1931 caterpillar thirty value

I have an offer on a 1931 caterpillar thirty and I am clueless if it's a fair offer. It's been on the farm since the 1930's and it is complete except for the top but it is stuck. I pulled some of the top angle irons out of the scrap pile, but most are missing. I was offered $1,000 for it and a caterpillar pull grader, the grader is modified and is missing the big steering wheels. Would this be a fair offer? Any advice would be appreciated.

Hard to advise on a fair price without photos, but I will say prices for old Cats vary from scrap price for their weight upwards depending on rarity and condition. A 1931 Thirty is fairly desirable so I’d say the $1000 is a bit low ball.. IMHO!

Deebo thank you for the reply, I thought it was low, but I don't know anything about their value. I'll attempt to post some pictures later today. We had a little rain last night out here in Kansas, so it had a bath.

Here are pictures of the thirty. for some reason i can only post one picture at a time. the magneto, PTO box and headlights are stored in the shop.

here is a picture of the grader, I think it is a 1930 model 15 trailer patrol if that helps. I think it has been modified. serial number is C320

NICE> Looks pretty original to me. Chapter 1 has a trail mobile only it is run by PTO from the side seat RD6

Where in Kansas? Please.

I paid $2000 for a Thirty many years ago that was in similar condition. I might have been young and dumb, but I wanted it. It is probably my favorite Cat to run. Around the same time, I paid $800 for a Cat Super Special grader.

I like the Cat grease pump that has been added to the back fender and the generator drive converted to drive something that is now missing. It looks like all of the tin work is there are in reasonable condition, one fender is tweaked a bit. Serial number plates look like they are survived. Fix it up, get it running, and enjoy it! I would not paint it, I like the way it looks just as it is.

Ken

I think you can reasonably ask for more than $1000 for the tractor. Other than some of the tin, it looks basically complete. What might put downward pressure on the price that you'd get is the condition of the undercarriage which is best assessed in person however if you can post some closeups of the sprocket teeth from the side, and the track chains looking up at the pins/bushes that engage with the sprocket teeth, that will inform more experienced folks. Being stuck won't help either but it depends on "how stuck" it is - if it turned over "last year" and the cans have been on the exhaust etc. consistently, then it's probably only lightly stuck. If however the exhaust has been open "for years", then it's likely to be solidly stuck requiring disassembly and possibly new parts. The ideal scenario is that someone with suitable expertise (e.g. an ACMOC member in the area) takes a good look over it.