It was $6 plus a 10% buyers premium. But two other turn key Simplicity tractors sold for about the same money as well. An older CC with a deck and a 10hp motor went for $60. Lawn and garden stuff was going cheap. Like most auctions, nothing would start, all had dead batteries and stale gas.
I also bought a CC RT45 tiller at the same sale, it was missing the gas cap and had a tank full of rain water from the storm the night before. It sold for $28. I brought it home, pulled the tank and carb, clean out he carb, soaked the tank overnight with some EvapoRust, changed the oil and its as good as new. I had to order a gas cap for it though. I doubt it it was ever even used before by looking at the tines and paint. Just about everything was missing gas caps and sitting in the rain overnight. Its par for the course at most auctions here I guess. They pickup stuff from estates, bang it up moving it and take little to no care of it while its at the auction. Then there's the few who sabotage things to get the price down.
This 2135 looks like a new machine other than the missing headlight lens and the battered up grill panel. The way I saw it is that with such low hours, it likely hadn't been used or abuse much. The tires aren't dry rotted at all, so it was likely indoors its whole life and there's absolutely zero sign of it ever having mowed grass. The bottom of the thing is as clean as the top. No rust, no grass, no grease or dirt. Its as if it rolled off the showroom floor a week ago. The engine is clean, the filters were all spotless, the oil was fresh, and the paint shines. Its just the lower grill that's banged up and the missing headlight lens don't do it any favors either. I priced the headlight lens, you have to buy a whole assembly since they no longer service just the lens. I'm not sure I want to put $125 into a $6 tractor just to have a headlight lens. However I don't suppose the headlight bulbs will last long exposed to the elements like they are now.
For what I paid, I think I'd pull the motor out of it and use it in another machine before putting it back in the auction and maybe losing a few dollars on it. I've seen days when lawn and garden stuff doesn't even sell, especially tractors without decks.
The one thing it doesn't do is 'wheelie' it spins the tires but doesn't try to rear up, but I've not pulled back on it and tried to see if it'll stand up either. It does lighten the steering quite a bit in forward making turning in close quarters tough. It tends to just push the front wheels around. I don't think that's a matter of it being so fast, its more a matter of weight distribution. It seems too light up front, especially if I'm pulling something around the yard.
I was thinking of making up a raised trailer ball hitch so I can use it to move the boat in and out of the yard.
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