pilotdave,
Yes, I think 12k is too much. But they may be willing to haggle some. Mine too was an 1985, does this one have power steering? The early ones did not and can make fel operations a chore. How about tires? Mine were the original and quite worn & weather cracked and in need of replacement(around 1k). While mine had an fel it did not have a grill guard and the nose showed it with some damage. So it is a little hard to say with out seeing the tractor. Is this private sale or from a dealer? Also this tractor has a two stage clutch that is very expensive to replace ( nearly 1k in parts alone ) so I would try and make sure that it was not worn excessively.
Do a search on Equipmentlocator or Ironsearch you should find some good comparisons.
Dave