Rarest Britains implements

[tractorbob]

yes the blue elevator ..now thats rare, in working condition..

[ploughmaster]

I would agree, the powered Lister elevator is probably the rarest of the standard implement models.  Only two years in the catalogue, very expensive (so probably only sold in low numbers), and very easily damaged.  I hadn't mentioned it because the OP asked specifically about 70's. 80's and 90's, and the so didn't consider the 60's. 

Going that far back, the Timber Trailers, are not common (but more common than the elevator).  The early 129f is quite hard to find (particularly boxed and especially the brown version), with the later 9560 being similarly scarce.  Even the last one (9559) from around 1970 doesn't appear that often.

[powerrabbit]

I see the log trailers quite often here at the toy fairs, both boxed and loose, well, I presume were on about the extendable one? Very often see the late pale grey and orange one boxed.

[ploughmaster]

That's interesting, because I rarely see any nowadays.

But, as I said earlier, most of the implements, even the very rare ones do seem to turn up in batches for some reason.  Ones that seem common at present, may well be unobtainable in a few months. 

 

[powerrabbit]

We seem to have digressed a little from the original subject of rarest implements into other rarities to include machinery and implements as well but this to me is good to discuss and relavent.

So in ths veign I will continue in saying that it now seems that the boxed sets such as the tractors with various equipment have become hard to find and you rareley ever see any about, especially those from the late 1960's to the early 1990's which is a large time span. Could it be that not that many were produced or is it that they were not that popular and only sold in small numbers or perhaps they were considered expensive and just weren't sold by the toy shops? You don't even see them on the auction sites like eBay very often. The very few sets that I have seen on these sites or at the toy fairs are priced fairly high. I have found only a couple over the past couple of years and managed to aquire a couple at a reasonable price, one being the early 1980's riding set with the horses and riders with 8 white fences, a horse and rider jumping a fence, a couple of children on Shetland ponies and the farm gate set in the contents. The other was the Ford 5610 and wooden shed set. I did find the riding set game at a toy fair but was priced too high for me.

[ploughmaster]

You're right, the sets don't appear often, for a combination of all the reasons you mentioned I think. 

20 years ago the the sets from the 70's and 80's were less difficult to find, but at that time, nobody much collected them - I remember seeing the large tractor and implement boxed sets (with either the Ford 6600 or MF595 which would have sold for around £10 BM at the time), struggling to find buyers at about £15, when the unboxed contents would have made over £20 if sold seperately (perhaps some sets got broken up to be sold that way?).  Now the same sets would command three figures.

The earlier sets with the E27N's, Majors and early Ford 5000's have always been more collected and so have been higher priced for a long time.