Concours d'soybean

[wifpd4]

Concours d'soybean or Outdoor Museum of No-Barn Finds


This past weekend, September 28, 2013, there was an auction in Pierce, Nebraska. Perhaps you've read about it or seen it on the History Channel. In a manner of speaking, a bit of a car show, an outdoor car museum, a parts collection and a sort of Woodstock style of car auction. You can find the story here:


http://www.history.com/shows/history...els-of-fortune
http://www.vanderbrinkauctions.com/a...php?detail=135

[wifpd4]

Re: Concours d'soybean

Just wanted to give you yet another perspective here's my view of the auction. I read about the auction and my wife and I decided we would run over, well actually drive 400 miles to view the auction.


We left our home on the Iowa side of the banks of the Mississippi River Friday and headed west on I-80. We spent the night in Omaha and took off for Pierce, not so early, Saturday morning. Not too early, as it was raining in Omaha and that didn't bode well for the conditions in Pierce out in the middle of a bean field. Of course the last leg of the highway journey was delayed by the inevitable road construction. Nothing to speed up a trip like a two-lane road choked down to a single lane with traffic lights and flag men/women. Time seems to drag on while stopped in the middle of nowhere waiting for your turn to squeeze through the construction. There is only so many times you can comment to your wife how good the corn and soybean crops look this year in Nebraska.


As we finally approach Pierce, the traffic begins to collect and gather, from the side roads, the two lanes and the four lane roads all funneling into the Main street of the town of seventeen hundred Nebraskans. As we cross the city limits, we enter the world of retail sales. Well perhaps not retail, but everyone who had cleaned out their basements or cleaned out their garages or barns had items for sale in their front yards. The car auction had the side benefit of creating a market place out of this once sleepy town. As one local told me, "…the town had been waiting for this auction for forty years". Now bursting with pride and entrepreneurship, the roadside stand had grown to become a town wide roadside stand selling well used cars, car parts, hub cap collections and barely used tires and local homegrown fruits and vegetables.


We had received a text from a friend already stuck in traffic that we should head for the county fairgrounds as it was to be the parking lot for the auction, the auction located out in the farmland somewhere hidden outside of town. Well the fairgrounds was one of many parking lots scattered all over the county. Unfortunately, while there was not a shortage of cars for sale at the auction, there was a minor shortage of shuttle vehicles gathering folks from the various parking lots. Of course some enterprising town folks had turned their own family minivans into shuttle vehicles to transport folks. $2.00 for a ride to the auction. Perhaps at first they were making money, but as the crowd grew and the streets became more congested, traffic slowed to a crawl and that trip that once took a few minutes had grown to the better share of half an hour in length, increasing fuel costs for the journey, thereby reducing the profit margin for the local hauling around a group of strangers.


Once we got parked at the fairgrounds, we stood in line with some of our new close friends, perhaps only physically close as we packed into the shuttle transport. We were slowly getting the hint, the day would be filled with standing in line. Once packed onto the shuttle, we were whisked off, well whisked for the first few blocks before catching up with the flow or is it creep, of traffic to the soybean field.


http://youtu.be/YZ3WoWpRv4Y
(short video, no audio, very roughly cut)


The crops had been removed from some of the acreage just for the sale, but the collection of auction-ready cars and the ever growing population of buyers' cars had expanded into the still standing bean crop. The rain of Friday night and Saturday morning had completed the effect, the effect known as the Woodstock Effect. Mud, thankfully most hard packed by the feet of thousands of people and littered with some debris and populated with the oh so rare porta-potties. Luckily even the very muddy low spots had these one foot wide, tire track, dry areas, which had become trails to the concession stands and the many areas selling whatever you needed and mainly what you wanted, but truly didn't need.


I headed to the stage of the History Channel production to catch a glimpse of the Top Gear threesome. Saw two recognizable fellows sitting on a stage constructed of well used auto parts spending a lot of time talking about "patina" of the many new-old cars, while the third Top Gear guy was buried in the sea of buyers conducting "man in the mud" interviews. Well more correctly there were more "window shoppers" than buyers. A $140,000 for the top purchase, tends to limit number of local buyers. Although some of the local buyers were seeking to buy back cars or trucks they had traded-in during their youth years ago with Mr. Lambrecht. Memories of first cars they owned or the car they made it to "first base" in the back seat with their then love-of-your-life girlfriend or the first car their folks helped them buy. The nostalgia was thick in the air.


After a couple of hours of viewing the collection of 300 to 400 hundred cars being sold, I'd pretty much seen the pattern of new-old cars being sold to new owners and new-old cars finding new homes and was headed back to the long, ever growing longer, waiting line to join my new close friends on the shuttle and wait for a seemly longer ride back to our car.


If you imagine some of these cars will make it to your hometown and you'll pick up a little detailing work, ain't gonna happen. Some of the vehicles will need a tree surgeon first to remove the trees growing out of them. Many of the vehicles will be left in the condition they were sold today. Some of the cars will make sacrifices of their good parts to make other similar aged make and model cars whole whole again. Some vehicles will begin a new life recycled at the hands or rather claws of a crusher. Only a very select few will hear the growl of a buffer at the hands of a capable detailer.


An event of a lifetime, I wouldn't have missed this rare opportunity. Everyone was friendly, helpful and seemed to be enjoying the TV show production, the big city news crews wondering around conducting random interviews for the 6 o'clock news and the helicopters flying overhead filming what would be the lead story on the 10 o'clock news. This town had forever been placed on the map as the town with the largest auction of new-old cars, home of the really low mileage deals.


The late owner of the dealership did not like selling used cars. He would take cars
in on trade, but the drive the trade-in the field and leave it. If a new car did not sell
in a timely manner, he would take it to the field papers and all.


Some of the vehicles were part of fleet purchases and ended up in the field. So there
were many pickup trucks of the same vintage in the field.


Some of the cars were driven to the field brand new, complete with all paper work
and often the plastic was still on the interiors.


At any outdoor event, long lines form at the concession stands and johns.


The longest line was the line to ride the shuttle back to your car. The weather was
great and most of the mud had dried up.


496 cars were available to be purchased. Some will be left in the condition they are
in, some will be restored, some will be used for rare parts to rebuild other cars and some
will be sold to the scrappers and the jaws of crusher.

[davey g-force]

Re: Concours d'soybean

Wow, that's amazing!

[BillE]

Re: Concours d'soybean

Thanx for the story and pictures David.

I caught some of the 'action' on the tube, must say it was a once in a lifetime event (for car folks).

Bill

[wifpd4]

Re: Concours d'soybean

Wow, that's amazing!

Davey,
Of course one of the many stories was the young lady from Australia who purchased the car of her dreams, but had no idea how she would transport the car back to Australia. It was suggested to her she use the firm, "Hillbilly Transport". It would not surprise me in the least, to find out every state in the US was represented by all the buyers and lookers.

Other stories (rumors): Jay Leno and John Travolta got early viewings of the cars. Leno rented two whole floors of the hotel he stayed in. Travolta's plane is too large to land locally, so he landed in a nearby large city and he rented a limo to travel the rest of the way to Pierce. He was very friendly and had the window open on the limo and was shooting the breeze with the locals.

I spent some time speaking with one of the security people. He said they had trouble with people stealing or trying to steal hood ornaments.

I haven't read the final tally of the sale, but when I left they had sold (or so I heard) 2 million dollars. But then, the value of the cars was going to decrease as the sale went on.

One land owner turned his land over to the Boy Scouts and the Scouts raised money parking cars. I'm sure there were many stories like that one.

My final story (rumor), the owner of the dealership was told by Chevy to improve the looks of the dealership and replace the front glass and such, the owner said no, closed the doors and walked away leaving everything just as it was found by the auctioneer.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Concours d'soybean

Great write up David, very entertaining. Thanks for the glimpse into what was a very unique event, and a far cry indeed from the typical Barrett-Jackson, Mecum or Russo & Steele auction. Certainly a whole world removed from the extreme high end and pristine presentation of a Gooding & Co. or RM Auctions sale. But the vehicles were no less interesting, and the stories probably even better than what's often heard at those "typical" auctions.

Thanks for sharing with everyone.

[ffboy]

Re: Concours d'soybean

Great cars! I wonder how much Shampoo, Clay, M105 (or UC), M205 (or Ultimate Polish), Wax/sealant will be used up on 1 car alone...