Barn-finds indeed! VanDerBrink offers fields of dreams at upcoming auctions

Yvette VanDerBrink may have become an overnight sensation in 2013 when she staged the Lambrecht Chevrolet auction, which drew more than 20,000 people and a national television audience to the tiny farming community of Pierce, Nebraska (population 1,700).

But she’d been doing sales of large collections of vehicles with rust-and-grit patina for more than a decade, including the sale in 2003 of her own father’s collection of more than 200 vehicles, 60 of them 1957 Chevrolets!

On March 24, her VanDerBrink Auctions company will take bids on the Alan Reitz Estate Farm Equipment Auction in Mansfield, South Dakota.

But it turns out that Alan Reitz collected a lot more than tractors, planting and tillage equipment and other farming-used tools. On June 8, VanDerBrink will take bids on the Alan Rietz collection of nearly 90 guns, and on June 9 it’s the Rietz Mopar Collection, and it’s “as is, where is, with no reserve.”

“In the world of collector cars, there is nothing more exciting than coming across a collection that is a true find,” Yvette VanDenBrink told ClassicCars.com in an email. “Alan Rietz’ in South Dakota is one of these collections.

“Mopar muscle cars, huge hoard of parts, and more. Ever since he was in high school, there was Mopar or No Car.

“Alan died from a tragic accident in September of 2017 and his wife is selling his collection of Road Runners, Furys, Chargers, Coronets, Corvettes, 1970 Super Bee w/440 6Pack along with an ultra rare 1970 Road Runner convertible, 1 of 824 made.”

By the way, the Road Runner convertible was wife Linda Rietz’ daily driver.

And it’s not all-Mopar vehicles that Rietz collected. There also are Corvettes and other vehicles, as you can see in this video:

In addition to the cars, there are “hundreds of motors, rare parts, and more.”

In between the Rietz auctions, on April 21, VanDerBrink and her team will be in Longview, Texas, for The Smith Cadillac Collection sale of nearly 300 vehicles, 90 percent of them Cadillacs, and of those 50 are big-finned 1959 models.

The collection includes No. 18 of 304-built 1958 Eldorado Broughams, a 1948 Cadillac convertible, a 1953 Buick Skylark convertible, as well as Chrysler/Plymouth/Imperial/Dodges, Pontiac/Oldsmobile/Buicks, and Lincoln/Mercurys.

Again, all is being sold at no reserve, and arrangements already have been made to stay over to the 22nd to make sure all the cars and parts get their turn in the bidding process.

VanDerBrink also has car collection sales scheduled for June 16 at Basehor, Kansas; July 21 at Griswold, Iowa; and August 25 at Vicksburg, Michigan.

For information, visit the VanDerBrink Auctions website.