In Northern Kansas near the border with Nebraska, lies the town of Belleville. Home to about 2000 people, it is also home to a collection of over 80 vehicles, engines, and parts that are being offered for sale. They can be found here on Hemmings with an asking price of $425,000. Unfortunately for most of us, the vehicles aren’t being offered individually…You have to buy them all. They include the awesome COE truck pictured above along with dozens of other vehicles. Take a look at some of the highlights!
Looking past this sedan, you can see what appears to be the front end of a 60s Lincoln. This collection looks pretty diverse. It would be interesting to get the back story on where all these vehicles came from. Along with the cars and trucks, the ad also says there are about 30 engines as well included with the sale. There are a couple of blurry photos of the engines in the ad, but not too many details.
Does this look like a carry-all or hearse from the 1930s? With only two doors, it’s a little hard to tell. If the seller is serious about selling 80 vehicles and 30 engines altogether, it would be wise to take some more photos so prospective buyers could really get a sense of what’s there. Some model names and a brief description would be nice too. Sure, it would be some work on the seller’s part, but they are asking a buyer to shell out a half-million dollars with the purchase price and transportation costs. What do you think of this collection?
Didn’t know about this collection,a little to far from my back yard,I’ll bet some of his neighbors do though,hope to hear the story on it. Gonna take a special breed of cat to pony up 425 large.
Had a similar thought — neighbors or the local government said “you have to get rid of them” so he put it all up for sale at a ridiculous price with a lousy ad just to make sure no-one will buy them. But, it keeps the locals off his ass for at least a little while. Be a shame for most of it to go to the crusher but would think he’d be lucky to get $100k with the amount of detail he’s provided so there it will sit until someone forces the issue. As mentioned below — if he’s serious some kind of auction house would make the most sense.
Looked at as many as I could find and i’m not seeing anything close to 400k…
Would love to have this collection in my backyard. That GMC COE would be a great project to fix up and use for general hauling. Put a deck on it and just put it to work. I have no doubt that there are a lot more gems out there…
Looks like someone has high hopes of getting rich quick. It rarely works out in these situations, they run out of time and a lot gets scrapped. Nice try, though.
The operative word is “High”
Zonk!
Call Van Der Brink Auctions!
Well let me go ahead and cash in some bearer bonds now and get these relics. Are armed guards on premises to protect these cars from pirates and car theft 😂
I hope for 425 large delivery is included….
Is this offer only good on Leap day?
Okay enough and thanks for the laughs on Friday 😂
I am sure dome individual car are worth some money broken out 👍
Sell a couple shares of my BRK.A stock. Have a little left over for the post-purchase party.
Did April 1st come early this year?
Pretty optimistic, but unless the land is included good luck!
BTW, the left front of the 60’s Lincoln sure
looks like the right front of a mid sixties Cadillac to me…
A `66 to be exact.
I have the truck and trailers, land, but no interest
If I had $425k to spend on junkyard cars I would just buy $425k of the weed that guy is smoking instead, and I’d pass on the collection on a quest to get really stoned on that big pile of weed that looks to be the better deal.
The seller won’t show you all the cars/trucks et cetera but we know implicitly that the weed is good stuff.
Bob
Hoarders. I was the lawyer for a small town, which allowed no more than one unregistered or inoperable motor vehicle, outdoors, per residential lot. I was tasked with dealing with a guy who had between 20 and 30 on his “farm” along with “spare parts”. Our “war” (he was a really nice guy, and we got along well) went on for over 20 years. I got court orders, promises, partial cleanups, and every few months, there were a few, or many, new acquisitions. Since it was a “residential zone” he could not run a used car lot there, so, technically nothing was for sale, so, as he would complain, “I am a collector, not a dealer, and I just could not let that old Corvair (or you name it) go to the crusher.” It took foreclosure to end the story, the bank took over and cleaned up the property, most of it to the crusher.
Yikes! That’s a sobering thought for everyone!
People like this are a town’s nightmare. They hoard, and never get around to doing a damned thing with any of it. Never anything too valuable in the pile; just rust buckets a land owner couldn’t say no to. Meanwhile, neighbors get fed up with the trash and unsightliness, let alone comments from their out-of-town visitors that have to drive past the mess. The owners are quite often some old guy in his 70’s already, who couldn’t clean up the pile if he wanted to due to age/health. They make promises to clean it up that go unkempt, and almost always think they can fight city officials to get their way. Then they end up dying, and other family members are left wit the task of getting rid of it to sell the property; a task I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
I think the satellite photos are doing in a bunch of people and sites like this one. Back in the day, they could quietly keep their hoard behind a line of trees and it was nobody’s business. Now, with Google Maps and the like, the hoarding secrets can’t be kept, and the authorities get up in people’s private affairs.
I wonder…. It looks like about 80…
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Belleville,+KS+66935/@39.8135049,-97.6548102,244a,35y,39.32t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x8797fb42f1d26c83:0x94cbfef4ed2dc0ec!8m2!3d39.8244501!4d-97.6325415
And that’s just the vehicles that are visible… it could be more. Unfortunately, the prevalent color is rust brown….
60 – 70 items, hidden ‘collection’, live stock sales, air port – no complainin neighbors here.
1. That ain’t patina, that is RUST.
2. The cost of clean up of the hazardous waste, being soil contaminated with gasoline, oil, antifreeze, hydraulic fluids, leaked from the vehicles, will be enormous as well. You don’t want to inherit one of these.
I love these kind of propertys – defenitely more than all the Disneyland suburbia propertys! Wish people would let other people live their life the way they want!
just looking at that google map, that property is well outside Belleville city limits, the area is mowed in that aerial, I bet I’ve been right past that place before, either on US 36 or US 81. He’s got a lot hidden in the trees, from the looks of it.
…..get writ of the lake looks pot-ugly…..if you get my sarcasm. I agree with Jeff , just because someone does not collect stamps he is not a “hoarder” in my view. The storage looks pretty organised to me. Especially car enthusiast here should understand that situation and I am sure the silent majority reading this section is, dispute some comments here now. There are many ways to deal with visual impairment smell or oil on the ground other then to jump on someone and make its life a living hell for no other good reason because you are annoyed with his collection. I think even Charlie (Solicitor) agrees with that. In my mind in a free democratic society (supposed to) were people have rights on their Land (supposed to) should not be respondent to being killed by a lynch mop style neighbourhood induced legal system /bureaucracy. Well that is my view of a democratic Society anyway.
Looks to be a family compound, mostly hidden from public view, where they’re growing a huge crop of iron oxide. It’s conveniently located adjacent to the Belleville Community Airport.
Fly in, drive out.
Bwahahahahaha!
Probably more like Bellevue!
Unless another Steve McQueen ‘Bullit’ Mustang is lurking among those relics, I don’t see $425K here. Apologies to any hoarders, but buying a classic car and letting it rot into the ground does not make one an enthusiast. It makes you a nut.
If I had the money and space, I would do it. I would buy myself a seat at the Rust Hoarder table!
Spare a seat at the table for me – I’m with you – long live the hoarders!
Other than the COE looks like a bunch of hundred dollar cars.
I’ve said this before, but after buying a property with old cars on it, it bears repeating. You might sell a few, but the majority will need to be scrapped. Unfortunately many scrapyards wont take them unless you have the title to match the vin. Fluids drained, tires removed. The cost in time and fuel to haul is more than the value. What a nightmare. Offer to GIVE them away ( only if they take them all) and it will be hard to find a taker. $425K is beyond laughable.
Private land, private rights, and public controls over “nuisances”. The issue goes back to the 1600’s in what is now the USA and long before that in England, from whence most of our legal system derives. It comes down to a “balancing”. A pig is OK in a barnyard, but not the parlor. And what is “ugly” or “beautiful” is subjective as well. The Pontiac Aztec with its odd juxtaposition of planes, creases and angles, and any of today’s supercars or wanna be’s, like the most expensive Honda sedan. So a collection of junk cars way out in the woods bothering no one is different than three on a lot in a subdivision of 1/4 acre residential lots. MY original point was to the nature of the hoarder, however, not the rightness or wrongness of land use laws.
“…MY original point was to the nature of the hoarder, however, not the rightness or wrongness of land use laws….”
I’m not sure…it matters what they collect?
Guy here has an actual st car collection. When I visit I say: “WTF”, but from my house it looks like nuttin. Over there? rusted, a doz, sittin in the mud, 15, 18 ft hi, 40, 60 ft long…
His father collected them when the co. went out of business, has since died, son either honors him w/hands off, or, who knows?…