[Alan Reed]

A "Hoard" of Trans Ams are going to be auctioned in Iowa on August 5th.

I had not heard of the now deceased owner, but there are advertised to be around 50 Trans Ams for sale, most are 2nd generation.

I was disappointed to see that the auction company is VanDerBrink. They auctioned a Firebird collection in Kansas about 2 years ago. I went to the auction, but it was not a pleasant experience. Very poorly organized, and basically no description of what parts were for sale.

I talked to many attenders who had traveled a long distance to the Kansas sale and were frustrated with the whole event. Many left early, there were only a few left at the end of the auction.

In addition to the parts being in a jumbled mess, their method of sale was annoying and time consuming. They like to use the "bidder's choice" method, "take one or take all" of the items in a group for the high bidder.

The auction stops while the high bidder looks through the items and picks what he wants. Very slow and quite frustrating. Often the next round of bids brings a higher sale price, as you never know if you are bidding for the same item as the guy bidding against you.

This company has no basic knowledge of cars or car parts. They advertised the Kansas auction as having many 400 and 455 Pontiac engines. In fact there were no 455 engines for sale other than some of the cars for sale had 455 engines in them.

There was a large number of cylinder heads in the sale, probably around 50 pair of heads, all placed in a row. There was only one pair of high value heads, 71 455HO, and the first bidders were obviously bidding for that "choice." A guy near me was bidding and I suggested to him if he won the bid, he should take only one of the heads, because the second one would surely sell for less. He won, but took both heads. I guess he didn't understand my suggestion. The rest of the heads sold painfully slowly, as the high bidder had to look them over each time.

In Iowa, they are claiming to have a "Super Duty" car for sale. There is a youtube walk around video where they show a white 73 TA they claim is an original green SD 4-speed car. If you closely at the interior view, it is a 4-speed with air conditioning. The same car is pictured on their website, and if you look close, the VIN is hand written on the rear window. It is a "Y" code vin, so along with being an air conditioned 4-speed, it is clearly not an original SD car.

They just don't know what they are selling, and I believe they don't care. Their tactic is to heavily promote the sale with little detailed information in order to attract a big crowd of anxious bidders who most likely will go home disappointed.

This same company sold the cars from the eccentric Chevy dealer in Nebraska a few years ago. This dealer had new cars and trucks from the 60's they had never sold and left parked in a field. This event was a total fiasco! Their heavy promotion brought in a huge crowd, for which they were totally unprepared. The vehicles were dragged into an open field and left unprotected. The mass of people were crawling over and through the vehicles and anything that could be removed by hand was missing due to souvenir hunters. They were selling yard sticks for $50 to people who wanted to bid, but couldn't be seen by the auctioneer.

There were also some valuable NOS parts in the Nebraska sale. The parts were spread out in the field before the sale, and what didn't get stolen was damaged by a rainstorm before the sale.

This company is the worst. I told my wife if I were to pass unexpectedly, please don't call VanDerBrinks!

[Stuart]

They specialize in car/truck/tractor type collections and seem to be the go to auction company for that sort of thing in the middle part of the country. If you see a clear error in their listing I'd recommend sending them a note to point it out, otherwise they aren't going to get more accurate in their descriptions.

[TAKerry]

I saw the listing for the upcoming auction in old cars, but they didnt have any details. I think Vanderbrink was put on the 'map' when they sold off the Chevy dealership stuff for stupid money. After that I suppose people thought that whatever they touched turned to gold. I have never been to one of them, so I dont know if they are good, bad, indifferent. Richie bros. has a similar auction policy in that the hi bidder gets to take his choice. They may have 20 backhoes, then after it has bid out they give the highest their choice of which one or how many. I have been there times when they will take all 20! If you were wanting to be next in line you are SOL. It is frustrating. Also, its a crap shoot in that if they bid again it may go lower than the first or higher.

I know a fellow that ended up with a low mile 79 trans am that came out of the last trans am auction (I think it was a mailman that hoarded them). He got the car from the winning bidder. Cleaned up its a beautiful low mile trans am without any issues. SO, regardless of what you see, youre not sure what you have until you get it home.

In regards to authentication, any time one buys from an auction its buyer beware. If you cant be there in person to look stuff over, then best of luck.

[Jay S]

I watched the on line Pontiac auction that Vanderbrink did in Kansas. It did seem unorganized, even online. How well the auction is performed seems to depend on how well the owner was organized. I went to that chevy auction in Nebraska and another Vanderbrink auction in Iowa for a big car collection. The one in Iowa was held at some fair grounds, it was a pleasant auction and well organized. The Chevy auction I couldn’t tell what was going on, or how it was organized because the number of people there was insane! Hit and miss I guess. I doubt the Iowa Trans Am auction will be very organized looking at the pictures.

I gave up on Richie Bros when they made bidders put a full amount deposit for an item to bid, then keep your money for weeks when you don’t buy anything! Back when I could just bring a bank letter it was ok. No interest in letting them keep my money for a month so I have the ”honor” of bidding. I think they did that because a lot of foreigners buy equipment from them.

I guess you have to go to a really really bad auction to appreciate a poorly organized auction. A local auction I went to was the worst auction I have ever went too. I bought a couple things. One item I bought started at $5. Each bid went up a $1. About $20 I oftered $50, hoping they would take the hint. Nope. Right back to the $1 increases! I bought it for something like $130. I bid more times too get that than all the auction bidding I have done combined. Was insanely poorly organized to, they jumped around, you had no idea what was selling next and the order made no sense. When they got to bigger dollar items that were a few thousand dollars they wouldn’t split up bids less than $500. Vanderbrink’s are rock stars compared to that auction house! Vanderbrink aren’t the best, but certainly not the worst, one locally auction company I use to go to was just hilariously scatter brained, but even they were rockstars compared to the $1 bid sale!…Dad’s best quote about them ”we are going to go sell those chickens then we will be back to the equipment after we sell the cars at 12:00”.

[kingbuzzo]

Linky?

[Stuart]

https://www.vanderbrinkauctions.com/...rts-much-more/

[72projectbird]

I was watching a few vids they made walking around the property. I may or may not be bidding on a few.

[65madgoat]

https://www.facebook.com/vanderbrink...30680051941754

[Alan Reed]

The picture with the hand written VIN on the back window of the 73 Trans Am has been removed from the auction website.

I saved a copy of the picture. The handwriting on the back window says:

2V78Y3N163913
455 4sp
Was Br Grn
Not Super Duty

In the video, the car is described as "a super duty." I guess they didn't bother to read what was written on the car.

There may be enough at this sale to make it worth the trip, but it is hard to know with the limited and inaccurate information provided.

[starlightblack]

Originally Posted by Alan Reed

The picture with the hand written VIN on the back window of the 73 Trans Am has been removed from the auction website.

I saved a copy of the picture. The handwriting on the back window says:

2V78Y3N163913
455 4sp
Was Br Grn
Not Super Duty

In the video, the car is described as "a super duty." I guess they didn't bother to read what was written on the car.

There may be enough at this sale to make it worth the trip, but it is hard to know with the limited and inaccurate information provided.

2V87Y

[Alan Reed]

Originally Posted by starlightblack

2V87Y

You are correct, I transposed the 87.

I have attached a cropped and enlarged pic of the handwriting on the back window.



The number "163913" must be incorrect as there were only 46,313 Firebirds built in 1973. Maybe the 6 should be a 0?