Events; The Rolleston Hoarder’s Auction

You may have noticed in my previous posts the mention of the auction I went to and subsequently ended up with a new vehicle that I didn’t plan on.

If all the talk around the auction was to be believed, the previous owner (or “hoarder” as they were referred to in the auction title (for good reason)) was a Japanese chap who had some manner of tie in with an Osaka automotive museum, he passed on and his young son wanted nothing to do with the cars and all manner of other lark that filled the shed.  The son attempted to sell the vehicles on his own but some of the wrong people managed to get ilk and subsequently stole several vehicles.  After this happened, the place was made a lot more secure and the charge of handling the task went to Christchurch Auctions.

When looking around the place, the tie in with some kind of auto museum makes sense, the collection varied wildly in make, model and condition.  The Prince Skyline Super (S21D-4) that I went up to see, in the initial auction pictures, seemed to be in OK nick.  That is however the illusion of photographs, as you can see with mine.

Can you handle how much this car cranks?

The crank handle is in the car because I wanted to make sure the engine actually spun to help dictate what price I was willing to pay.  It did spin too, quite freely.  Certainly a lot more freely than how bound up my one was. (read: locked solid) now the few things I needed from it.  Fender Mirrors, Grille Badge, Bonnet trim, Rear trim, they weren’t all in great condition but they were better than mine which don’t exist.  

Little bit oxidised, innit?

You can see from both shots that it’s fairly solid for it’s age.  Sadly, further investigation found quite a few places that required more work than my current one which basically meant that rather than buying a second one, I would be buying a parts car with very few parts that I absolutely need. My top dollar for it got less, I waited for the starting bid to drop during the auction process and the lowest it got before bidding starting was my top dollar, so needless to say I didn’t end up with it.  That said, it did go for a reasonable price of $900NZD (if memory serves me correctly).

Other cars that were on my radar were a Alfa Romeo GT1600 Junior,

It used to be red.

The Alfa went well above my price range as i expected but nowhere near as high as I expected.  I wish I could have bought it for $5500NZD, it has a very lucky new owner despite the obvious rust that will need fixed.

Isuzu Bellett 1800GT Coupe

This rare beast on NZ shores always had a few people wandering around it but then when the bidding started no-one seemed keen, until it got ridiculously low and then all of a sudden a couple of bidders got locked into a battle with the price ending at $5100NZD-ish, it was quite rotten in places and there’s been a strop through the pillars at some point that did some fairly serious damage, that said I still think it was quite a deal.  The guy who ended up winning on it had previously lost on this Mercedez Benz…

Complete with removable Hardtop.

…which ended up going for $24000NZD, I believe.  It was quite amusing, two people went into a bidding war and just when it seemed to be over a man in a tweed jacket started to bid and ended up winning at the above price.  He was a classy chap with a fair few pennies behind him, by the looks.

Two KE25's, a Bellett, a RT40, a Land Rover & a Surf

I believe the Corollas went for around about $2000 a pop, the Bellett had no engine and went for bugger-all, the Corona was quite rotten and shared the bugger-all price tag.

Isuzu Bellett

Toyota Corona

I’ll leave it at that for the time being but there’s a few more photos that I have stashed away that I’ll post in the next few days.

-Michael