John Deere Collector Flourishes

Enlarge Image Image Gallery The John Deere Spoker D's open flywheel was risky business for the farmer who caught an arm in it. Photo by Leslie C. McDaniel

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As a collection develops over the decades, it progresses at a leisurely pace. But when you go from zero to 60 in a short time - say, purchase and resoration of 70 tractors in about 10 years - the fur flies. Mel Kopf knows: he's done it. 

When Mel Kopf retired from a career as an executive with Southwestern Bell about 11 years ago, he became a serious John Deere collector. 

“When I first retired, I just had so much pent-up energy for this,” he said. “Every night I’d be down working on tractors until 9 or 10 o’clock. It was a driving passion.”

His was a case of full immersion in John Deere green: In just a few years, Mel had a good start on collectible tractors, farm toys, pedal tractors, dealership signs, surplus parts, manuals, decals and caps. Toss in a dealer’s parts bin, John Deere bicycles and a stationary gas engine, and suddenly, he’s a player. (Read how John Deere got his start.) 

“I’ve got so much now I can hardly say grace over it all,” he said with a wry smile. Raised on a farm at Beverly, Kan. (west of Salina), Mel grew up with tractors.

“As a kid, I can remember lots of mornings, waking up and lying in bed, I’d hear Dad go out early and start the tractor,” he said. “I always liked the tractor end of it. But after college, that was the end of farming for me.” Career and family intervened, and more than three decades passed before Mel – who now lives near Topeka, Kan. – got reacquainted with tractors.

His first project was restoration of his father’s 1960 John Deere 630, one of the last 2-cylinders Deere produced. “He was so happy when he bought that,” Mel said. “It was just the second tractor he’d ever bought new, but he didn’t want any part of those new 4-cylinder tractors.”

Mel restored the tractor as a sentimental gesture. As work progressed, he thought maybe he’d do a couple more. “Then it was nine or 10, and then 20,” he said. “I never dreamed I’d have this many.”

The size of his collection, he notes, like everything, is relative. “This kind of thing goes on all over the U.S.,” he said. “Tons of people have as many or more. I maybe have more completed. But it’s no big deal: It just takes time, and money.” Money is, naturally, an increasingly important factor in the vintage tractor world. Mel said he expects some prices to go higher.

“I think the rare ones will continue to go up,” he said. “The common ones will probably continue at the same level. There’s probably not much more growth there. But the real good, solid ones that weren’t worn out, they’ll continue to climb in value.”

Mel, though, never looked at his collectibles as an extension of the stock market. “I didn’t go into it to make a profit,” he said. “If I ever get my money back, or close, that’s good enough. What a ball I’ve had with this. ... When I retired, we could have traveled around the world or something like that, but I can have fun right here.”

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