Farmall Cub

There's a cub cadet 104 down the road from me for sale. There wasn't a price listed on it, but I wanted to have a ballpark figure before contacting the owner. It has a 42 inch quick attach mower and a 3pt hitch. I don't know anything about how it runs. Deck and tractor are in good shape. Not much in the way of rust. Seat is in bad shape though. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I have a Model 73 with 38 inch mower that I would want to sell if this one worked out. It's got some rust and the mower is in working but rough shape (some rust through). Tractor runs well. What do you think I could ask for it? Thanks for any and all help.
Findoggy

Findoggy,
$300.00 - $500.00 seems to be typical for vintage cadets in average shape, at least on ebay.

He's asking $500. If I were to trade in my 73, what do you think I should expect to pay out of pocket for the 104? This guy sells John Deere tractors out of his home and admits to not knowing much about Cub Cadets.

Findoggy,
If I were you I would look on ebay, there seems to be more Cadets in Pa. than any other area of the country.
500 dollars seems a bit on the high side, considering needing a new seat and all.
I paid $413.00 for my 108, you can see photo's in this forum under "new again", I paid $315.00 for a 92 1320 Cadet hydro.

Condition, Condition, Condition, normally is a determining factor of the price. Not seeing either tractor or know how well either runs makes it rather hard to determine a price, but in my opinion, and if both tractors are about equal in condition, I think $500 is too much for a 104 (probably $300-350 would be more realistic ), at least it is in my area of the country, and your 73 is probably worth about the same, if not more. As others have said, watch the selling prices on eBay.

IH built Cub Cadets are collectable, and people know that, but some of those people that do not know much about them, also think each and every one is a valuable and rare item worth more than what it really is, or what a similar one could be bought for someplace else. There are still a lot of IH Cub Cadets to be had. S/N 590 was the first tractor off the assembly line when production began in Jan 1961, and a model 782 with S/N 694248 was the last Cub Cadet IH built, and was built in April 1981. That is 693658 numbers different between the first one and the last one, and a lot of them are still around. Unless there is really something special about a given tractor (and there are some rare ones, but a 104 is normally not one of them), I would look around before paying too much for one.

But that is just my opinion, and as I said, not seeing either tractor make it hard, if not impossible, to price either. It could be worth the asking price, ......... but I think that is higher than average.

Thanks for the feedback gentleman. I thought that $500 was steep. I am, however, surprised to hear you say that my 73 should be worth the same, if not more. Why is that? I paid $350 for the 73 when I bought it.

Don't know when you bought your 73, but the price is in line with what I thought. To a collector, the 73 is probably a more desirable model than a 104. It was the last 7 hp model IH built, there were only 7,678 of them built, making it the model with the 4 th lowest production numbers as far as is known at this time (the model 800 is first with 2345 built, there were 3977 169's, 5247 126's, and then the 73). Ken Updike can correct me if I'm wrong, and as far as I know, the figures for the 82 series have not surfaced, but since they were only built from Jul 80 until Apr 81, one or more of those models may have lower numbers.

Depending on what you want to use it for, the 10 hp of the 104 may be more suited to you needs than the 7 hp of the of the 73, but don't sell the 7 hp engine short. At Cub Cadet plow days, when properly set up, the little 7hp will pull a 10" Brinly plow as well as it 16 hp brothers do, and in some soil types, does better. The limiting factor is traction, regardless of the horse power. Even the 7 hp will run out of traction long before it runs out of power, even with 8.50 or 10.50-12 tires and multiple sets of wheelweights, suitcase weights, or loaded tires. In fact a 42"- 48" deck or a rear tiller will tax the engine more so than the 10" plow will at 6" - 7" deep.