The collector car hobby makes hoarders out of all of us.  The older, rarer, or more unique our vehicle is, the greater the desire becomes to hoard any part we can find.  “Just in case!” is our mantra.  What follows is an example of how automobile hoarding ended for one kindred soul.  If you love 1937 DeSotos, Hemi engines, and you have a garage to fill, then check out this treasure trove for sale on craigslist in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania.  Take a look at the pictures, peruse the ad, and decide for yourself if you are ready to take on someone’s 45-year collection of cars and parts for the simple sum of $33,333.  Thanks go to Anthony M. for this overwhelming find!

Collecting cars and parts for a project we have in mind is something that many of us do.  It is easy to grab something we may need at a swap meet, off an online ad, or from our network of contacts.  Spare hoses and gaskets soon become two or three generators, a spare block or two, then some body parts in case there is an accident, and it goes on and on.  One day you wake up and look around to find that there are multiple projects in the garage, in the yard, and at the storage place on the other end of town.  I will admit to these crimes and you likely should too.

Judging from the ad on craigslist, the person who owned this collection liked Mopars in general and DeSotos and Hemis in particular.  There are three 1937 DeSotos.  One coupe, one four door sedan that was garaged, and one sedan that looks to have been a parts car.  The blue coupe looks to be the prize of the lot.  In the ad, it states that the car is original, then says AACA/HPOF.  I am assuming that the seller is telling us that this is an original car that has displayed in the Historic Preservation of Original Features class at an Antique Automobile Club of America show.  This class is for largely original vehicles and is intended to encourage owners to preserve these vehicles in that form.

Not much is said in the ad about the four door sedans.  The garaged one appears to be solid and would likely clean up nicely.  Both the coupe and the garaged sedan seem to be outfitted with sealed beam headlight conversions and someone has added what I think are turn signals.  The turn signals don’t look very good, and it is likely the sheet metal was drilled into to attach them.

Among the parts are four Hemi engines.  At least one of them is listed as a 330 cubic inch model out of a De Soto.  The laundry list of parts from there reads like the inventory to a speed shop.  Refurbished heads, cams, bearing sets, cranks, and nearly every other part is listed.  The ad states that there are cabinets full of parts and a barn full of goodies.  All of it can be yours for $33,333.

While I am confident that the number above is just one thrown out there by someone so overwhelmed by the volume of stuff in this barn that they don’t really have a firm price in mind.  Who could come up with such a number?  The original owner of all of this stuff likely knew what everything goes to and would have had a rough idea of the value.  I don’t think that cat is around anymore.  The problem is that there is a very short list of folks who would want a huge parts stash and three DeSotos.  We don’t even know for sure if the parts are all fifties and sixties era Mopar stuff or if it is that stuff and some 1937 DeSoto parts thrown in.  The refurbished heads may be small block Chevrolet heads for all we know.

This deal is mainly for the kind of folks that spend their week purchasing and loading up large auto parts stashes during the week and selling them on the weekends at either a swap meet or listing them on eBay.  Those folks aren’t going to pay anything near market value if they are forced to take all of it.  It’s just the way it is.  If anyone can convince the seller to offload the coupe and maybe the sedan, then the rest could probably be sold piecemeal if the seller had the patience.

Have you ever purchased a whole estate worth of cars and parts?  Would you do so to get the particular car or parts you need and sell the rest in this case?  Please let us know your experiences and thoughts in the comments.