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If you have a half million dollars in your pocket, you can be the opening bidder on a lot of 550 classic cars located at a family owned towing and storage lot in Apache Junction, AZ and listed for sale on Ebay right now. According to the ad, the business has been in operation since the 1960s and the lot is filled with cars from the 1940s through the 1980s, approximately 97% of which are complete with motors, transmissions and body parts. You can even negotiate to leave the cars where they are – that way your wife will never know…
47 Comments on “More Than 550 Classic Cars For Sale In One Ebay Auction...”
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Ah jeez…
That photo looks like an open grave of dead friends.
They’re not dead – only sleeping.
Don’t wake them up though, they’ll eat your bank account.
^This^
Dead, or sleeping… Lets just say they’re friends whose condition is comparable to the patients in Oliver Sacks’ Awakenings. Definitely old friends from long ago.
Oh, my god. Just the ’63 Grand Prix, the ’65 LeSabre or Wildcat, or the ’60 Galaxie would be enough to make this worthwhile.
LOOK AT ALL THE WAGONS…
See that blue?
The ’58 Apache, ’60 Galaxie, porthole Buick and a couple others in the background (’59 Ford?)
That blue used to be ubiquitous among American cars. Why can’t we have it back?
Paint chemistry? Insufficient demand?
I want that blue back.
+1 That sky blue would look great on a lot of the modern cars.
The GMC Apache is no newer than 1957; 1958 was the first year that GM went to quad headlamps on almost every vehicle that they made including (sadly) the pickups. And yes, I want it!
Oof…you’re right. Our ’58 Apache had quads.
My love of that color stems from a 1/24 metal model of a ’58 Impala I had as a kid. It was sky blue including the wheel rims. I’ve never gotten over my love of rims painted the same color as the body.
Then an older brother came home on army leave once and bought a sky blue TR-4. Drove it around a little while then went back on duty for 6 months. In the interim I slavishly detailed every square inch of the Triumph. Good memories with that color.
My first car, a ’62 Falcon sedan, was that color.
In addition to what everyone else has said so far I see a ’65 Chevy and a ’65 Fairlane, a mid ’50s Buick with the cruiserline ventaports, a ’62 Chevy, a Dodge that’s either ’62 or ’63, ’64 Mercury… But I only see two wagons — ’65 Pontiac and what looks like an early ’60s Buick Special, or maybe Pontiac Tempest behind–is that a Chevy Truck or a GMC?
Sorry Redmond but, the GM trucks didn’t come out with quad lights until “59. Trucks, in those days, always received the upgrades last.I think that GMC truck is a ’56, judging by the rear window. ’57’s had larger rear windows.
Roughly $1K per wreck. Most of those cars are probably only worth their weight in scrap, and that doesn’t add up to $1K per car.
People are looking or attention, or someone else to clean up their mess..probably both.
No way. I’m looking at rocker panels, rear lower quarters, sheet metal around body trim pieces including the glass…and I’m not seeing any rust-through. Those cars have typical Southwest burnt-off paint and surface rust. They’re mostly sound.
+ 1000 to Fordson
Even if that’s the case- the rubber parts are all destroyed. Good luck finding replacement rubber for most of these cars. The interiors and plastics are all destroyed.
Aside from that open top Impala and the Chevy pickup, I see mostly boring cars which are not worth restoring.
Agreed parts will not be fun, but if you have the coin to buy these, you can afford to have things custom fabricated or machined as need be.
@skor….With all due respect sir. Take few minutes and price just some of those parts in the photo. What you may percieve as junk,is gold to the right buyer.
I would dearly love to play the old car game. However it is far beyond my financial reach.
I agree that some of those parts are quite valueable, but we’re talking 550 cars strewn about several acres. Considering the time and effort that would have to be put into it, I don’t see a reasonable ROI, certainly not if that investment is $500K up front.
Agree. No way these junk heaps are worth $1k a piece on average. Even if most of them still have their drivetrains intact- I bet many of the ancillary parts have been picked clean. The thing about american cars is that- the drivetrain is actually the easiest part to replace. The little interior and exterior parts are the ones which are impossible to find if missing.
Yup. You can still get NEW Ford flatheads. Unless a car is very popular with the restoration crowd, it’s the little things that will be near impossible to get. If these cars have been sitting in the desert for 20-30 years you know that the all the interior plastics, rubber, wiring harnesses, are toast. Yet there are no guarantees that bodies are any good either. How do you know these are all cars that spent their time in Southwest from day one? For all any of us know, lots of these cars could have spent 20 years sliding around salt-slush Northeast winters before being driven out west.
If I had the space, the time and the resources to move the stuff out, I’d offer no more than 20% of the scrap metal price(price paid at the crusher’s gate)
Well, then. I guess we need look no longer, because this has been declared A Bad Idea.
From what I can see, most of these cars don’t have rust of the terminal variety in the places that I know to look for it, based on 56 years spent just north of Buffalo, NY.
No, there are no guarantees. Yes, we would need to look very closely at the cars to make a determination if it was worth doing. No doubt the rubbers/plastics/interiors are trash.
I am for sure not foolish enough to sit here on the internet and pronounce a numerical value for the lot, based on three photographs taken from the bucket of a high-lift.
@Fordson
“.. this has been declared A Bad Idea.”
Amazing the vehemence this unleashed, no?
I agree that they’re asking way too much but so what? Everybody starts out highball. It’s not like the sellers’ optimism means all that rustfree sheetmetal and cast/forged steel is worth only scrap prices.
I’d sure love to see a followup on this story.
@Summicron,
From the eBay listing: “If managed properly and due to the high demand of classic car parts it has been estimated that the used parts and some highly sought after restorable cars could be worth several million dollars.”
Right. If this pile is worth “millions of dollars” why doesn’t he sell it for that much? Maybe he’s just an eccentric billionaire humanitarian trying to give some motivated kid his first big break?
Take a look at the pictures in the listing…all three of them. Most of these wrecks are common four door models. Just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s worth millions. Could a smart, motivated person make money off this pile of junk? Yes, if they pay the right price for it. $500K is not the right price.
@skor
OK, skor, you make too much sense to argue with.
I was commenting with my heart, not head.
As an added bonus, there’s probably $500,000 worth of rattle snake venom hiding in those cars.
Funny you say that. I remember poking around an old Torino (with a shaker hood) and discovered it was inhabited by an extraordinarily large population of snakes, all of which decided to exit the panels simultaneously. It was a real Indian Jones moment. Fortunately they were harmless garter snakes. Still when you are on your back checking the floor and there are a hundred of them…
Mr. Kreutzer has a genius for offbeat and interesting topics.
Question: Anyone recognize that roofline in the lower right hand corner?
The rear roof extending over the big curved rear window…. on the tip of my brain and it’s bugging me no end. The A-pillar and vent window say ’59-’62 GM, I think.
@Summicron…You got it, I would say a 61 Chev.
Thanks… I remember now:
http://oldcaradvertising.com/Chevrolet/1961/1961%20Chevrolet%20Ad-03b.html
Bottom two pictures.
I’d say more specifically, 60-62 Chevrolet. I don’t think it’s ’59.
Good lord – what’s the ebay fee on $500K?!
It looks like this collection was cherry picked (empty spaces) before it went to auction. There are alot of $500 cars and few that are worth more. As mentioned above, most of these relics would be worth more as parts cars than full restoration projects.
Run away. We are at the tail end of the muscle car bubble. The world is moving on.
More than likely. I think we’re approaching the end of the Harley craze as well.
Well without ever appreciating house prices and people willing to refinance and surrender their future financial security in exchange for toys people just don’t have the money for that kind of crap anymore.
Life sucks when we have to learn to live on a budget.
True, the housing bubble distorted a lot of other markets was well. Fact remains that car hobbyists have been around just as long as cars have. The difference between now and then is that only the super high end cars brought a lot of money. The run of the mill 60s muscle car prices will regain some connection to reality. Duesenbergs and Bugattis will continue to bring big money, just like they always have.
For those who paid $100K for a hemi Cuda….suckers.
$100K?
I don’t know if you can buy a complete one for that.
Then add in another $150K at least to fully restore it to Barrett-Jackson quality.
See”Graveyard Cars” for pricing examples.
The housing bubble is back in force here. Bungalows in my neighborhood have gone from a low of under $500K to $775K and up in a couple years. Printing 60 billion a month is bringing us to the next crash at record speed.
” Life sucks when we have to learn to live on a budget. ”
I doubt you really believe that Thomas .
I may be dirt poor but I have managed an O.K. little life by always living within my tiny budget .
I see they didn’t ask any extra $ for the no doubt included hanta v*rus in all those mouse infested cars .
BTW : GM’s vaunted ” Task Force ” truck series began in the 2nd half of the 1955 model year and yes , the ’58 did indeed get the quad headlight except in a few Southern States where quads were not yet legal …..
Those and some of the Government contract trucks that also came with a cheaper , expanded metal grille .
-Nate
Yes and yes.
This is not a bunch of high denomination bills lying on the sidewalk. But it probably is of value to a small circle of our friends. Despite that, no-one is going to make money off of it.
That would be so much fun to walk around and look at all the cars. I could spend hours and hours over multiple trips doing so.
It reminds me of my grandpa’s Wyoming ranch, where over a hidden hill on back of the ranch there were several dozen old cars parked there. Other then faded paint and broken windows, they looked about like they did when they were parked I’m sure. I use to wonder what made the final decision to park them there for eternity?
Actually, it was only supposed to be temporary until they got the time and/or money to fix ’em.
Here’s a thought.
If the collection is REALLY worth several million as the ads suggests and the current owners are willing to continue storage on the property…
Why don’t they just hire a junior domo for 50 grand a year and a few wrench twisting illegals and run it as a parts business? The Phoenix area is loaded with retired automotive guys who would probably jump at that opportunity for a couple years.
It would kill me if they salvaged those cars. They don’t make those anymore.
Is that gold car a 64 Polara? The quarter looks B bodyish but the taillights don’t.
You could open that as a combined tourist attraction, pick-n-pull and rattlesnake ranch. Something for everyone!
The Count from Counting Cars from Las Vegas needs to pick this up!! he could churn out rebuilt cars for years!!