The Lambrecht auction

I disagree. I spent the first half of my life in Iowa, brother's 68 Mustang lost the floor in 10 years on dirt in backyard. The trade-ins are going to be a mess...the new cars that have "only" been on dirt for 15 years since the inside storage was lost will probably fare better. The condensation in the moister upper midwest is hard on the bottoms of old cars, especially the era where all that was on them was primer and what overspray blew under them when painted.

Nebraska climate ain't nothin' like Oklahoma's

Check out this '56 wagon trade-in

 

Day 2

https://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=68562#Top

I don't think I ever saw a 2 door Corolla wagon.

https://www.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=1530&aid=68562&lid=17534675&title=Toyota-Corolla#

 

The more I look at those rows and rows of cars the more I am amazed. 500+ is a lot of old cars!
It's sad but like someone else said, if they were sold years ago they'd be Chinese can openers or junk yard wrecks by now anyway.
Who are we to judge what another person does with their cars? I'll bet a few of us have old wagons and cars that are just sitting.

 

There is just so much about this whole thing that I just don't get. How did this guy stay in business if he was taking a loss on so many cars every year? He supposedly had a grand plan to use these cars as a nest egg but he had to see that they were falling apart, being stripped by thieves and vandalized. And, who waits until they're 95 to cash in their nest egg?
If only he had sold them off when he closed the dealership.

I'm sure the auction would be interesting to attend but I think it's going to be a circus. It seems like the auction company is going to be overwhelmed because there is no admission charge. So in addition to the bidders there is going to be every looky-loo within a 200 mile range. Security ought to be interesting. The one good thing about it is every media outlet is going to be there also so the rest of us should see plenty of coverage.

 

200 mile range? I live in Virginia and have a neighbor who is planning to go. I wonder if that little town has enough port-o-potties for the crowd that will attend the auction.

 

Hmm! Might be wise to bring yer own!

 

HA HA! You can sure tell the average ages of this group. I remember a few...well more than a few... years back when we'd go to any event and never even think about toilets. Now those little rooms are at the top of our "must have" list. Altho I did notice trees in the background of some photos.

I just wonder how long it will be before any other "car find" event will stir up this much interest? That is not counting those big dollar deals. Or even if there will be one to outdo this one!

 

He didn't believe in discounting, so you either paid the sticker price, or you didn't buy the car. When the new cars came out, he still wanted sticker price for last years models, so they went unsold. He wasn't an easy guy to deal with, so the people in the hobby that knew of him, just stayed away. I am certain that he was wealthy enough to not care about the small amount of money he had invested, and could weather the "losses" against the gains, and still end his year with a profit. Who knows what his mental state was in his elder years that effected his reasoning. Many wealthy people become so eccentric in old age, that they do things that are not considered reasonable by others. How many people that have kept an old car rusting away in the backyard, and when someone approaches them to purchase it, they say that they intend to "restore" it someday, but others know that they have neither the resources or determination to start such a project. When they die, the car gets hauled off to the salvage yard, and parted our or crushed.

 

When I scrapped the Ultravan for the aluminum value, people told me that I was crazy not to sell it for scrap. To prove that I wasn't crazy, I showed them that the salvage yard paid more for the aluminum than I was offered for the van as a whole. Classic example of people trying to low ball the old guy, thinking that he is too old to think reasonably.

 

I forgot you had an UV. What year was it? I thought those things were rare and worth a fortune. Sadly I have no energy to work on ours and I see many selling cheap. Wish we had it years ago. I'd dropped a modern drivetrain from a front wheel drive in it. The Corvair is a nice runner with under 50,000 on it but I wouldn't trust any of those original parts on the highway. Seems like the owners who do drive them are Corvair mechanics with a stock pile of parts. ooops! Off topic.

 

Considering the oldest vehicles are from the late '50s, and he started business in 1946 in his late 20s, this can hardly be attributed to "old age". Eccentricity, perhaps. I think he knew perfectly well what he wanted to do, and just did it. They are simply "settling" the estate BEFORE either of the elder Lambrechts dies, as probate on this would be a disaster and very expensive; where the only "winners" would be the probate lawyers and the IRS.

I want to know if anyone here ends up with one of the Lambrecht cars, what was paid for it, and the overall condition. Until that time, we can only speculate, as all we've seen are pictures of the vehicles; and no one from the forum has personally inspected any of them.

 

We have a grandaughter and her family living in Omaha. If I could find my wife's credit card we'd go visit at the end of the month. Maybe wander a few miles to check out the auction site.
I need more cars!

 

I'm looking at the used '79 Chevette still only bid up to $55. The new '79 Impala wagon only up to $1200. The used '66 Bel Air post sedan up to like $800. The 74-79 Impala and Caprice sedans in varying conditions all well under $500 so far.

There are even brand new in the wrapper Corvairs, first year '60 models, only one of the five are over $500 so far!

 

Don't these cars on the Proxi bid start out on the day(s) of the auction at the price they have been bid up to prior to the actual auction via this site?