Harry Michlitsch Auction Results Summary

[Guest BJM]

Sorry, with 600 cars I can't list all the results. This is more an expose on the state of the last remaining old car yards.

Yvette Vanderbrink Auctions completed the sale of the "project" cars for the Harry Michlitsch collection from near Eden South Dakota yesterday.

Most of these cars were Chevys and Fords and in deplorable shape. The crusher price was set at $175 and at least 400 (2/3) of the cars are being crushed. 99% of the balance went fro under $300, including many off-crusher priced cars at $185 or $200.

Michlitsch had collected the throwaway cars for years in the north central part of South Dakota putting them on a farm with a lake. There was evidence that many cars might have had seasonal flooding or rested in damp ground. In this part of the world, authorities don't care if you stack up old cars on farms and ranches. Many had wheel sets sunk into the ground.

The seller has had these cars for sale on a website for years and before that with a brochure he would mail. Obviously, those who visited saw that they would be responsible for the cost of extracting the stuck cars and added that to the price and decided otherwise.

This is not to impune the seller Mr. Michlitsch. My understanding is he is a nice fellow and perhaps he was caught up in the hobby and had a place to put the cars for years and wouldn't we all like to have 600 cars, well not all of us.

Lots of the cars had parts missing.

Highlights?

A nice 1957 Pontiac Star Chief wagon (4 door) complete and solid went for $1100.

A solid complete 51 Buick Roadmaster 4 door went for $200.

I bought a 63 Electra convertible for $275, but it is in bad shape. Most of the Chevys were from the 40's to about 1965 and were in bad shape but garnered bids in the low $200-$400.

So, after I saw wreck after wreck only garnering crusher price $175 I thought here is the case of the yard that should have either never taken these cars in, parted them out sensibly or did he do the right thing by holding an auction when most of the cars were long gone?

Is it fair for a project/salvage yard to have an auction and "ask" other people to clean out his property much like we see "abandoned project" Craigs List ads and ebay auctions where the sellers want their bad ideas removed within 2 weeks despite partial or complete disassembly?

I used to enjoy going to these old car project auctions because of the variety of the cars. But it was a big waste of time to see crusher cars go up for auction over and over again with no bids. Those that were obviously "wrecks" should not have been included but the auction company works for the seller so the seller said he wants it all offered - at least.

The next and even worse observation in my opinion - was that several complete Kaisers and Nashes are getting crushed. A 58 Lincoln 4 door, some Cadillacs and other non Chevys sold for $200-$350.

Here you have "Chebby" guys bidding $300 for a front clip-less 62 Impala and walking right by a 53 Nash Ambassador, a 49 "bathtub" Ambassador, 2 Kaisers, several Chevy trucks, some Ford trucks - all crushed.

Part of what is holding back the 47 to 54 "Advanced Design" Chevy truck auction results is the fact that you can almost build one from a catalog now so what do you really need from an auction purchase? The cab and frame.

I certainly don't want to sound like Debby Downer but overall this was a dissatisfying auction that serviced the sellers need to "get rid of" a bunch of cars and trucks (junk) that he could not otherwise have accomplished without a lot of time and cost.

Have others been to similar project yard auctions that were done because the owners held onto car way too long and now they sold the land and had to move ASAP?

I have been to 2 other Vanderbink auctions and the one I went to last year was a dealership so they had some decent cars of course. But a whole line of 56 Packards went for decent prices at that one.

The one I went to 2 years ago in northern Minnesota was similar to this one. The owner almost stopped the auction at one point because his cars were not garnering the kind of $ he had in mind.

But that auction had better more complete cars and a nice variety and most cars were sold not crushed.

I am sure there are still a lot of western yards in SD, Montana, etc with dry nice projects but I wonder if in my next 40 years god willing we will see these yards in the rear view mirror.

Edited September 19, 2010 by BJM (see edit history)

[trimacar]

Well, can understand the sadness of seeing cars crushed, but at some point the feasibility of bringing them back to decent operating condition ceases to exist. The costs of restoration these days means that many cars will never see the road again, and either rust away or be crushed.

That said, one must realize that there are more collector cars out there than there are owners. To put it another way, if everyone who in now interested in collectable cars cut their collection to one single car, there'd be tens of thousands of cars that couldn't find a home.

Even now, with many collectors owning anywhere from 1 to 1000 cars, there are a LOT of cars for sale. I'd be willing to bet that, at any specific moment, there are 50,000 or more collector cars on the market in the United States. Might sound high, but that's only 1000 per state, and there are hundreds of dealers out there with 30-200 cars for sale.

Yes, a shame a car gets crushed, and if it gets crushed a shame if parts get crushed that someone could use. But overall, these days, it's a numbers game, and many of those cars you couldn't afford to restore if they gave you the car.

[Guest BJM]

Yes, a shame a car gets crushed, and if it gets crushed a shame if parts get crushed that someone could use. But overall, these days, it's a numbers game, and many of those cars you couldn't afford to restore if they gave you the car.

trimacar,

Very well put, all of your comments. 5 of my 6 old cars are rescues from crushing. I've done all I can do. There are still plenty of cars available.

And finally, since the price I paid of $275 for my convertible was only $100 over crusher price, I essentially got it for free in my opinion.

[1937hd45]

Lets say your time is worth $20.00 per hour and gas is $3.00 per gallon, was anything in that "collection" worth a two day drive? Unless it was rust free Pre 1940 Ford coupes or roadsters, only locals will be bidding.

[Guest BJM]

Lets say your time is worth $20.00 per hour and gas is $3.00 per gallon, was anything in that "collection" worth a two day drive? Unless it was rust free Pre 1940 Ford coupes or roadsters, only locals will be bidding.

Again, another very good point. This auction was not in a well populated area BUT Yvette Vanderbrink has done some remote site auctions that had stashes of rare muscle, 50's and desirable cars. And they have been well attended and some good prices were had.

But, I had the feeling that in this auction, too much junk, not enough variety (had the ubiquotous Chevys there) and cost to retrieve. It will cost me more to get the Electra home so cost of transport was on bidders minds for sure.

I wish I would have stepped up and bought the quircky 53 Nash Ambassador. It was straight, complete and will be crushed at $175.00. Not a Super or Rambler mind you but an Ambassador.

Wish there was more interest in the orphans.

[Jim Bollman]

I went to a "clean out the whole yard" sale a few years ago. It was a better run yard than the one you tell about, this fellow had several buildings and busses of good parts that had been removed over the years. Many nice cars, many restorable, many maybe restorable or rare, and around 1000 rough yard hulks. His approach was everything went over the auction block accept the hulks over the two days of aution (it was open the weekend before for inspection).

The hulks were all taged with numbers and those attending were allowed to walk the yard looking at the cars. At the end of the main part of the auction they collected numbers for the cars anyone was interested in. If there was more than one interested person it was auctioned, other wise they could by the car for a small nominal price over the crusher price. Went very smooth and fast. They had equipment to help people get the yard cars out and loaded. I believe you could also just take what you wanted and leave the rest for the crusher.

[Guest BJM]

That's a good way to do it.

I think that should have been the case here. Everybody knows what a hulk looks like. Even though they went fast through the hulsk in this auction it still added 3-4 hours to a long day.