As 2014 roars to an end, now would be a good time to look back at the Lambrecht Auction, run by VanDerBrink Auctions, in Pierce, Nebraska. For those of you with bad memories, Ray Lambrecht ran a small Chevrolet dealership and had a tendency to keep cars that did not sell or those he acquired in trade and stored them in a variety of lots. The dealership shut down but Ray Lambrecht hung on to his cars. Eventually the family opted to sell off their inventory and contacted Yvette VanDerBrink.
We had a chance to interview Yvette VanDerBrink and get her reflections on this auction. Regretfully it started out with a notice that Ray Lambrecht had died the week of our interview! How sad to hear that the man who rocked the collector car world last year was now dead.
VanDerBrink had been contacted by family members after being referred to her firm by a car writer the family knew and trusted. Originally the extent of the collection, and how many low mileage new cars were amassed was not actually known.
VanDerBrink spent countless days sorting through the inventory which were in multiple tree and weed covered lots, some even in Kansas. She then had to match up the cars with their paperwork from the shop. Finally, VanDerBrink had to develop a catalog for the auction and even set up a YouTube video advertising the auction. That one video saw nearly 1.7 million views alone and generated countless press articles about the September, 2013 auction.
And then the frenzy started! Who can forget the 1958 Cameo truck with the crushed roofed, cracked windshield but only 1.3 miles on the odometer! It sold for $140,000.
VanDerBrink had sold "survivor" cars at other auctions but was unprepared for the interest and enthusiasm of the collector world. Her computer systems crashed eight times from the surge of volume. Plus her catalog for the auction was downloaded over five million times.
The first day of the auction, 25,000 rain misted people descended on the auction site, including some of the 11,500 bidders who registered in person and on-line. The History Channel even covered the sale live. 55 vehicles were sold with their MSO's - Manufacturer Statement of Origin - but the state originally was reluctant to allow the sale of these "new" cars to go forth, since the dealership was defunct. And the state was originally wanting the MSO's to issue new title's but VanDerBrink was able to work through the red tape and bureaucracy to preserve the factory documentation of these historic cars.
VanDerBrink felt that the volume of buyers and their interest in the low mileage cars fueled the selling prices. She has always sold some "survivors" at other auctions, but never for the prices bid at the Lambrecht Auction. She admits that now, a year later, the market has settled down and the prices for these true survivors have settled in to their normal, historic range.
After the auction I saw many of these cars show up on auction sites for a quick flip, with many selling for a loss as the buying public came to their senses about these cars and their true market value. I recall one lad who had bought a station wagon, hoping to restore it. Unfortunately he discovered that the flat tires had allowed the frame to rest on the ground and had rotted away over the years. Many enthusiastic sellers listed other cars "just like a Lambrecht car" and "similar to a Lambrecht survivor".
As we were writing this article, one buyer was selling a 1982 4 door Chevette Scooter with less than 1000 miles on it. (It had been sold with 872 miles on the odometer). The buyer had sunk an extra $2,000 to make it running, after a winning bid of $6,500 and was now willing to sell it for around $5,000. You do the math!
Overall the Lambrecht Auction showed the collector world that there was still an interest in unrestored, factory original survivors. And VanDerBrink Auctions proved they could deliver some fantastic auction results and a piece of American car history! And yet maybe the best deals are right here in the pages of Auto Round Up!