#25 Find Out How Much a Combine Costs

You may think this is a weird item to have on my list. I'm a writer; I do fundraising for an academic medical facility in a major American city. Why the hell would I want to know how much a combine costs? How do I even know what a combine is?

I'll tell you, it is a weird one. In 1998, I went to teach English in Poland; I was in a small mining area south of Gdansk. One night I was at a bar with some of the other teachers, when this guy excitedly calls us over, "In America, how much does a kombajn cost?" We look at each other agog; there are a lot of questions about America that we can answer, but this is not one of them. Some of us don't even know what a combine is. We're all urbanites, none of us even lives near a farmer. We explain this. The poor man was crestfallen. So I decided I should know how much a combine costs, in case I'm ever asked again.

Now, asking how much a combine costs is kind of like asking how much a car costs: what make? what model? what features are you looking for? how much horsepower? how many acres are you harvesting? new or used? how used?

Since I found it difficult to get a quote on a new combine without calling someone, and since I am so not interested in owning a combine (I think they're bigger than my back yard), I just found what I could find on the internet. Used combines range in price from about $80,000 to $225,000.

But it's the shipping that really gets you.