Have the Hours Been Changed on This Deere 850?

Got a letter from a viewer who was looking at an older John Deere tractor with extremely low hours. It was an 80's model 850 with 124 hours on it. He wanted to know if it was possible that a tractor of that vintage could have been used that little, or if the hour meter could have been altered. The answer is yes to both questions.
In this video, I first show how to determine what year a tractor is by the serial number. Then we look at tractors advertised online to see if the low hours is normal and what average selling prices are. Then, I show how easy it would be to get a new hour meter with zero hours by finding the part number on Deere's website and entering it in my browser.
In this situation, I think one of three scenarios is likely. First, the hours could have been altered by someone trying to get more money for an older tractor. A new hourmeter costs $449, and if you were trying to disguise excessive hours, you'd have to also spend more money to replace other worn components. On a tractor that old, and that small, it's unlikely that the amount of money you'd get from doing that would help the value of the tractor that much. I think that's unlikely.
One practice that is somewhat accepted in the equipment industry is to replace an hourmeter when rebuilding an engine. Of course, having a new engine doesn't mean the rest of the components are new, so it's on the verge of being unethical. The common practice is to write the hours when the engine was replaced with a paint pencil somewhere on the tractor so anyone looking at it will know that the engine is newer than the rest of the tractor.
The second scenario is that the tachometer or hour meter failed at some point in the tractor's past and was replaced. If that happened, there should be some note of the situation on the tractor somewhere with a paint pencil.
Finally, it is possible that a tractor that old only has 124 hours. There are folks who think they need a tractor, but once they have one it almost never gets used. That's not out of the realm of possibilities, especially on small tractors. It may have been parked in the barn for the better part of its life, and only used to brush hog a small area or do snow removal sporadically.
You can usually tell if the hours are right by looking at the components on the tractor that show wear. Steering systems, shifter lever and other controls get weaker with age. If the tractor has 124 hours, those should all be tight, just like a new one.
If that all checked out, I wouldn't have a problem getting a tractor like this one. I'd sure want to budget some money for repairs after I got it because when a tractor sits like that, fuel gets old and gaskets and seals get brittle. It's probably going to take an investment to keep it field ready at first.
What do you think? If you've had experience with barn finds like this one, leave your experience in the comments.
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