A little over a week ago, we featured a massive auction in Quincy, Michigan, which you can find here. The owner had accumulated nearly 120 cars, and unfortunately, most were left outside. It looked like quite the find, though, so when Reader OldModelTGuy, aka Jeff V, let us know he would be attending the event, we asked him to send us a short review. It sounds like there were some great deals and, at the very least, a unique experience. A huge thanks to OldModelTGuy for sending us photos and sharing his experience, which you can read below!
From OldModelTGuy – At around 120 cars, this auction represented a massive personal collection. So massive that the satellite image suggests the collection had gotten a bit out of hand.
While many of the cars offered were beyond any reasonable restoration efforts, there were certainly highlights and a few bargains. I’ll start with a car that drew definite pre-auction interest. The 1971 Shala ‘Vette’ kit car. Custom car designer Dick Dean built this in a limited run of perhaps a dozen examples: a Corvette-inspired fiberglass body on shortened VW running gear. Dick worked with George Barris and ran Barris Custom City. This particular car appears to have been featured a few years ago on Barn Finds, looking very presentable with a $5,800 price tag in 2015. Unfortunately, it has been left unattended outside since then and is looking rough.
Incredibly, that last photo is purported to be the original body mold! The car with the mold changed hands for $500. I spoke with the purchaser, who is a friend of Dick Dean’s son. He said only two Shala ‘Vettes’ were made in this hardtop configuration, and he owns the other one. Needless to say, he came specifically to buy this car.
Another car that drew a specific buyer was the 1933 Rolls-Royce. It featured Ford running gear with a 351 Windsor and a 4” chop. Front seats and dash had also seen ‘upgrades’. If any car is an example of the difference between ‘can’ and ‘should’, this is it. Paperwork shows the car changed hands in 2003 for $10,000 and was shipped from Hawaii. The car sold for $1,000. The buyer was quite happy as he owned another ‘33 Rolls that needed the radiator. He shared that the part alone was worth $10,000! He also pointed out that the headlight was worth about $2,300 and the original steering column in the back seat was worth about $2,000.
A few other notable car sales include this 1969 E-Type with an original 4.2L engine for $2,000
The Cobra kit car with a Corvette engine sold for $11,0000
1941 Lincoln Continental with correct V12 changed hands for $2,400
1954 MG TF was surprisingly presentable and sold for $2,750
This 1967 Porsche was sold ‘some assembly required’ for $8,500
I could go on all day with interesting buys at this auction. If something on the auction list piqued your curiosity, let me know in the comments. I have most of the sale prices and can tell you what they sold for.
Thanks for the followup, OldModelTGuy. As car people I’ll bet more than a few of us often wonder about the final landing place and position of interesting cars, bikes and the like-more so it seems of huge conglomerations like this “collection”. That the Rolls for instance was bought for less than a 10th of its value in parts, the kit car by the son of its designer and the original mold therein plus a recount of all the rest of the machinery is pretty cool.
Would’ve been a good time to check out and if it’d been out this way a little more that would’ve been a given but traveling now is a big hit in the wallet.
Again, thank you sir.
Thanks for the update on that auction!!