Shortly after featuring Alan Rietz Collection of Mopars (more photos and info coming soon!), Yvette from VanDerBrink Auctions sent over some photos of a large Muscle car stash that was discovered in Vicksburg, Michigan. We are some of the first car nuts to be seeing this collection! Our special thanks to her and everyone over at VanDerBrink for giving us early access to this auction, which is currently scheduled for August 25, 2018 and you can find what info is currently available here.
Information is pretty sparse at this point, but this Michigan barn was owned by a Tom Brown. It looks like he was mostly focused on Chevrolets, but it looks like might be a few other makes thrown in the mix. There’s also a ton of parts and lots of spare engines here, so this auction would definitely be worth attending if you’ve been on the hunt for that last part you’ve been needing to complete your project!
And if you don’t own a project just yet, there are some killer projects here! Personally, we’d be happy to take home any of the Camaros (especially the Z/28) or the Chevelle. We can’t wait to see what all is in this collection, but given that it is 7 months away it will be a while before VanDerBrink is able to release a complete inventory list. There’s no word on whether they will be inventorying all the parts, but hopefully they will be able to let us know if there are any big blocks or rare speed parts in Tom’s collection!
So are there any cars here you’d love to have? And do you spot any parts that you need to finish a project? Let us know in the comments section below!
Love to pick up that DeSoto Airflow when it comes up for auction, but shipping to Honolulu would be prohibitive so I’ll have to pass. Hope it goes to a good home!
all the Camaros look great. I would have to pick the 69 rs,z-28, 2nd would be the 69 ss chevelle. What a treat it would be to at least walk through it all. The parts stash looks like there are goodies. This tom had great taste!!!!!!!!! Ohh, the 57 chev vert., and it looks like a 67 chevelle vert. next to it.
Saw a big block chevy motor in the pics!
That stash looks like a car fanatic dream come true, IF you have plenty of money, that is.
I don’t put this in the category of “Collection”. This is simply a hoarder. Which, is fine and I don’t have a problem with anyone doing it. If that’s what you want to do, I say do it. A collection is view-able and in some order.
If I had a 55 gallon drum full of baseball cards is that a collection as opposed to the next guy having his in binders and sorted by team/year etc. He has a collection and I have a hoard of baseball cards in my opinion.
Agreed. Makes you wonder what the purpose was in gathering all this. If it was for restoration projects, where are they? If it was for resale, this stuff has no value if it can’t be identified as to its application. Sorry to say, but many of these parts will be melted down as scrap metal. IMHO.
Unsure of the definition of hoarder or collector. And I really do not care. I would be willing to bet my last Leinenkugel that this cat knew exactly what every part fit. It looks to me like things are fairly well organised, tailgates,trannys, timing chain covers and on and on. Sorry Gregg. I do not see anything buried in a 55 gallon drum, looks all exposed to me. As far as Marks comment goes, it looks to me like the person had a ton of restos going on. How nice to go to the rack and grab those double hump heads and install. And as far as many of these parts will be melted down as scrap metal. Not going to happen. Most of it is very identifiable if your a Motorhead. Myself, I would have liked to talked to the owner. I bet a very cool person. I hope they are above ground. And I really like that LT-1 Stingray!!!!!!
He was in the same state as Detroit where most of these cars were built. Lucky guy musta had a great job to amass such a sweet collection. Id take the 69 chevelle. That with an ls motor and 6 speed along w an updated suspension id have a hell of a pro touring monster. Heres a pic of my beast.
The cars are all too obvious, nothing but the usual suspects. I like first gen Camaros and Chevelles generally, owned a couple of each. But go to any show, cruise in or car event, and there are herds of them, usually fake SS and Z/28’s.
Now those parts, that’s another story! Easy to dream up a Chevy project just based on engine parts alone!
That 57 Chevy has the Fuel Injection emblem on the fender… super rare car!
It looks like a Fuel Injection emblem on the 57, I would take that.
I am interested in the entire collection.
Thanks Nick Hockman
Hey Nick, this website isn’t the one selling the collection. It’s an auction company.
I will take the whole thing ! I will not have a problem sorting through that hoarders stuff all I see is $$$$$$!!!!
Really sucks that these big greedy auction companies have to be involved and drive the price out of reach for the average car guy….
What? The auction company is simply converting the estate’s assets into cash for the heirs. And at great expense and effort, too. The market (i.e. the bidders) determines the price, not the auctioneer.
Don’t weep and moan about the affordability for the “average car guy” – that’s exactly who’s setting the price.
How would you have this assortment disseminated to the buying public? Through a Craigslist ad serviced by a yokel in bib overalls painstakingly taking each potential customer through the vast morass of stuff?
An auction is an efficient, well-organized way to get the job done.
What has driven up the price is the size of the market. Auctions these days have a worldwide audience.
Years ago, an auction may have been attended by folks from a few surrounding states at best, but these days you’re bidding against somebody in Germany and another guy from China.
The more folks who are interested in a car, the higher the bids will go.
Not every Van Der Brink auction is like the Lambrecht one, where rusted out early 60’s Chevys with a few miles went sky high. at other auctions, I’ve seen them auction run of the mill stuff that went very reasonable, because there were no internet bidders willing to pay the shipping cost.
Chad if you were on the receiving end of the sale you would want that auctioneer to get as much as he could.
Tough crowd! Maybe he saved/hoarded what he liked. My collection is random, but I like each one. Some of them don’t run.
If that,s what this guy had on the back burner id like to see the cream of the crop befor the Auctioneers got involved lol.
My experience is that most of these collections have already been cherry Picked before the auction has been there. Would love to go thru the stuff, but I’m sure there are a lot of guys with more coin than I Have!
There’s a couple there I’d like. Don’t have room for them but would still like them.
And has been said, if this isn’t the cream of the crop I wonder what’s there?
Even tough it may look like just a random hoard of cars and parts this may be just the leftovers that the family decided to sell. Probably some choice restored cars were kept. This is the cars they are getting rid of. Looks like most are good candidates to restore and are fairly untouched complete cars. It’s close to home and worth checking out. Cars at well publicized auctions do tend to receive high bids. The Vanderbrinks do a good job of getting bidders to attend.
Looks like a shelf full of camel hump heads! At least 3 sets!
It seems like a huge auction here every week lately. Why do I keep thinking to myself Dead Man Walking?
Maybe not a collector nor a hoarder. An accumulator. To restore when he retires, or perhaps had started on some others not shown or available at the auction. I attended an auction with 60+ tractors an 84 year-old man was going to restore when he found the time. Died before he even started. Perhaps that’s the situation here.
Is there a 400 small block in the stash?
I think Mr Brown was onto something. He managed to get his hands of a lot of cool cars as well as a ton of parts. It’s nothing that I wouldn’t do if I had the space and money to do it. As far as knowing what it all is, That would be up to the bidders to know their stuff. It is all about product knowledge. There will be many subject matter experts on hand who know what they are bidding on. Hopefully the auction house will do a good job of seperating it into individual lots so you don’t have to buy it all or big lumps of stuff.
Tom simply knew his stuff and probly got them for a good price when he started collecting. and knowing that the value would increase. Its called money in the bank. Wish I could have kept some of the cars like this that I had in the 70s-90s.
Somewhere in the great beyond, Don Schlag is smiling. Hemi in the Barn by Tom Cotter…
Seems some are quick to throw an insult someones’s way Just because he didn’t have the means/time/wherewithal to restore his cars to pristine show-car condition. Jealousy perhaps? Does it really matter why he amassed such a collection? God help us when you clowns start making the rules!
Yup, a LOT of folks are very quick to label as a hoarder…… I wonder what folks wlll label the stuff in my garage once I am gone. I have 5 in my hoard and a bunch of parts.
My guess is the family moved out the cars they wanted to keep before ever letting the auction company get involved. We all know at least one person who starts on one car project only never to quite finish it before starting on another.
They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. MY intentions are to have my restored 59 Triumph on that road with the as yet un-restored 64 AH Sprite, 65 Triumph Herald, 69 Morris Minor Traveller and Fiberfab Jamaican, all running at cruising speed on the way to an eclectic car show. Hopefully said road is smooth as, at 73, the time frame is getting compressed. So, my intention is to be a collector; reality, potential hoarder and royal P.I.T.A. to my survivors. LOL
I like the 67 black impala 😍