Click it and Unblock the Notifications
Lambrecht Classic Chevrolet Car Auction Nebraska
Imagine you are a classic car collector and one fine day you come across a field that's literally littered with abandoned cars, most of them several decades old and mostly never driven. What would your reaction be? We bet it would be like nothing short of unearthing abandoned treasure.
Something similar happened earlier this year in Pierce, a city in the state of Nebraska in the U.S. Literally hundreds of classic cars which had been simplifying lying around, exposed to the elements were sold at an auction to a large group of visibly excited car buffs. To whom did the cars belong to? Here's the story.
Ray Lambrecht, a resident of Pierce, Nebraska set up the Lambrecht Chevrolet Co. dealership with his uncle in 1946. Ray Lambrecht, an ex-army veteran had an unusual habit. He rarely sold a car once it was older than an year.
Generally, car dealers sell unsold models at discounted prices. Lambrecht on the other hand believed the value of a car grew over the years. The unsold cars were thus kept as it is in the warehouse.
Finally when the Lambrecht Chevrolet dealership shut shop in 1996 the dealership was left with some 500 odd cars, some of them that were decades old and with very little miles on them or not driven at all.
For instance, a 1959 Bel Air and a 1960 Corvair Monza have just one mile on the odometer. On the other hand, the oldest vehicle of the lot is from 1958 and it has done less than 20 miles. The newest car from the collection was a 1980 Monza and it had run just 9 miles.
A two day auction was held in September in which hundreds of classic car collectors participated. Bids were made from as far away as Brazil and Singapore over the phone.
The vehicle that received the highest bid was a 1958 Chevrolet Cameo pickup which had run only 1.3 miles. The pickup was sold for $140,000.
So what exactly made these old and rotting cars so valuable? Some of the cars from the collection were extremely rare. Such as the Chevy Cameo pickup. But that's not the case with all the cars.
What actually bumped up the value of these cars was their condition. While some cars were never driven others had odometers that had hardly crossed over to the double digit figure.
Such cars are highly valued by collectors who purchase them to display them as work of art.
The other factor which resulted in the increasing the value of the cars was the fact that these were untouched. While the paints on the cars were fading they were still the original paint that was applied before they left the factories. The same was true for the interior which were even covered in factory plastic.
Like Jay Quail, executive director of the Chicago-based Classic Car Club of America says,"It's like having a Picasso in your garage. Collectors will pay for a car that's totally unmolested."
Source: Komonews.com
Continue with Google