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German Collection: 21 Garage Finds for 5,200 Euro

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Wow! Kudos to reader Olaf E. for this very unusual find! Located in Oschersleben, Germany, this huge collection of cars is for sale here on eBay Germany for 5,200 Euro ($5,702) or best offer. Consisting of 11 Trabants (!), 4 Wartburgs and 6 Ladas, the collection is just amazing in it’s depth. Most of the cars look complete or near complete, and the seller will not split the collection. At least one of the Trabants is said to have a restored body and just awaits assembly. The advertisement says the cars have been in this dry “hall” for years. I’m guessing it will take either a dealer or a consortium of German car enthusiasts to purchase all of these; I don’t know where you’d find the room to store that many cars as an individual! Any of our European readers interested? How about a single-marque Trabant race series?

Comments

  1. Avatar William H

    Wow, that would be quite a collection of cars for $5700. It would be interesting to send them out on the streets of the US to say the least. Unfortunately, going by the Google translation of the page, they are not willing to ship to the US. I’m sure someone could purchase them then get a 3rd party to send them over since they’re giving you 3 months to get them moved. The translation also says something to the affect that it must be sold as a lot and the raisins cannot be picked. I’m assuming that means you have to buy them all and can’t cherry pick what you want.

    Those little flat grilled cars look like Ford Fiestas maybe?

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  2. Avatar Dave Wright

    Why???????

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  3. Avatar Dolphin Member

    21 East German cars….. Not too many people want one of these. I wonder how many people want 21 of them?

    Maybe an E German marque endurance race would be good. Last car running wins.

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  4. Avatar MeToo

    One of the coolest Trabant’s I ever saw was hanging from the ceiling of the Rock & Roll museum. It was completely covered with mirror tiles like a disco ball. LOL.

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    • Avatar Dave Wright

      Probably the highest and best use

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  5. Avatar Tirefriar

    That’s a Lada cars

    Had to throw that in there, but in reality if all he has is Wartburgs (little flat grilled cars), Trabants and Ladas, then the Ladas are the best part of the bunch. At least those can be modified for Le mons racing. they may even be re-exported back into Russia. VAZ 2101 has a strong following in Russia as most of the good examples were exported to the former Soviet republics. During the Soviet times, vehicles designated for export had their own dedicated assembly line with tighter QC and better quality of parts.

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  6. Avatar jim s

    that is less then $300 per car. someone close might be able to make money on these.

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    • Avatar Dave Wright

      Anyone that lives close to these cars knows better……….

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  7. Avatar Ed P

    The East Germans were looking forward to the Iron Curtain coming down so they could get rid of these and buy West German cars.

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  8. Avatar Ondras

    @Tirefriar: the car in the front is nor Fiesta nor Lada. It is the last “model” of Wartburg. In early 90s they even started to put 4 stroke VW motors like Golfs had in them .. I think there was a 4 stroke version of Trabant too ..

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    • Avatar Tirefriar

      Ondras, you have my comment confused with that of William H. I know my eastern block avtoprom creations pretty well…

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      • Avatar William H

        Tirefriar – Ondras is probably commenting on my Ford Fiesta reference. I know nothing about these cars other than where they’re from. I only mentioned the Fiesta as that it what flat-faced cars remind me of but, from reading your post and others, those are Wartburgs (now I know a little more than I did). It’s always a good day when you can learn something new in the car world.

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  9. Avatar George

    If someone buys these and wants to ship me a Trabant wagon…. Or any other wagon for that matter…

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  10. Avatar Dave Wright

    Anthony Bourdain did a travel piece in Romainia as I remember, He and his Russian buddy bought one of these to get around the countryside. It continually broke, roadside mechanics would fashion some metal into a part to make it move again. It wouldn’t stop or go and the ride was dangerous and horrible. It finally broke for good and they abandoned it. Probably how this “collection” was assembled. I will be near where these cars are this fall…..If anyone wants one.

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  11. Avatar DENIS

    ummmm, naaaahhhh

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  12. Avatar Olaf E

    Supplied with the Trabant was a toolkit to maintain every part of the car, no problem for the East Germans back in those years.

    First they had to get their drivers license and then they had to register to get on a waiting list for a Trabant. Time between registering and receiving a Trabant could go up to 15+ years.

    My old uncle is from the DDR, he deserted the army and fled to the BRD (West Germany). He ended up in the Netherlands and married my aunt. At age 16 I went to the DDR for the first time and at 18 when I got my drivers license, I visited his family in eastern parts of East Germany 12 times. In total I have passed Checkpoint Charlie 26 times, then the wall came down.

    BTW: My uncle tried to make some money exporting cars to the DDR too, was no succes.

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  13. Avatar Dave Wright

    Great story and history……..I had many friends in West Germany with wonderful and sad stories when I lived there, I am taking my wife this fall back to Germany mostly, the first time I will be back since the wall came down. 90 days and Octoberfest, the fall wine feasts on the Mosel…….I will probably gain 10 lbs. still looking for a car to buy there.

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  14. Avatar Jason

    Great find. I currently own 2 Trabants and recently sold my Wartburg. Fun simple cars. If you want to see them in action, look up the “Man from UNCLE” trailer. It starts with a high speed chase (well as high as you can reach with 23 HP) between a Trabant and a Wartburg

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    • Avatar Quirky Rides

      Yes, we supplied 15 or so Eastern Bloc cars for the Man From UNCLE Movie, including the Wartburg 311 and the Trabant featured in the trailer to which you refer. The speed of the chase in the movie trailer is, cough, fanciful; however, we think these cars are a lot better than some commentators on this thread would have us believe. They’re also great fun to drive.

      Paucity of supply meant that the average length of ownership of a Trabant in the DDR was 28 years! Many of them were driven into the ground through age despite careful ownership. I still have 3 Trabants and a Wartburg from the movie. They fetch quite a bit of money these days, especially the Wartburg, which is over 40 years old and solid as a rock. The Wartburg and Trabant seen doing parallel handbrake turns in the movie trailer were actually attached at the front by a metal bar!

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  15. Avatar Jesse Staff

    Michael Ryman just let me know that they have been purchased. Here’s his note:

    Just to let you know that The Historic and Classic Business Academy (www.historicandclassic.com) has today purchased the ‘barn find’ collection of 21 cars from an eBay seller highlighted on your site.

    Thanks for making this auction lot public… without which, we wouldn’t have acted.

    Here’s to an interesting life for the cars in the UK!

    Michael Ryman
    Director
    The Historic and Classic Academy
    Part of The MKR Group Ltd

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    • Avatar Olaf E

      Jesse, good news. Thanks for the update, Olaf E.

      Like 0

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