TheSamba.com :: View topic - Anybody have any suggestions?--A life's project!

Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:20 am

Bob Loblaw wrote: Y'all realize this post was from 2004, right?
His one and only post.

yes, this is true. however, he just placed the ad on July 30th, 2018.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2198460

Thanks for doing that Everett. I was thinking of sending them a message through their ad, directing them back to this thread.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:45 am

My bad. I glossed over the updated post.
More coffee, coming up.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 2:35 pm

wow, so sad.... :cry:

I agree....bang for the buck would be an auction company. like I said in the last thread where this came up (the passing on, while there was a collection to be dealt with) it is a huge burden on the family.

dad passes, now the poor kid is going to pass on as well....there is such a thing as having too much. I think the auction will get a huge bulk of the stuff sold and down the road.....or not. you never know who will show up or how much will sell.

its a bad place to be in....all of it. so sorry and best wishes :cry:

Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:03 pm

skills@eurocarsplus wrote: dad passes, now the poor kid is going to pass on as well....there is such a thing as having too much. I think the auction will get a huge bulk of the stuff sold and down the road.....or not. you never know who will show up or how much will sell.

I didn’t see the part where Luke was having health issues. IMO they ABSOLUTELY need to hire an auction house. This could mean the difference of paying a few bills for a couple years, to being financially comfortable well into the future. Any auction I’ve ever been to was “sell all”. If there were less desirable items not attracting bids, they were grouped into a lot with items that were selling. At the end of the day, everything was GONE. Like mentioned earlier, if the auction house does their job, they should be able to provide a venue large enough for the bidders, and advertise within the best channels to attract bidders from the Western half of the country. His samba ad has over 3500 views in just a few days.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:05 pm

This is real. I spoke to Lukas in person last Sunday at the Denver BugIn, and a friend of mine worked with Lukas a few years back down there outside of Pueblo.

I also agree with all the comments. Selling everything as one lot is no bueno.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:19 pm

A wise old businessman named Baumberg once told me: "Sometimes a quick nickel is better than a slow dime".

This has always stuck with me. Perhaps it is better emotionally for this family to sell it all together for the "quick nickel" rather than burden the survivors with the headache, time, and effort of the "slow dime"??????

Rather than just saying "send your offer".....perhaps he should just come up with a number that he is comfortable with and throw it out there. Then people can (quickly) decide if they want to pursue it or not. If they are no takers at said price after a certain period of time......then he can go down in price until he finds a a buyer.

I find earlier posts kind of comical when referencing people traveling for an auction situation. Besides the 53 vert.......what other "must have" cars or parts are there? The multiple ROUGH 61-67 hardtop projects????? The Super Beetle steering columns??? I dont think so.....

The parts are NICE.....but far from rare. So are the 61-67 hardtops.

I hate "make offer" situations. Throw a price out so people at least know where you stand.......

Who knows.......somebody might want that 53 vert bad enough that they might be willing to swallow the whole lot just to get their hands on that vert.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:21 pm

[email protected] wrote:

I didn’t see the part where Luke was having health issues..

it was in the ad on his site. stage 4 colon cancer :(

Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:57 pm

kidvintage wrote: A wise old businessman named Baumberg once told me: "Sometimes a quick nickel is better than a slow dime".

This has always stuck with me. Perhaps it is better emotionally for this family to sell it all together for the "quick nickel" rather than burden the survivors with the headache, time, and effort of the "slow dime"??????

Rather than just saying "send your offer".....perhaps he should just come up with a number that he is comfortable with and throw it out there. Then people can (quickly) decide if they want to pursue it or not. If they are no takers at said price after a certain period of time......then he can go down in price until he finds a a buyer.

I find earlier posts kind of comical when referencing people traveling for an auction situation. Besides the 53 vert.......what other "must have" cars or parts are there? The multiple ROUGH 61-67 hardtop projects????? The Super Beetle steering columns??? I dont think so.....

The parts are NICE.....but far from rare. So are the 61-67 hardtops.

From the last estate clearing situation I delt with, the auction house WAS the quick dime. A dozen employees of the auction house catagorized everything, and had listings on their site in weeks. The estate was cleared in a day. This would have taken the four surviving children YEARS to go through everything, and WEEKS to clear it out.

Your neck of the woods might not consider anything rare in his collection, but in the Northeast, anything pre-70 that doesn’t need pans/channels IS rare. The last Aircooled VW yard car I got a part off of was in 92. Sure nothing parts wise is uber rare, but common things are rare for those that don’t have easy access to them.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:40 pm

[email protected] wrote:
Your neck of the woods might not consider anything rare in his collection, but in the Northeast, anything pre-70 that doesn’t need pans/channels IS rare. The last Aircooled VW yard car I got a part off of was in 92. Sure nothing parts wise is uber rare, but common things are rare for those that don’t have easy access to them.

TheSamba & Ebay = Access to all of the cars and parts you will ever need.

We don't have wrecking yards here in CA to pull early parts from. They are all gone. But I find parts pretty easily using the above-mentioned sources.

My point being that I don't think an auction for this collection would have very many people "flying-in" to participate. It is just not that exciting of a stash.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:17 am

kidvintage wrote: A wise old businessman named Baumberg once told me: "Sometimes a quick nickel is better than a slow dime".

This has always stuck with me. Perhaps it is better emotionally for this family to sell it all together for the "quick nickel" rather than burden the survivors with the headache, time, and effort of the "slow dime"??????

Rather than just saying "send your offer".....perhaps he should just come up with a number that he is comfortable with and throw it out there. Then people can (quickly) decide if they want to pursue it or not. If they are no takers at said price after a certain period of time......then he can go down in price until he finds a a buyer.

I find earlier posts kind of comical when referencing people traveling for an auction situation. Besides the 53 vert.......what other "must have" cars or parts are there? The multiple ROUGH 61-67 hardtop projects????? The Super Beetle steering columns??? I dont think so.....

The parts are NICE.....but far from rare. So are the 61-67 hardtops.

I hate "make offer" situations. Throw a price out so people at least know where you stand.......

Who knows.......somebody might want that 53 vert bad enough that they might be willing to swallow the whole lot just to get their hands on that vert.

Let's be real here. The only buyers who'd be willing to swallow the whole lot and transport it all would be scrappers, and they'd be paying scrap prices. You'd spend a lot longer finding the ONE right buyer for that whole lot than you would just having an auction and splitting the whole lot between a handful of buyers. Nobody would want to truck all that out of there just for one or two harder to find cars and the handful of parts that are valuable, unless they had a scrap business or a parts yard.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:11 am

kidvintage wrote: My point being that I don't think an auction for this collection would have very many people "flying-in" to participate. It is just not that exciting of a stash.

You’re right, there are 9 listings for Ovals within 500 miles of Pueblo. And if you live in CT, MD, GA, or CA, rag tops are easy to find. The stuff’s everywhere growing on trees......

Mos6502 wrote: Let's be real here. The only buyers who'd be willing to swallow the whole lot and transport it all would be scrappers, and they'd be paying scrap prices. You'd spend a lot longer finding the ONE right buyer for that whole lot than you would just having an auction and splitting the whole lot between a handful of buyers. Nobody would want to truck all that out of there just for one or two harder to find cars and the handful of parts that are valuable, unless they had a scrap business or a parts yard.

I’d feel very sorry for the family if they were to accept a $10k-$20k “take all offer”, only to have the cars individually listed here/ebay within the following weeks, and the majority of the parts scrapped.

I’m out. This thread is starting to get too personal for me. I don’t want to run it into the ground like the usual circus some threads become in the other forum sections while trying to help a family in need. I’ve given my thoughts on the matter seeing both worlds after the liquidation of classic car hordes. I hope Everett’s contact directs the family to this updated post, and the decision they make is positive for all parties moving forward.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:25 am

Here's another way to look at it. You have decided to "outsource" the disposal of the collection. Nobody can argue with that choice, it's a matter of who your hire to do the work. By selling it in one lot, your are limiting yourself to a narrow slice of people that have a lot of capital they are willing to put at risk and tie up for an extended period, and have the logistical capabilities to move it all and store it before they can start cataloging and selling it. He will need to buy it cheap to make a profit. So skip the middle man and just hire the auction company. Their cut will be less than the cut a bulk buyer will take.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 9:10 am

Selling the entire collection as one lot will be a disaster. It will be very difficult to find one buyer that has $100K in their pocket. It's gonna take another $10K to move and transport the entire collection.

I would sell all the cars seperatly. The cars can bring in some good money and there are hundreds of buyers that have $10K to buy one car. The parts are questionably, and then sell the remaining parts as 3-4 lots. Lots of common junk yard stuff. With everything sitting 20-30 years, 1/2 the parts are rusted junk for the scrap yard. All the starters, alternators, cranks, rods, etc. might be good cores but sorting thru everything is gonna take time and labor for little proffit. There seems to be about 20 full engines and transaxles that could be sold in one lot. All the body parts fenders, doors, hood, bumpers could be another lot.

Here is my personal note to everybody reading this thread. As you get older into your retirement years you need to start selling off your hoarding collection and not leaving a huge mess like this to your kids that have absolutely no interest in VW's. After this is all sorted out and finished the sellers won't get 25% of what the collection is worth, after the auction company gets their fees. The sad truth about life is that hoarding is a mental illness.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:13 pm

vwracerdave wrote: Selling the entire collection as one lot will be a disaster. It will be very difficult to find one buyer that has $100K in their pocket. It's gonna take another $10K to move and transport the entire collection.

Another guy threw out "easily six-figures". Now you are throwing out $100K.

Just out of curiosity......How are you coming up with that number?

You say "there are hundreds of buyers that have $10K to buy one car". True. But the problem is that there are no $10K cars in the collection (except for the 53 Vert). Most are $1000-$2500 projects.....on a good day. Maybe $4000-$6000 each for the four ovals.

The website says there are 20 cars......but I am only counting pics of 17 cars (18 if you count the stripped oval shell parked in front of the 53 Vert that has no detail photos).

Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:58 pm

You are obviously not looking at the same pictures I am. There are people in other parts of the country that would pay a lot more than your California prices for those cars.

With all the cars and parts PLUS you must figure in all the time & labor cost the buyer is gonna have in moving everything $100K might be a close ballpark guess. 17 cars your looking at 2 semi transporters to move the cars, and I easily see another 2 semi trailor loads to move all the parts. I saw 20-25 complete engines. Stacks of fenders, doors, hoods, and bumpers take up lots room on a trailor when moved.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:22 pm

vwracerdave wrote: You are obviously not looking at the same pictures I am. There are people in other parts of the country that would pay a lot more than your California prices for those cars.

Distance shouldn't be a huge factor when buying within the 48-contiguous. It might add some cost to the acquisition price......but not substantially in most cases. There are lots of car haulers out there....and IF you are patient and flexible you can get good deals most of the time. I have bought tons of cars from the East Coast and I have shipped tons of California cars to the East Coast. Not a big deal......

Anybody in the Midwest or East Coast can get a dry Cali car anytime they want....just tack on a little extra $$ for transport.

While you might.....I don't see "regional" pricing in the 48-contiguous for old Bugs. Pricing, IMO, seems fairly consistent nationwide. The are good deals to be had.....and there are also "dreamers" all over the place....regardless of region.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:27 pm

vwracerdave wrote:
With all the cars and parts PLUS you must figure in all the time & labor cost the buyer is gonna have in moving everything $100K might be a close ballpark guess. 17 cars your looking at 2 semi transporters to move the cars, and I easily see another 2 semi trailor loads to move all the parts. I saw 20-25 complete engines. Stacks of fenders, doors, hoods, and bumpers take up lots room on a trailor when moved.

I completely agree with your assessment of the capacity it would take to move the collection.

As far as the valuation goes.....what do you think would be a fair amount for a "take all" transaction with the Van Alstyne family? Not including transportation and packing costs a buyer would incur.

That is the question I originally threw out there.....but nobody has yet to declare a number that they would consider a "fair" offer.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:26 pm

kidvintage wrote:
As far as the valuation goes.....what do you think would be a fair amount for a "take all" transaction with the Van Alstyne family? Not including transportation and packing costs a buyer would incur.

That is the question I originally threw out there.....but nobody has yet to declare a number that they would consider a "fair" offer.

What's your "fair" offer? :lol:

I think nobody will say because nobody has seen the stuff in person. Kind of dumb to be that guy from CL who wants to make you an offer before they even see the car.

I don't think it'd be a six figure sum though, not if bought all in one go. The ancillary costs wouldn't make a higher number worth it for most buyers. In any event it is a moot point, because sellers, always, in every instance I have ever seen, in every area of collecting I have been involved with - make a lot less selling a whole collection than they do parceling it out. I know of not one exception to this.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:10 pm

None of these cars run. Some of them don't even have engines. This is not a "collection" ... it is an indoor salvage yard.

Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:47 pm

Q-Dog wrote: None of these cars run. Some of them don't even have engines. This is not a "collection" ... it is an indoor salvage yard.

I assure you, a group of like items assembled in one common location meets the definition of the word "collection" as it is commonly understood by English speakers. :lol: