Hi folks,
I met a guy who claims to be a machinery trader yesterday while I was looking for some JCB parts. I don't believe him, though. I think he's effectively a scrap dealer. He showed me a Mark I JCB 3C which he bought last week for £800. A nice machine which has clearly been looked after. The cab was a bit tatty, but that was the only major problem it had. Ran really well. He says he's going to scrap it so that he can get just over £1000. I feel this is obscenely wasteful.
If I was a bit richer, I'd buy the machine to save it, but I already have a rarer Fordson-based 3C, and I can only cope with one battle at a time. He also told me that he'd recently scrapped a JCB 4D. That is tragic, as the 4D is probably the rarest and most impressive JCB ever made. If I had visited when the 4D was in his yard, I don't think I'd have been able to resist buying it.
I guess you can blame China to some extent for driving up scrap metal prices (for some light-hearted mockery of China, take a look at this:
If anyone in the Shropshire/Cheshire/North Wales area wants a Mark I JCB
3C (or the Nuffield engine, which is a great runner), drop me an e-mail (cdt22 AT cantabgold DOT net) and I'll give you the guy's number. You'll need to be quick, though, as he says he's scrapping it on Monday morning.If there's one lesson we can learn from this, it's that if you can't keep a machine and yet you want to safeguard its future, you should know the scrap value of the machine and make sure that you set your price above it.
Best wishes,
Chris