Yvette VanderBrink of VanderBrink Auctions

Passionate classic car auctioneer Yvette VanderBrink joins the show to discuss her business, classic car auctions, and barn finds.  "Fuel for the Future" is driven by America's Automotive Trust. Learn more at https://www.americasautomotivetrust.org/   VanderBrink Auctions: https://www.vanderbrinkauctions.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPtpVh96Zz3uWu2ofGqry0w

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
When I started, less than5% of the auctioneers in the United States
are women.
And in the classic car world, it'seven less than that.
I mean, you'll have auctioneers,
you might have a ring men,you might have people working in it.
But when I started,there were not any women
owners of a companythat that's what they specialized.

(00:22):
My entire life, as long as I couldremember, we were at the racetracks.
I even raised myself.
I'm a collector myself.
And so we our whole familyhas just been around cars all along.
That is Event Vanderbeek, ownerand auctioneer with Van der Brink
Auctions, a company known for, amongstother things, special car collections,

(00:44):
classic car salesand some pretty incredible barn finds
event discusses her career,the state of the classic car auction
industry, and providestips to those attending car auctions.
This is fuel for the futurepresented by State Farm
Insurance and driven by America'sAutomotive Trust.
I'm Michael May.

(01:05):
Thank you for being on the show.
And how are you doing?
I'm doing good, except it's been raining.
We're up here in Minnesotaand it's well-deserved rain, But
you can get a lot done.
That's right.
And I'm very excited to talk to youabout one thing in particular,
because it looks like you've done a lotof what I'll generally term barn finds.

(01:26):
Yes, But first, could you tell usa little bit about yourself
and your background in the auctionworld and vendor break auctions itself?
Sure.
I'm a first generation auctioneer.
I grew up in South Dakotaand I grew up on a dairy farm.
My dad was a collectorand also a tech racecar at racetrack.

(01:49):
So my entire liferesult revolved around cars.
So Friday, Saturday, Sunday,my entire life,
as long as I could remember,we were at the racetracks.
I'd even race myself.
I'm a collector myself. And
and so we our
whole family has just been around carsall along.

(02:09):
My dad collected 57 Chevys and Chevrolets,
and that's kind of my fave,and I grew up with that.
So I went alongand then he started a salvage yard
and it was one of the Now
my brother has taken over and it'sone of the biggest ones in the Midwest,
and it's a late model yard.
I worked in the medical field

(02:30):
before I came into auctioneering
and so I was actually wentto auctions, bought stuff,
and then my husband and I, when we weremarried, would buy old tractors
and restore them or get them goingand we would sell them
and I worked at the hospital for quite
a long time, had little kids and thought,

(02:52):
you know, I got to do something differentwith things that I like.
And actually heard an audible voiceat the Beavercreek
exit that said, Hey,why don't you go to auction school?
wow. I went, Wow, that's crazy.
And so I talked tosome of the old guys at church
and they saidhe went to Billings, Montana.

(03:13):
So I called out there, didn't tell anybody
and got the information.
And I just thought,there's no way I got little kids.
I can't do this. It was too much money.
And anyway, half a year later, my momcalled and said, Are you going to church?
And I said, I'm working night shift.
I don't think so.
And she goes, Well,there's this guy coming.

(03:34):
He tells people things.
And I went, What do you mean?
Well, he's a modern day prophet.
So we went and at the end of the service,he called people up by their color,
their hair or their clothesand I was one of them.
He called up and my dad. And
anyway, I got up
there and he was my age and he goes,So are you going to listen to me?

(03:55):
And I said, I don't even know who you are.
And he goes, How come you haven't mailed
those school papersin the cupboard in your kitchen?
And I went, Who told you that?
And I said, he goes,How come you haven't done it?
I said, Money goes in your purse.
And I had a bunch of money in my purse,but my dad played banker

(04:16):
and we made money.
But anyway,
needless to say, I sent that money in.
I took off, I took a leave of absence
and on a mere faith thatthis is how I was going to help people.
And as more of a mission to
somehow
and it was extremely hardthe first two years

(04:37):
as the only woman in this areaand I've had death threats.
I had guys quizzed me why I had a stalker.
We had to hire a private investigator.
And needless to say,
that was 23 years ago.
That's amazing.

(04:58):
And I did planto actually ask you about it.
I don't know much about the auctionbusiness.
I love car auctions.
It's one of my favorite thingsin the world.
I have so much fun.
And I was going to ask you if
if it's a male dominated world to have,
you know, auctioneers be B maleand if you had ever come up.
So yeah, talk about thata little bit more.

(05:19):
Do you still sort ofhave to cross hurdles?
Do you have to workharder than other people?
What are you kind of facing day150 times harder than men?
Yes, it was very hard when I started.
Less than 5% of the auctioneersin the United States are women.
and in the classic car world, it'seven less than that.

(05:39):
I mean, you'll have auctioneers,
you might have a ring men,you might have people working in it.
But when I started,there were not any women
owners of a company that that'swhat they specialized in right.
And so I very distinctly rememberone guy saying to me,

(06:00):
Hey, honey, why don't you gomake me a sandwich and let the boys do it?
Yeah, well,I owned the company, needless to say.
I said, do you have a bid card today?
Have you bought anything today?
And he goes, No.
And I said, Give me your card.
And I ripped it up and threw it at himand told him to leave.
I've had to do thatsix times in 23 years. Wow.

(06:20):
And they quizzed you?
I remember one guy called me and quizzedme on the history of a Chevrolet V8.
When did the 396 first come outand what might make and model?
Needless to say, I knew more than he did.
I he did it because I was right.He was wrong.
But I learned from guys all the time.
I have more guy friendsthat I have girlfriends.

(06:42):
All my life I've been a tomboy and
but when I started,absolutely, it was very, very hard.
They didnot think women should be doing this,
but then when they saw that I was workingand hauling and identifying
and Credico adding and dirty,

(07:04):
very, very dirty with calloused hands,
then they kind of realized, you know what?
This broad knows what she's talking about.
And I was actually one of the first womento sell
farmland in South Dakota also.
And it was by Redfield, South Dakota.
And one of the guysI happened to overhear him say,

(07:24):
by God,that broad's going to sell this farm.
And we set a record that day and
it took, I would say,
three or four years before they actually
realize that I wasn't fly by nightand I knew what I was talking about.

(07:45):
And also the fact that I'm a collectormyself, Right?
That added some credibility to that.
And then you have to prove as a woman
in a man's world by example,
and when you show them consistent results
of high prices,
crazy sales, they start to realize,you know what you're doing.

(08:08):
And it was in I started in one,
and then word of mouth
and in all three I did my dad's sale.
We had 228 cars plus parts
and that actually got the ball reallyrolling.
Was doing his with all that amazing.
He had 6050 sevens and actually sold

(08:31):
the 57 that I rode in when I was a kid
and I just bought it,found it and bought it back last summer.
that's amazing.
That's amazing.
I love those stories. And yeah, well,good old Facebook.
I've been looking for it for 20 yearsand found it.
But yeah, I mean I've had a lot
of I've had to prove myself.

(08:53):
One of the one other conversationI remember one
time is at a big muscle car sale we hadand these guys were
this guy was Labor Day, big numbers,matching numbers, matching motor bus.
And I went over there and I said,Which one are we talking about me?
And he said, and I said,That's not a numbers matching car.

(09:13):
And he goes, Yeah, it is.
I said, No, it's not.
And he I said, Do you know how to tellif it's numbers matching
the correct born black with that car.
And he didn't want infront of all his little friends.
I had to tell him he was wrongand show them how
and where it was and that he was wrong.

(09:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One was kind of fun.
So you're you're history with your familyand your father being a collector
and having cars, is that what led toyou kind of focusing on I know you do
more than just automotive,but you do a lot of automotive.
Is that that's where that focus comes.
Yeah, that I think it's my love of carsand growing up with them
and the biggest thingis preserving this history.

(10:00):
And you know, there's a big gapand we're seeing that at our auctions now
and we could go in to the whole deal,
but I believe it started at about 85
and 1985 is well,
I think this changed started
and especially 87 and I'm

(10:23):
50 some years old.
But anyway,
when I grew up on the farm,my dad was home.
Mom was home.
We went to my grandmas probably
once a week was 70,you know, 12 miles away.
And we had a closer knit family.

(10:45):
But in 85 to 87, the farm
crisis was big in our area in the Midwest,high and inflation was high.
Low grain prices,
interest rates were high,
very similarto what we're starting to see now again.
And mom had to go to work.
They married, sold the farm Dad

(11:07):
had and the kids went to daycare.
I'm not slamming daycare,but that's where we started
to see more of that generationgoing to daycare.
And then they got more activities.
You got used to two incomesand you got less of the stories
of grandpa stuff, grandma stuff.

(11:29):
And maybe it was only Easter, Christmas,Thanksgiving that you got together
and people got too busy
and you lost that storytelling.
And I think that the car hobby
in general, you are buying a memory,you're buying a story
and that's why you goafter buying a car, right?

(11:51):
I have a 65 Chevelle super sportthat is my favorite that I have.
And you want to know how I like that car?
Is that ex-husband?
Believe it or not, Yeah, I got one of them
and he had one of themwhen we were dating 327 Fords, Big car SS.

(12:12):
I loved itand I could drive the hell out of it
better than any of them guys could,you know?
Yeah, we would race.
And I mean, it was, it was fun.
So when I was going to buymy first classic, an old three,
I bought a 65 Chevelle Supersportautomatic.
And I love itbecause I learned to love the car.

(12:34):
The guy is gone,you know what I'm saying? Yep.
Yeah, Yep. The memory.
And then but every era,
you know, minus Chevrolet, like I said,
in that same year of all threewhen I did my dad sale,
I've been trying to buy this 57from my dad that my sister and I rode in
in our Christmas presentswere hit in four years and he didn't think

(12:56):
I should have it because I had littlekids, didn't think I needed it.
Right, right.
And he said, well,if you want it, you can buy it on my sale.
I chose not to buy it and boughtthe Chevelle and drove it to his sale.
nice. Real happy about that.
Anyway, I didn't buy the car and memories,

(13:18):
you know, my Christmas presents were hidin the trunk of that car.
I remember fighting with my sisterwith an ice cream cone in the backseat
going up Cliff Avenue in Sioux Falls,South Dakota.
Well, anyway, I kind of kicked myselffor not buying that car.
And in eight, right back to the guy thathad it in Colorado at one of my sales.
And so I kept the VIN numberon a piece of paper

(13:40):
for years in my purse purses.
And I put it in Facebook
last summer and I said, Hey,you guys try five group.
I knew the Nationals were goingon, so I'm trying to find this VIN number,
black, white, 57 guy called meand he said, I got your dad's car. Wow.
So I flew out to Colorado, bought the car,and now it's mine and I'm going to

(14:05):
restore the car.
And my dad came with me
when it came back, shipped and saw it.
And he still can't believe thatI bought it.
Yeah, that's a very, very rare occurrence.
Yeah.
And those are stories that I always lovemy interest in love of cars
started when I started to seethe emotional connection to automobiles.

(14:28):
I was not really a car guy.
Chris Yeah,and I grew up in a family of car.
Guys never really cared about them
until I started hearingstories and stories just like that.
And that's what started to draw me into automobiles and the automobile hobby.
So the interest in classic
cars, you start selling,you have your own auction company,
and I see again a lot of barn findsor I don't know

(14:49):
if they are typically the state sales
or how that typically comes about,but how do you find these cars?
Do they just come to you from peoplethat say, Hey, my granddad
left us this place and there's 20cars in here, can you come help us?
So, yeah, how do you comeacross these amazing things?
I get referred to them
or they call me and

(15:10):
they, you know,that's kind of how I started.
Yeah, I'll tell you a story.
So the movie Cars, rememberLightning McQueen?
One story, the shiny cars and the rustedWilliam guys gave him this break.
I was in a hoteland I was absolutely exhausted
after the auction, and I was doinginventory on these barn finds.

(15:34):
And I was like, come on, Lord, let's do
some really pretty ones here to this year.
And then I realized, you know,the rest is really my bread
and butter and really what are my heartis, is saving that history.
Yeah. And I felt like Lightning McQueen.
I told my daughter that she goes, Mom,you need to sleep anyway.

(15:54):
But, you know, that's where my dad,he did that to you, dug them out of a car.
And so I remember watching my dad do itand I love to get dirty.
I it's not usually very clean.
Yeah, I had quite a few guys that.
It's kind of funny.
They always go, you clean up pretty good.
And my husband always goes, They'd rathersee you greasy and dirty anyway.

(16:17):
You bet it's hotterthan when you're clean.
I'm like, Really?
He goes, yet Two guys.
So I said, Yeah, my gosh, Vander, break.
What the hell?
You know.
But anyway, but you know, it's history.
And I worked so hard to save that history.
You know, the Industrial Revolutionstarted with the the combustion

(16:38):
engine and model TS, and it used to be,you went as far as the horse race,
as far as the horse could go,and the horse wouldn't take you very far.
But when you had a model T,
all of a sudden you could go to the auntand uncle, you could go to.
It was freedom.
And as the cars evolved through the years,which you think about,

(17:00):
19, 18, 19,1997 was really where the first one was.
That's a lot, too, where we've come today.
Absolutely.
But, you know, we'll never getI don't think we should ever get rid
of the internal combustion enginebecause it is so perfected now
and emissions and mileage,

(17:21):
they can tune it with computers so tiny.
My husband's a diesel mechanicand he goes, You bet
you can put your mouthon the exhaust of your Duramax
and it's not even going to kill you.
So tuned in.
And so when I drive a diesel pickupbecause I pull a trailer at all.
Yeah.
And people look at you like,need a little electric car
where you can have your electric car,I have nothing against them.

(17:44):
They're put electric motorsand 69 commercials,
I think is sacrilegiousbut they're doing it. Yeah.
And you have to buy the sound. What?
What? I have one.I'll keep the sound. Okay.
You know,but you can do whatever you want.
Just the fact that you keep the history.
Well,I can rattle off the history of Chevrolet

(18:04):
396, the motor progressionand what it comes about.
And it's because I love it.
Or Model T to model.
232 Ford, Bonnie and Clyde.
Come on.
Great motor flathead, V8 bulletproof,
you know and what it didyou know bootleggers and NASCAR
and you know the Hudson Hornetthat double H twin motor

(18:28):
it's just it's so much fun to talk aboutwhen you talk about these old guys.
You know, a lot of these are still alive.
These are the guys that I'm workingwith, Live Life Estates.
And I always tell guys, sell your stuffso I can talk to you
and tell me the stories before you die.
Because after you die,now I have to go in your shed

(18:49):
and go, Okay, what were you doing here?
And I have to develop your legacyif your family doesn't know.
So I love talking to those guysand learning from them
and showing them how much that, you know,telling somebody this isn't junk.
Yeah, well, back in 21,
we were up in North Dakotaselling a really big Ford estate.

(19:13):
And this guy, this old farmer rancher,
had a 33 Ford Coupe body only.
And we were in his pickup driving by.
And no glass, No Declan, No.
Right, Right.
And but a good steel body.
And he goes, nobody'sgoing to want that thing.

(19:34):
I said, Watch, watch.
I'm going to show youwhat they're going to do with it.
And the people came from all overthe United States for his auction.
It was there's probably 3000 peoplethere on this ranch with no cell phone.
And we sold that coupe body
for $52,000.

(19:56):
And it's now a guy's life
dream to have a street ride of a 33 Fordthree window coupe.
And that's what it's going to become.
And, you know, so to show these guys,save that history
and get it to a new life, it'srecycling at its finest.
It really is. Yeah.
You know, you can't find Fender councils.

(20:19):
They don't reproduce. They don't sell.
Try I
we had a big block auction in Idaholast year.
It was a guy was in Hotrodmagazine and 2018 major barn find
and it was the Langlands collection
and he had so many big black partsthat we sold

(20:40):
for an entire day of justand we had carburetors.
And these guys were looking for numbersand we sold these carburetors.
I think it was 20 $500 apiece.
And the guy took eight of them. Yeah.
And these other guys are like,and I knew what he was doing.
And these guys, the other guygoes, What the heck, What is that?

(21:00):
And he goes,I've been looking for this specific part
number for 12 years.
There's eight of them here.
I'm taking everyone.
The guy goes, That's $17,000.
He goes, I don't care.
I haven't been able to find them.
And this almost nine yearold guy has hoarded them all.

(21:22):
And then he had shovels and Corvettes.
It was so much fun.
Same thing as the
Lambrecht Chevrolet auctionwe did in 2013.
It's been notedas the biggest number three
motors shattering auction in the worldby Hemmings and Yahoo!
And the biggest barn find ever.
And it was Laurie Lambrecht.

(21:44):
He was still alive when we did the sale.
So I got to talk to himand he had 55 hold back
inventory that he had never sold before.
Brand new cars 63 and Powellwith five miles, had plastic on the seats.
It was amazing.
And but he wasn'ta franchise dealer anymore.

(22:06):
So we had to work with the stateto be able to sell them.
Otherwise,we were going to get in trouble right now.
And I remember sitting in a meetingwith the DMV and I excuse me,
and I carried that paperwork with meall the time because I had to match it up.
I had to verify it
and we were in the meeting, the DMVand they the law said I had to surrender

(22:30):
all those MSOs and they would be destroyedand issued new titles.
And I said, I will not do it.
I will go to jail before I give youmy paperwork on these and these cars.
And this lady in a cat sweatshirt,which I figured out,
I told one of the guys, I said, my God,we go in that meeting, this lady that's
given all this shit,she's going to have a cat sweatshirt on

(22:53):
and she's going to be an old maidand she's the one who given us a problem.
Sure as hell we go in there. There she is.
Kitty, kitty, kitty.
And I was like, did I nail that? No.
Go fetch the cat, people.
I love about Hager.
Anyway, I was like,you dumb, you dumb broad.
You don't even knowwhat you're talking about.
You have no idea what this is.

(23:15):
And I expressed to themthe importance of keeping this.
Yeah.
And like, one of the guys I was withkicked me on the table.
He goes, You better put you in jail.I said, I'll do it.
I'll do it for the cars, for this.
This is history.
Needless to say,we had to title those new cars.
I got my paperwork.

(23:35):
They made an exception to the law.
They had to hold the MSOs for 30 days.
They gave me a letter sayingthey wouldn't destroy them.
We had to title those 55 vehicles,so the people got it.
Or new title plus the original documents.
30 days later,I had to go down to Lincoln.
They handed them back to meand I FedEx them to the buyers.

(23:58):
great.
And that significance of that paperworkis just as important
as the history of these cars.
I take it personally.
It's a passion of mine.
And you know, a lot of guys sell cars.
I personally think they only lookat the commission and not the history.

(24:18):
Right.
So I'll take collectionsjust to take and save them.
And I've had onesthat are so difficult to do
or sellor get them out or where they're at.
Wayne was on the side of a mountain.
We had to use StarLink.
Thank God for Elon Musk.
Yeah,that's how we conducted our online auction

(24:40):
or I've been in
we had a tornado three miles from what,one of our sales.
We got a lot I read a lot of stories.
But, you know, it'sjust the love of the history and trying
to get those parts to those collectorsand telling the stories.
I have so many stories that I love to hearthose stories from those guys

(25:01):
and working with widowsthat what did my husband do?
And I remember one lady that she goes,
so budgetJunkie was out there all the time,
just absolutely made me mad.
While she wasn't mad when I gave hera check for over $1,000,000
and you know that it wasn't junk.

(25:22):
And what he was doingwas important to him, as
and I later learned that she really wroteas I asked about his cars
and then she learned
that it was important to himfor a lot of these guys.
This is their fall one.
KS This is their retirement.
This is where they put their money.

(25:44):
I was talking with James.
He's the owner of Heartbeat City Camaro up
in Michigan.
He sells parts and carsand I know him quite well.
And we were talking about
how many years are left in the hobby
before the storiesthat the history is gone.
Nobody cares anymoreand they just want the money.

(26:06):
Well, my generation is the buyer now
because we want our old high school carsback.
That's right.
Yeah.
Well, you know, our parking lotsused to be full of Chevelle
Camaro, old short box pickups,you know, 69 Chevy pickups.
Keep my blazers,you know, And my husband talks
about they go out and road tripand demolish a Chevelle.

(26:27):
Go get another one for 500 bucksfor the next weekend.
And, you know,I remember same type of stories.
You know, you get out.
We were naughty.
I was a naughty girl and I was wild.
That's what I was.
I was a wild animal.I would love to spend cookies.
I still do.
And my kids, when they were little,I'd put them in the pickup.

(26:47):
We go out in the middle of the gravelroad, spend cookies. They're like,
Go going, burn out.
You know that I can't wait to do thatwith my grandkids,
you know, And I don't have any yet.
I can't ride.
And if you're listening,I'm looking for a grandkid here anyway.
But, you know, it's just so much fun.

(27:08):
There's so much fun and so much history.
And I love telling the stories I like.
Yeah, we figure there's ten, 15 more yearssolid in the hobby.
Okay. Okay.
That puts me later past retirement age.
But we're always going to have the carhobby.
It might look differentthan we have today,

(27:30):
but cars are likewe've talked about are so important.
They want the car.
They got marriedand they want exactly that.
Their dad had, that grandpa hadthat they brought their baby home
and that they remember the cool guyin school having a Fast and Furious movie
as much as you hatenumber nine or 55 or whatever they're on,

(27:51):
they are giving new life to the car hobby.
Same with the Matrix man that Chevelleor John Jack or John with a generic.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm Rick.
Yes, I just watched all fourof them during a blizzard
and he had a Chevelle, you
know, and the cameras now are so hot

(28:12):
and it's just muscle carsright now are in.
There are retro modern on myyou know put an ally swap in I'm
putting them on new Camaro thingsyou know back in our earlier days
it was s ten blazers and fox body mustangsand they were doing stuff
I don't care what you doas long as you love it

(28:32):
and it's your thingand we're saving history.
That's right.I am a big proponent of that.
And I talk about this a lot,
not just on this show,but just in my my everyday life.
But conversations keep coming up abouthow the generation now is growing up,
not having the same relationshipwith automobiles
that previous generations did,and they don't care about them as much.

(28:53):
And I do.
I do mostly agree with that,
but I don't think the car hobby, inmy personal opinion, is going to ever die.
I just think it's going to change
because my relationship with carsis different than my dad's.
And so on and so forth.
And my son is going to havea different relationship with automobiles,
but there's always going to besome kind of connection to that
and hopefully some kind of symbolof freedom that you talk about.

(29:14):
Because I do think carseven though the world is changing,
still represents freedom.
So do you see any trendsin the sales of cars right now?
What what's hot right now?What are people going for?
Is it memorabilia? Is it a type of car?
What do you see?
Royal memorabilia is on fire.
Absolutely on fire.

(29:34):
And what's really interesting, wheneversomething gets hot, it's counterfeited.
Yeah, Yeah.
The big porcelain signs right noware being counterfeited
and the fakes are so good
and they bury them in the groundor acid eyes.
You can't. it's like age them up.
Yeah. Yeah. Fake aging.

(29:56):
The other thing is muscle cars and rest.
Rest or mods.
If anybody watched Barrett-Jackson
or Mecum auctions lately, How many?
69 Camaro. Restomod did you see?
How many 70 Chevelle?
How many 56 Corvettes?
Yeah. Were cut up.
But you know what's interesting to me?

(30:18):
I still think as long as you love itand yet yours
and you made it yours, that's and you,you know, you can pay to build it.
You can build it yourself.
It doesn't matter as long as you love itand you enjoy it.
Now, I think the pure cars downthe road are going to be worth more.

(30:38):
Me, too.
I really think the pure cars areand the numbers matching stuff
is always going to be good.
The rare stuff. Now we're seeing a trend.
You know, backwhen I first started selling
40 Fords, 32 Fords
were so high and it was street rods.
Guys were really building street rods.

(30:59):
Well, then the rat rod craze came in
and you were still seeing high prices.
But that market has really adjusted.
Try five's really adjusted,
but now you're seeing them restomod again.
So now they're kind of they'vereally come back on their own again.

(31:19):
So you'll always see.
But the real, real old stuff, unless it'ssuper rare that age group is aging.
And I think you can see something ageout, for example.
Yeah, Model TS, you know, a T bucket
that's not really as popularas like when my dad, who's 81, he was in

(31:41):
hot Rod times or the California culture,You see a lot of that.
You know,if you ever watch Smokey and the Bandit.
Yeah.
Now that movie set the wholeTrans-Am world on fire, of course.
and you had a big Trans-Am failure,didn't you?
Yeah, we did a trip.
We've done two Trans-Am hoards,
and you can't do thatwithout mentioning Smokey and the Bad.

(32:04):
Of course. Of course.
Yeah.
In fact,we just sold Burt Reynolds last Trans-Am,
and I thought it would have went for moremoney myself.
But, you know,
my husband,
all of a sudden, I came home one dayand there's a Trans-Am in my shed,
a 77 Trans-Am, say,you know, bandit colors.
And my husband sit there drinking a beer.

(32:25):
And I said, What the hell?
And where did this come from?
Yeah, that's John Hemmings.
Yeah, it was a neighbors.
He'd been chasing it because he rememberedthat car when he was in high school,
and he liked it next to every noteyou have to go watch it.
It's pretty funny.
It's on my YouTubechannel or later recollections.

(32:46):
And it's him with this Trans-Am.
Now he's,you know, he's going to keep it original.
He's done the motor.He does all that stuff.
Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
That's how we met, actually.
Was talking cars, drinking Budweiser.
He'd bring me a six pack of Budweiser
and smoked oystersand we'd talk cards and farming.
What an easy date I am, Arewe drive round drink booths, Farm?

(33:10):
You always see those mean?Yeah, it's true.
And we drive around the country,talk cars,
and that'show we have a very common interest.
And that's most of our conversation.
And that's how we met.
And then he found outit was kind of funny as he saw me
at a tasty Freez Drive-In.

(33:31):
Well, word.
And he went in thereand I was sitting there eating and he
he goes, Hey, who's that chicken?
The tater got?
And the guy goes, That's at Nordstromgirl.
Her dad ownsthat salvage yard over by Garrison.
He goes, I'm going to marry her.
And he goes, no way. He's insane.
I heard she's just wilder.

(33:51):
Nell and I drove in Iraq at that time.
Camaro Love Camaro.
Anyway, we went out
and, yeah,you know, I was just having fun.
Anyway, we got married, and I rememberon our honeymoon, he goes, Well,
look who I married, the who's day.
I got two things.

(34:12):
I got the tater tot girl,and Dad owns a salvage yard.
Well, late.
So he goes over there and talksto Dad, plays out there once in a while.
But the old cars are all gone out there.
But it's all late model stuff.
But he did get to play with
some of my dad's stuff there for a while,so that was kind of funny.

(34:33):
That's awesome.
But yeah, I mean, we still talkstuff like that all the time and my gosh,
my husband, he can tell you backto grade school who drove what?
What's know and where.
In fact, he has a 67 Chevelle.
So it's a he cloned it to an SS.

(34:53):
Okay. Yes. Okay. Let's get technical now.
It's a 136 car, which is a straight Malibu
where 138 is a super sport.
And the VIN number and I went over thereand I was doing a video on his car
teaching some students,and I said, This is my husband's car.
At first glance you would notice,say this an SS Chevelle, Supersport

(35:15):
Sandstone and a black top.
But let's look closer.
it's a 396 transplant
because it's not numbers matchingand it's a 136 car.
And I heard him in the background.
Yeah, what does it matter?
You know, And I said, I'm just teachingthese people how to read numbers.
Mr. Read, read.

(35:37):
Okay, you know that.
But you know, it's fun.
And, and so anyway,he that car that he bought,
he knows the whole history of that carand he built it, took him six years,
but he built it himselfexcept the bodywork in the paint.
He did the interior did the motorand he that's he's so proud.

(35:59):
It's beautiful, you know, And that'swhat makes it really fun.
You know, the one thingthat I have really been a proponent of
is trying to get more women in the hobby.
Right.
And I've been doing that since day one.
And when, you know, like I saidwhen I started doing this, there were,
you know, at our auctions,if you look at my Google statistics

(36:21):
on my website, it's98% men from 40 from 35 and up.
So what I marketmy marketing to are not exactly
yeah but yeah I encourage women
to bring to also be a collector
now we're still seeing more of thatwith you know
John forcehis daughters winning drag racing

(36:44):
and data Kilpatrick and NASCAR.
You know you're
seeing more in the hobby you're seeingwomen builders all girls garage
and that is awesomeAnd you're seeing more women in the hobby.
And so when I have talked tothe guys at Iowa,
I said, you kind of have a womenbuilt women owned car section.

(37:06):
You know, in the endyou go to back to the fifties.
Nothing wrong with that show.
But they always say the women's building,
okay, their cars in there.
No, it's Tupperware.
And Mary Kay,I'm not going in there, you know.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Have a women owned women built section.

(37:28):
Now, I think there may be starting to dothat.
I know Viola does and other
car shows do.
My dad.
The other thing isthe days of look and touch are gone.
I give him a ride.
You want to get kids interested,blow their socks off in a Corvette,

(37:49):
show them how this power and the speed.
That's why Wheels through Time museum is.
So yeah, we get a hands on.
You know with the internetour younger generation is
constantly have to have a ball dangledin front of them like a cat.
Keep them activated 24 seven

(38:12):
because we have this phone.
So you have this mini computer,this little phone, immediate
gratification, you know, DoI want to look at naked women thing?
Do I want to look at cars? Things?
Do I want to find a lower pulleyfor my Trans-Am?
Mr. Vander Brake.Look it up and Google it.

(38:33):
So anything that we wantor anything we need
or don't need emphasis I don't need.
That's why public storage is so in demandand you can find it at your fingertips.
Now, when I did first started doingauction, there was no internet.
Yeah, yeah, it was word of mouth, mailing
fliers, newspapers, magazines.

(38:57):
And then I rememberwhen the internet was coming, it was dial
up and I actually went in chat rooms
to talk about carsand tell them about my auctions.
And you had to be carefulhow your spelling was.
Otherwise you're going to wind upwith porn, you know?
Yeah, Yeah.
And but our loading pictures,we started doing online

(39:20):
simulcast auctions at all four,and that was through. wow.
Wow. That's a really early platform.
So we were one of the first ones to doonline auctions.
And now 2004, there are only three
or four in the Midwestat that time was Stephan's auction.
Me There was another one, but it was new.

(39:46):
And I sawthat technology was very important.
And when I started advertising my auctionsearly on
was go past 50 miles.
So when I walked the parking lotor walked to where we had cars parked,
I wanted to see how many statesI had there.
Or when people registered,how many states did I pull in?

(40:07):
Right now, Google Analytics,you know, yeah, you know that
Gen X in me is like, man,instead of drinking all that beer
and buying sex and underwear,I should have bought Google stock.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
I told you we were into habits
and wild times back in the eighties.
And I always sayif I had all the money that I spent

(40:30):
on drinking beer and having fun,I could have bought a section of land.
Yeah, that's a wild animal.
Yeah, but it was so much fun back then.
My husband and I just this last weekor so, man, if I could go back
for a weekend to 1983,I'd do it in a heartbeat, you know?
But, you know,

(40:50):
it's it's a hobby that never ends.
And you can never be in it.
Come into it, enjoy it.
And everybody in the carhobby will talk to you.
They want to encourage you.
It's a really good hobby to be.
Hopefully we have a chanceto meet in the future because I would love
to hear more stories of these things,I bet and I could tell.

(41:13):
And so I really hope we get a chance.
But before we go, I want to ask youif you have tips for people
that may be going to an optionto buy a classic car.
Sure. Yeah.
What kind of tipscould you provide, do your own research,
know how to know what you're buying?
Look at the pictures,go to the preview, come to the auction.

(41:35):
So like I said,my husband's car is a very good example.
If you're I'm in a bunch of groupson Facebook and
I'm in a Camaro group,a mini Chevelle group,
you know, Mopar Group, Pontiac Group,
and it's amazing to me,

(41:55):
guys will put a thing in there,said, Can you help me decode my tag?
Some guys are really snarky,but other people will help you.
What am I looking at?
I got I bought this car and it's not areal SS Well, you didn't do your homework.
One guy was buying a Pontiac and I said
order papers

(42:17):
so that, you know, if it's a realjudge or what it was born as
what?
PHC, Pontiac Historical Society,they'll give you the whole history,
you know, do your homework taken,you know, 1969 and up on
Chevrolet muscle cars.
You can't tellby pretty much anything anymore

(42:39):
that you have to have the build cheator there's certain codes on the trim
tag or features on the carto help you decode truly.
But prior to 1969,there's a lot of research
that you can do yourself to tell whatyou're buying, know what you're buying.
That's right.
And bring that with you to the auction.

(43:01):
Bring a magnet to find outif there's Bondo in there.
If it's really thick Bondo,a magnet will not stick.
No. That as auctioneers, we are tellingyou the best of your ability information
to help you decide whether to bideverything at an auction is sold as is.
Where is and buyer beware.

(43:22):
So we don't own this stuff.
We're just the in-betweenman between the family
or the owner.
Just second
family and the owner and you.
So don't come back and bitch at methat you bought a 136 car
when there were pictures of the van.

(43:44):
I told you what the van is.
And it's actually you were tryingit thought you were buying a super sport,
right? Right.
In my descriptions, I try to tell you
not a true SS cloned tribute.
There's so many words that they use.
Same with motorcycles on Indians.

(44:05):
You know, learn how to decodeyour motorcycles, your old Harleys.
You're old Indians.
Indians are really fun to decode.
Harleys are the easiest.
You know, I love the old motorcycles, too.
I bought my husband 48 Indian, and.
that's wonderful.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I did one of those gasping,

(44:28):
choking things,and now I'll get it, and it's all right.
Yeah, butanyway, just know what you're looking at.
You know,there's actually more 70 Chevelle
super sports on the roadright now than were produced.
There's more
69 Camaro Z 28 them were produced.
Yeah.
So get your information, digin, get your it

(44:51):
then bring all that with you.
If you're looking at a project,
do your homework,how much it's going to cost to build that.
Yes. Body shops are not cheap.
There aren't very many of the skilled guysleft to crawl
underneath banging on stuff.

(45:12):
Learn how to know if it's a numbersmatching car.
Mopar, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile.
They're all in different spots and
you're looking for the last six of the van
on the block or the deck plate.
So unless somebody to help you.
Yeah.

(45:32):
If you're at one of my auctions,I'll be happy to help you.
But it's ultimately your decision.
Also, don't bring a cashier's check.
We don't
take a it's the most counterfeited thingthere is.
Bring cashor check with proof of funds or money wire
to an auction.
Know what the payment terms are.

(45:52):
Also know what the removal is.
Have your truck in lined up orbring a trailer or a guy with the trailer.
If you have a trailer or hoist,you gain new friends.
I bet.
I never even thought about thatat an auction.
That's that is a wayto get a lot of good friends.
You know, I had a guy tell me.
So you get to ship this to me? No.

(46:14):
Well, I'll give you a list of shippers.
You can talk to them.
Yeah.
I thought you were going to arrange that.
No, Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Yeah.
You got to be able to your purchase haul.
Exactly.
Well,thank you so much. Yvette, I'm so sorry.
Our time is short. I love your stories.
I would love to talk to youmore in the future.
I will provide links in show notesfor people to find out your auction house.

(46:36):
But where do you like people to find you?
Is it YouTube?
Is that your website? Doare you on social media?
I have a really good YouTube channel.
Is Van der Brink Auctions LLC and it showsus going into these barn finds.
It's interesting is
I have a lot of guys
steal my stuffand then they say they found it.

(46:58):
That is insulting as hell.
Yeah I've had that quite a bit
and it's often I'll have a guy that takesone of my pictures, you watermark them.
It doesn't matter.They could take that. They Yeah.
Look what I found. I said, no you didn't.
That's mine. Wow.
Also banner break auctions dot com,

(47:19):
Facebook, Instagram
Tok is Van der Brink Auctions LLC.
Well, thank you so much.
I'll provide links for all those
and there's no notesand I'll say I'll give you their holler.
Thank you for listening to Fuelfor the future.
Learn more at America'sAutomotive Trust Dawg
and support the show right nowby subscribing

(47:40):
and leaving a rating and reviewwherever you listen to podcasts.
Learn more about Vanderbeek optionsat Vanderburg options
dot com or seeour show notes for more details.
Until next time.