Repaints for Sale

A tight-lipped businessman named Albert Houston from Chatham, Ont. had tramped from farm to farm buying used tractors. When he had 69, he slapped on some fresh paint, took them to Yorkton, Sask. In newspapers and on telephone-pole posters he advertised a "Mammoth Auction Sale of Farm Machinery." Not until the day before the auction did Yorkton's 5,577 people know what they were in for. Some 10,000 tractor-hungry farmers, their pockets bulging with cash, arrived from all over the prairies. When all the rooms in Yorkton's three hotels were snapped up, empty cells in the jail were used. Private citizens rented their spare rooms, put four farmers in a bed. But hundreds of the invaders had to sleep in their cars, or nowhere. Cars were so jammed in one Yorkton street, that firemen had to detour to reach a fire.

Government liquor-store operators sold a 26-oz. crock of gin, rum or wine every 27 seconds from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Beer supplies were soon exhausted: sales were estimated at 10,000 glasses in a day. Because many a farmer had left his meat ration coupons home, grocers had a field day. Said one: "I sold more bananas and sardines than I'll ever sell again one day if I stay in business 100 years."

Next day, at the auction, the urge to splurge was even giddier. Reason: no ceiling prices on used machinery. A 1938 McCormick-Deering tractor, which cost $1,300, was knocked down at $2,100. A Cockshutt tractor ($1,341 new) went for $1,775. Twelve-year-old Olivers ($1,740 new) brought $1,875. One farmer got one for $1,800, sold it a moment later to an unsuccessful bidder for $1,900, thought the deal over, bought it back for $2,000. Another farmer, who had sold Houston one of his own used machines, liked the new paint job so well that he bid $300 more for it than he had been paid. He was out bid. The crowd's enthusiasm even infected the three auctioneers. One got in on the bidding, wound up with a tractor himself.

At sale's end, Albert Houston (who would not say what he had paid for the 69 tractors in the first place) pocketed an estimated $137,000 and departed.

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