G'day OM,
At the moment the Scott Bonnar market is running wild with plenty of junkers surfacing at outlandish prices. I guess good original machines are few and far between considering their age now.
The last machines from the original SB Factory were built back in 1982 and that one would be considered as one of the last as the reel market by 1982 had basically dried up with rotaries being Australia's mainstream mower of choice. The amount of SB 520's and 720's were phenomenal compared to the Model 45's of which they would've produced about 10 a week of compared to the thousands of the formers.
There are many more 1970's Model 45's out there rusting away in sheds of elderly folk who have their lawns mowed by Jims or VIP type services now, thus why there are very few 1980's machines left in service, many have long ago gone to scrap when there was no interest in them at all.
Now there's a whole cottage industry that's come to fruition in home style machine shops in back yards producing spare parts of good quality out of brass and other materials. We have a chap located in Blackwood, Adelaide that's set himself up and is supplying to all over Australia, you'll see him on eBay and he's also supplying to other eBay sellers, thus this just artificially inflates the prices of these machines to an "out of body" experience.
Regardless of all the above points, good original non abused / molested machines will command top dollar, just like one owner HQ GTS 350 Monaro's and XY GT Falcons along with any other 1970's car. Who would've ever said that Datsun 120Y's will be worth big bucks one day ?,
I would've said take a hike. Mazda owners are buying them to hoik the 1200cc slug out and put Rotors into them and turning them into Datsun sleeper missiles. Stock on the outside but with a 13B turbo under the hood.
Everything has it's day in the sun I always say, and it's the Model 45's turn now.
Cheers,
BB.
PS. What blows me away is how many 14 inch Electrics are suddenly surfacing and with an asking price of between $400 ~ $1000, "dreamers", but who knows what's next to come into fashion. Strangely they are not selling which relegates them to $50 spare parts machines for the components that will cross over to a petrol powered 45, thus saving lots of $$$$$.
Last edited by Bonnar_Bloke; 10/03/18 03:28 PM. Reason: added text
