How to Select Vintage Farm Toys

Collectors of vintage cars and trucks may not view vintage farm toys in the same light, but collecting vintage farm toys is a serious business. For every antique farm tractor or cotton harvester built, there is the potential for finding a matching antique farm toy. At times, the collectible rare farm toy may be worth more than the actual machine!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Select Vintage Farm Toys

1. Find a vintage farm toy by searching for toys made during the classic years of 1890 through 1960. This is the era before farm equipment contained high-end technology and computerized systems. Farming was performed using teams of horses or steam-powered engines during much of this time period.

2. Choose from 1/25, 1/32 or 1/43 scale for vintage farm toys. Most vintage farm toys are made of metal and mechanically operated.

3. Think of vintage farm equipment when searching for vintage farm toys. Threshers, potato diggers, horse carts and tipping trailers are all types of vintage farm equipment frequently represented by toys.

4. Expect no plastic parts on a vintage farm toy. The toys may contain leather, canvas or wooden accessories, but will have no modern materials if they were made prior to 1960.

5. Shop for vintage farm toys at antique stores, museums and farm auctions. Collectors and toy dealers also have vintage farm toys to purchase.

6. Select from the original designers of farm equipment, like Ford, Allis-Chalmers, Case threshing machines and Caterpillar tractors. Because vintage farm toys are replicas of these early manufacturer models, the manufacturers in question often produced the replicas themselves.

7. Choose farm toys based on steam engines or the rare two-cylinder model. These vintage styles are an attractive investment for the serious collector.

8. Look overseas to early agricultural countries for vintage farm equipment and toys. Early farmers in Australia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, France and Britain had unique designs for mechanical farm equipment.

9. Check online auction sites like eBay and estate sales for vintage farm toys. Unusual sources of vintage farm toys are farm equipment salesperson samples, scratch build farm toys and restorations from dealers.

10. Visit the National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville, Iowa to select from a 30,000 item toy collection. Many farm equipment manufacturers produced their own exclusive toy collection series every year, and collectors would snap them up quick.

Tips & Warnings

• Display or collect vintage farm toys. These toys are valuable and not intended for play, which diminishes their worth.
• Do some research before investing a large sum of money on a vintage farm toy. There is nothing worse than being swindled into thinking an item is valuable when it isn't.