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$8500 is a premium price for an old TD6 like that. The only way it would really be worth that is if it was in excellent condition and truly did have only 2500 hours. Hard to believe a nearly 50 year old machine really only has that much time on it. The hour meters are notorious for breaking or being disconnected or being swapped out with another one somewhere along in the crawlers life. So take the 2500 with a grain a salt. As for the rest if the machine, the undercarriage would have to have at least 60% or more left with meaty rails, tight pins and bushings, solid idlers, good rollers with no leaks, and newish sprockets. The engine should start easily, have no blowby and run strong. The hydraulics should all work perfectly, the chrome on the cylinders should be shiny and unchipped (no rust spots) and be without leaks on their seals (a tiny bit of seepage is ok). The hoses should not be dry rotted, cracked and in need of replacement. The main drive and steering clutches should all work smoothly and fully transmit all power to the tracks as required. The transmission should be strong and shift easily, not pop out of gear, and be without excess noise/whining/grinding. Final drives should not make any funny sounds like clicking or popping and should transmit full power without incident. They should also be topped off with clean oil and no metal fragments should be floating around inside them. The loader frame pivot points should have tight pins and bushings and be properly lubed. The 4-1 bucket should be straight and "unpranged" - it should close squarely, have a good edge and all teeth (if so equipped). The loader's valve mechanism should work properly, and not have excessive wear/play or slop in it. Anyway a really solid TD6-62 Drott loader in this perfect (or nearly perfect) condition could easily be worth $8500 to the right person. Otherwise they sell for less, a decent running machine in good condition with 4-1 probably averages around $5000 (depending on where you live). And if anyone thinks "Oh no, $8500 is way too high I've seen these things sell all day long for $2000-$3000!" All I gotta say is where do you find one in the condition described above for that price? I see people saying things like that all the time, but without saying so they're referring to typical old machines with various wear problems, leaks and in need of service of one type or another. Fixing these old machines can get expensive and run into many thousands of dollars real fast (not including your time, skinned knuckles and aggravation), so it's not unreasonable to pay more up front for a tight machine to avoid all that. Especially now in this inflationary era where EVERYTHING is more expensive and getting more expensive all the time. Used to be not long ago the scrap price for that TD6 would be a couple hundred dollars, but now with China and India buying it all up it's now worth a couple thousand dollars just for scrap price. So these older (and affordable) machines are drying up quick as they fall to the junkman's torch en masse. This will reduce the supply which will certainly drive up prices for these traditionally more affordable crawlers, leaving mostly the newer ones to fill their place. And people will want more money for the newer ones, so either way things are getting more expensive.
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