Posted on 09/28/2013 5:41:52 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
When Ray Lambrecht closed his Chevy Dealership in the little town of Pierce, Nebraska in 1996 he did it without fanfare, according to auto auctioneer Yvette Vanderbrink. "It is amazing, you know he just went home. Just decided today's the day I'm going to retire and locked the doors and everything was left just as it was."
What was left included some 500 unsold cars, many of them brand new models with less than 20 miles on the odometer. Something of an eccentric, Lambrecht believed in only selling new cars. If a vehicle didn't sell, he would take it off the showroom floor and put it storage. Trade-ins were also stored, many of them simply parked out in a large field on the edge of town.
All of the vehicles will be auctioned off this weekend and the sale has drawn attention across America and beyond. "It's kind of amazing," says Pierce resident Rick Sirek. "I have a secretary down here that was in Sweden about ten days ago...and she heard people in the lobby in this hotel in Sweden talking about this Lambrecht car sale here."
The reclusive Lambrecht, who has declined all interview requests, opened his dealership in 1946 when GM was looking for franchises in small towns across the country. Now 96 and with health problems, he has finally made the hard decision to sell off his stash.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I hope it is recorded on video.
He was brilliant to invest his money in cars instead of the rotten financial instruments that have squandered the money of people who saved, thinking they’d get interest on those savings for their old age. How wrong they were!
The crooks that run the Fed and Wall St. have ripped savers off to the tune of trillions of dollars. “A penny saved is a penny lost.”
This auction is going to bring a fortune to Lambrecht.
“I hope it is recorded on video.”
Agree. Maybe National Geographic, Discovery Channel or some such will do a show. Hope so.
My 28 yr old daughter said that they were real cars. She doesn't care for new ones. They all look alike.
This man was in business for fifty years and just left 500 cars unsold. That’s is an average of ten cars per year.
If you use today’s prices as a guide; average price of a new car around $25K that is $250K in unsold product per year. Granted some of the cars were trade ins but the guy was definitely making a lot of money if he could just let assets sit and rust in a field.
The “new” cars were in storage, inside. Only the trade-ins were in a field.
I heard about the particular treasure trove of vintage cars some months ago; and the plans to get it auctioned. I am surprised given that early report that the auction is only now taking place.
It is good he is selling them when he is still young enough to enjoy the money /joking
Cars built when we were a country!
FTA: This weekend was specifically picked for the auction because there was no University of Nebraska football game scheduled: an important consideration for drawing a crowd in the Cornhusker State.
LOLOLOL!
The fact remains that these were cars that he paid for that he got no return on for his investment. The cars were a loss he could not even take off his taxes.
Sign up and bid online.
He only had 50 new cars. The rest were trade-ins.
There is also a lot of lead time for inventory and catalog design and printing.
I am guessing that the catalog for this auction will be a collectable all by itself.
It is possible this auction could bring in over $20 mil.
Will Leno show up?
The History channel has a show tonight at 8:00pm to 11:02pm called, “History Made Now: Wheels of Fortune”.
From the website.
“Car collectors from around the world are flocking to a small town in the heart of the Midwest for the chance of a lifetime. In a closed down family car dealership in Nebraska, the mother lode of classic cars—many having less than 10 miles on the odometer—are going up on the auction block. In this special presentation HISTORY will have exclusive access to the collection and the auction. The special will be hosted by Brian Unger and feature Top Gear’s Rutledge Wood and Tanner Foust.”
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