Roughly 300 vehicles, trucks, projects and pieces of vintage signage will cross the auction block on September 19, 2026, when VanDerBrink Auctions disperses a Colorado family’s three-generation car collection at a rural property outside Eaton, about 90 minutes north of Denver. The sale closes out a chapter that began with a grandfather’s habit of buying old Fords and never stopped, according to VanDerBrink Auctions’ own listing for the sale.

A collection three generations in the making

The cars belonged to the late Doug Born, who spent decades chasing early Fords at auctions across the country, a pursuit he inherited from his father and grandfather before him. Both men were regular bidders themselves, and the family kept adding to the pile at the same property for most of a century before Born’s own death prompted the family to finally let it go, VanDerBrink’s listing states. What’s left behind is less a curated museum than a working record of what three generations of one family found worth saving.

The result is a property-wide inventory that reads like a survey of mid-century Detroit. Early Fords and Mercurys span 1912 through 1968, including a 1912 Model T Touring car, multiple Model A variants, a custom 1932 Ford Roadster, a 1934 school bus project and a run of vintage F-Series pickups. Chevrolet and GMC entries run from 1931 through 1979, among them a 1931 sedan, a 1955 NAPCO four-wheel-drive pickup and a 1964 Bel Air two-door, according to a report by MotorBiscuit, which visited the listing details ahead of the sale.

Beyond the big two brands

The collection isn’t limited to Ford and Chevrolet nameplates, even if those two dominate the count. Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth vehicles span the 1930s through the 1970s, and rarer badges round out the property: DeSoto, Willys, Packard, Henry J, International, Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile are all represented, alongside a 1957 Pontiac Super Chief wagon and a 1961 Oldsmobile 98. A run of later Ford and Chevrolet pickups from the 1980s through 1995 gives buyers newer, more usable project trucks alongside the pre-war iron. VanDerBrink’s listing also catalogs a collection of vintage petroleum signage, including Phillips 66, Texaco and Sinclair pieces, plus oil cans, gas pumps and display racks that collectors chase as hard as the cars themselves.

Fifty-cent bids, real prices

VanDerBrink has marketed the sale with a hook: some lots will open bidding at just 50 cents. It’s a promotional device, not a preview of what buyers will actually pay — the auction house charges an 8 percent buyer’s premium in person and 10 percent for online bids, and complete, running vehicles are expected to draw real money once bidding gets underway, per MotorBiscuit’s reporting. The real story is the scale of what’s being sold in a single day: a lifetime, and then some, of a family’s fascination with old iron, liquidated in one field north of Denver. Preview begins September 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with bidding starting at 9 a.m. the following morning at 20801 County Road 78 in Eaton.