cars auction lambrecht collection

[Tilar]

The guy I work with said the History channel ran a special on it and said the first day sales were 1.2 million which is a little more believable than the 5 million I read. But even still it's a better return on his money than just selling them when they were new.  I watched some of it on the net last night and some of those bidder numbers that were winning the bid was in the 50,000+'s. That is why some of those cars went so high.

Look for the lambreck or whatever word to be used A LOT on evilbay here in the next two years to inflate the prices on some of this junk that brought ignorant money. All cars have stories, and these were nothing special. If they were, people woulda been beating down dudes door long before he was 95 ...imo, hype drove prices up. I kept hearing "its still new"...


Um, bullsh*t......

You're exactly right.   

[6spd68]

https://www.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=1530&aid=68561&lid=17400700&title=1963-Chevrolet-Corvair-Monza-Coupe

People are free to do whatever they want with their money, but this just makes me sad.  I think I'll go trade my Charger + 10,000$ for a K-car or Chevette to justify it in my mind...

[petercharger]

I have a survivor 72 340 roadrunner.   With all docs since new build dealer invoice sales docs etc...I bet I could not get close to the Covair price.    Crazy. 

[Aero426]

Sold for $27,000 !!!

That was an expensive tree.    I guess it makes up for the missing bed (and other parts).

[F8-4life]

Imagine if the guy actually had some decent chevrlet's.. nomads, elcamino's maybe some sedan delivery's. Were are the ragtops? No 348 or 409 stuff either.
Most of the cars are common even on a Chevrolet standard...most of the trucks were long beds. Most of the 2 doors were post sedans.
Actually that kinda makes sense as they are in a small farm town.

[Old Moparz]

I read about the auction a while back & thought it was interesting until I realized the owner of the dealership was just a hoarder. Stupidity is always in abundance.   


Wonder what the Vega behind the truck went for? The hatch (Daytona plug) is still there but the trim is popped up & probably rotted. 

[Tilar]

I read about the auction a while back & thought it was interesting until I realized the owner of the dealership was just a hoarder. Stupidity is always in abundance.   


Wonder what the Vega behind the truck went for? The hatch (Daytona plug) is still there but the trim is popped up & probably rotted. 

The story I read was he always bought his cars instead of taking them on like most dealers. The Chrysler dealer here in town is the same way. Anyway when the new year models came out he took all the new cars he had left over from the last year and moved them to a storage building, and then the oldest that were in the storage building got moved to the farm. Regardless of the reasons I'd say he did alright. Now for your next question, It went for $800.

https://vanderbrinkauction.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=1530&aid=68562&lid=17534668&title=1974-Chevrolet-Vega-Hatchback

[6spd68]

The owner may have made out better in the long run, but was it really worth it waiting to be 95 to get that money?  What do you do with it now? 

I guess he's got some lucky grand children...

[DadsCharger00]

The owner may have made out better in the long run, but was it really worth it waiting to be 95 to get that money?  What do you do with it now? 

I guess he's got some lucky grand children...

Lucky daughter

[MaximRecoil]

The owner may have made out better in the long run, but was it really worth it waiting to be 95 to get that money?  What do you do with it now?  

I guess he's got some lucky grand children...

Did he really even make out better in the long run? What was the total amount he made from the "new" cars, and how many of them were sold? For example, ones that sold for say $10,000 may not even be breaking even when inflation is taken into account (since he already bought each car at close to a new price in whatever given year the car was made). Also, we hear about the ones that went for big money, like the $145,000 Cameo (or whatever it sold for), but how many went for cheap, like the $800 Vega mentioned above?

If he had say, 500 cars, and the average cost of a new car in today's money is about $30,000, so let's say a dealer cost of about $25,000 (which will roughly translate to pretty much any year in the past when adjusted for inflation), he would have had to make $12,500,000 on those cars just to break even.

[Tilar]

If he had say, 500 cars, and the average cost of a new car in today's money is about $30,000, so let's say a dealer cost of about $25,000 (which will roughly translate to pretty much any year in the past when adjusted for inflation), he would have had to make $12,500,000 on those cars just to break even.

But it's not today's money that he spent, it's 50 year old money. That Cameo probably cost him $1500 new and sold for 140k realizing a profit of 138k, those 63 and 64 Impalas probably cost him $1800 each and one of those went for somewhere close to 98k, so yeah, he did alright. And the Vega? IMO It brought exactly what it was worth new.  He wouldn't have made this kind of money had he put all that money into CD's or Money Market.

[6spd68]

Either way, I think he still waited WAY TOO LONG to collect on that.

[GOTWING]

the tan brand new vega that sat outside with a couple miles brought $10,500 and was trashed from sitting. 

[Aero426]

He wouldn't have made this kind of money had he put all that money into CD's or Money Market.

But properly managed and invested, it would probably exceed it.

Let's say that by 1970, he had $250,000 of new and used inventory just sitting there (not a stretch at all).  At 8% return, it doubles roughly every nine years.
So by 1979, it's worth $500k
1988 it's worth 1 million.
1997 it's worth 2 million.
2006 it's worth 4 million.  And on it goes...

You can argue it either way.   But most of the time, you do not come out on the long haul by letting your investments sit idle.  

[stripedelete]

He wouldn't have made this kind of money had he put all that money into CD's or Money Market.

But properly managed and invested, it would probably exceed it.

Let's say that by 1970, he had $250,000 of new and used inventory just sitting there (not a stretch at all).  At 8% return, it doubles roughly every nine years.
So by 1979, it's worth $500k
1988 it's worth 1 million.
1997 it's worth 2 million.
2006 it's worth 4 million.  And on it goes...

You can argue it either way.   But most of the time, you do not come out on the long haul by letting your investments sit idle.  

I ran it several different ways and he always comes out way ahead not hoarding.  

And for him to get what he got,  you have to give all the credit to the guys that marketed this sale.  They turned cleaning out a junk yard into a friggin' Tiffany's auction. 

[Aero426]

You have to give all the credit to the guys that marketed this sale.  They turned cleaning out a junk yard into a friggin' Tiffany's auction. 

[6spd68]

the tan brand new vega that sat outside with a couple miles brought $10,500 and was trashed from sitting. 

Reading that makes me smile.  Some sucker out there has a clapped out chevy vega, I have a 68 Dodge Charger... 

[GOTWING]

I bet the biigest case of buyers remorse was the following morning ! 

[Tilar]

He wouldn't have made this kind of money had he put all that money into CD's or Money Market.

But properly managed and invested, it would probably exceed it.

Let's say that by 1970, he had $250,000 of new and used inventory just sitting there (not a stretch at all).  At 8% return,....

lol, where did you get that 8% figure from?  I'd give anything to get an 8% return on my money. BEST I ever got was 5 1/4 on a 5 year CD back in good times.

[MaximRecoil]

If he had say, 500 cars, and the average cost of a new car in today's money is about $30,000, so let's say a dealer cost of about $25,000 (which will roughly translate to pretty much any year in the past when adjusted for inflation), he would have had to make $12,500,000 on those cars just to break even.

But it's not today's money that he spent, it's 50 year old money.

Inflation makes that irrelevant. It is like if he bought a gallon of gas 50 years ago for a quarter and he sells it today for $4. It may sound like a profit, but all he did is break even. He "made" enough money to go out and buy another gallon of gas to replace the one he just sold. On the other hand, if he sold it for a quarter, the same as he payed for it 50 years ago, he wouldn't break even; he would be in the hole, because a quarter couldn't even come close to replacing the item he just sold (i.e., it has way less buying power than it did 50 years ago).

The numerical value of money isn't what is important, the buying power is what is important.

That Cameo probably cost him $1500 new and sold for 140k realizing a profit of 138k,

$1500 in 1958 has about the same buying power as $12,138 in 2013 according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Yes, he made a big profit on that one, but his "investment" wasn't just in one or a few new cars stuffed away, it was in hundreds of them, all of which he payed close to new-car price for (which was as big of a financial hit to people 50 years ago as it is to people today). So to know whether he actually made a profit or not, you need to know how many new cars he bought and never sold, and then the total amount they brought in at auction recently.

those 63 and 64 Impalas probably cost him $1800 each and one of those went for somewhere close to 98k, so yeah, he did alright. And the Vega? IMO It brought exactly what it was worth new.  He wouldn't have made this kind of money had he put all that money into CD's or Money Market.

$1800 in '63 or '64 would have bought him 51.3 oz. of gold. He could have sold that much today for ~$66K. Yes, less than he made on one of those Impalas, but if he'd used all the money that he spent on unsold new cars and had bought gold instead, he would have way more money today (unless all ~500 of his cars made that kind of profit at auction, which I doubt they did).

Edit: Okay, I just looked it up and:

"At the close of the event, an estimated 475 vehicles sold for about $2.5 million." - http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/09/29/day-1-results-lambrecht-chevrolet-company-collection-auction/

So that averages to $5,263 per vehicle, which is not even close to a profit. It is not even close to breaking even, for that matter. In other words, the money he originally invested had enough buying power to purchase 475 brand new vehicles at a dealer discount. On the other hand, the money he received from selling his investment doesn't even come close to having the buying power to purchase 475 brand new vehicles today at a dealer discount, not even if they were all base model Hyundai Accents.

[stripedelete]

The DJIA has doubled 5 times since 1960.  

And you can't ignore the money he would have made had he continued to turn those dollars he parked out in the field.

[Aero426]

lol, where did you get that 8% figure from?  I'd give anything to get an 8% return on my money. BEST I ever got was 5 1/4 on a 5 year CD back in good times.

Cash in the bank, I would agree with you.  But I was not talking about leaving cash in a money market or CD at the bank...    An 8% rate of return in the stock market over the long term is not exactly an outlandish claim.

[DadsCharger00]

Thought this was pretty awesome


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VjqYHGoHAOg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVjqYHGoHAOg

[duanesterrr]

Looking back 50+ years at an optimal investment strategy is not the point.  Of course gold and some stocks would pay off better.  Every person on this thread could go back and make BETTER financial decisions.

The guy could have sold each one of those cars for $50 profit back in the day and put a "second garage" on his farm house with the proceeds.  Yea, that investment would have paid off real well.  Maybe I should update that example to people who take out perfectly fine counter tops and replace them with 10k worth of granite today. 

The ol codger managed to live till 95 and leave his grandkids with a couple million dollars.  I bet if you told him that would happen when he was 20 years old in 1938 (depression era) he would have laughed at you. 

[Cooter]

Looking back 50+ years at an optimal investment strategy is not the point.  Of course gold and some stocks would pay off better.  Every person on this thread could go back and make BETTER financial decisions.

The guy could have sold each one of those cars for $50 profit back in the day and put a "second garage" on his farm house with the proceeds.  Yea, that investment would have paid off real well.  Maybe I should update that example to people who take out perfectly fine counter tops and replace them with 10k worth of granite today. 

The ol codger managed to live till 95 and leave his grandkids with a couple million dollars.  I bet if you told him that would happen when he was 20 years old in 1938 (depression era) he would have laughed at you. 

Amen. He's laughin at all those who tood him those cars are never gonna be worth nothing.  Course, I don't think he knew thered be so many dumbasses ith money to burn 50 years later either.