.

Some collectors focus their efforts on farm toys; some are brand-specific, while others are time-specific, liking toys before the 1950s or only pulling tractors, or new precision toys. Others collect anything to do with their brand, no matter the year. Then there are the literature and memorabilia collectors. Last, but not least, there is the collector who loves it all.

Rick Shaw, a collector from New Berlin, Ill., has a Facebook group called Antique Iron Mafia where he and his collector friends share pictures and tall tales about antique tractors. Rick has found each collector has a different reason they collect. As for Rick, “I can’t remember a time when I actually started collecting.”

He does recall that it was farm toys that he started with, and that has expanded greatly over the years to include the entire realm of collectibles. “There are so many reasons, the people, friendships, owning history … I can’t imagine not doing it; it’s a part of me now,” he says of why he does it.

While keeps some tractors he will never sell that hold a story of their own, others he is willing to trade and deal. Take a recent transaction in which Rick traded a much-loved Farmall tractor for a truck and a lawn and garden tractor – and a bit of cash, to boot.

“It was an agonizing decision to part with the tractor, but these are the toys to play with, and in little-boy thinking, ‘I have a new and better toy now,’” he said.

Larry Richie Sr. from Loami, Ill., has his own unique take on the collecting hobby. For him, it is all about the hunt and the friendships that emerge through the search-and-find process.

Larry, a retired auctioneer, said, “I have found over the years of collecting, it is not always the item you purchase for your collection, it is the search for parts, pieces, information and enjoying the conversations with persons you meet while doing it.”

Collector Josh Deaven added, “I find stuff through Craigslist, classifieds, word-of-mouth. I buy what interest me. It is always interesting to see what people have hid in the barn or shed … Plus, you get to meet some interesting people.”

Dave Carton, a collector from Geneseo, Ill., focuses his collection on lawn and garden tractors. He started out wanting a round fender John Deere 110, then a Deere 140 three-lever tractor. He explained, “There is a single lever and a three-lever, but the three-lever has more goodies on it.”

The Carton collection then expanded to include other brands. “I wanted one of each of the different engine manufacturers, like Case, Massey Ferguson, International, Allis Chalmers and so on. That way, whatever the feature was at a show, I would have a tractor I could take that would be part of the feature,” he said.

Dave adds, “What works best for me is, don’t be in a hurry and buy the first thing you find.”

While he said Craigslist used to be the go-to place, social media has changed collecting and he finds that Facebook websites are great resources. “Social media is taking over, really.”

There is nothing, though, like seeing what a collector is looking for in person. “Go to auctions,” Dave advises, “and one thing I found is that it is better to pay more money for a tractor that is complete, than to try to find the pieces.”

For some collectors like Larry, the hunt for those pieces can be a joy, but for others, when restoring a rare or hard-to-find tractor, it can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. And, as Dave says, “(The parts) may no longer exist.”

Tractor restorers can bring a collectible back to life, or make an original run again, so their services are invaluable. And networking in the hobby community is a great source for finding, sharing and forging new friendships that go beyond the hobby.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com