Seen a sign like this one? Unless you were tracking a mid-March auction, you’ve probably never laid eyes on one. But no one would blame you for hustling out to the barn to see if there’s something like it tucked away somewhere, because this one just sold for $19,000.
Events like this always summon up the same image in my brain: a bunch of old timers in rockers, whiling away a pleasant afternoon on a front porch somewhere in heaven. The crew I’m picturing today farmed in the early 1900s and saw the evolution of barn equipment that may or may not have come soon enough to spare their backs the worst of the labor-intensive process of getting hay into the mow.
These are people who only grudgingly exchanged hard, cold cash for, well, anything. They built their own homes, they raised their own food, they fixed what broke. The value of a good hay carrier, though, was immediately apparent to all.
There is a significant spread between the price of a hay carrier 110 years ago and a sign selling today for $19,000. It is the kind of gap that would likely test an aversion to cursing. “Durn,” one old boy might say, as others share glances, eyes narrowed in amazement over such a price paid for a sign (selling hay carriers!) that didn’t even light up. “Cain’t figger it,” another mutters.
The past, they say, is a foreign country. They do things differently there. The future is equally inconceivable. That’s why our sheds, basements and closets are full to overflowing. When all we have to do is live long enough to convert junk into treasure, there’s little incentive to run a tight ship. Clean out that old shed? Better think twice. You might just be sitting on a gold mine!
Originally published as “Hoarders Unite!” in the May 2023 issue of Farm Collector magazine.
