Vulcan County man auctioning off part of large collection of vehicles

Calgary Herald

01-05-2025

Gord Nelson says it will lighten his load to sell a portion of his vast collection of vehicles.
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The Vulcan County man is getting rid of about 60 vehicles, plus parts and farm equipment, in a six-day no reserve online auction that begins on Monday.
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The 63-year-old, whose collection has grown for decades, said Thursday there were just too vehicles on his property, with every one of them taking a little work to maintain.
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Nelson is selling some of the higher-end cars he never drives, as well as some project vehicles he knows he won't get to.
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A 1966 Dodge Charger 426 Hemi — on which Nelson has spared no expense — is among the jewels of his collection that he's selling. With Nelson not wanting to drive the muscle car on gravel roads — he's put about 240 kilometres on it — he says he would need to load it onto a trailer before taking it for a spin.
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A 1970 Cougar Eliminator, 1971 Ford Mustang and a 1962 Chevrolet Impala are also among the 'nicer' vehicles he's selling.
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'As I get older, I don't like tying them down,' said Nelson of the high-end vehicles, which he's put a lot of time and money into.
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Even after the auction, Nelson says he will still have more than 200 vehicles left, with no immediate plans to sell those.
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'We'll still have a dozen or so nice ones, so that's more than enough,' said Nelson, who's driven all the good ones — about 25 to 30 vehicles — in his collection.
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He said he and wife Kelly, a Vulcan County councillor, try to take a car to a couple of parades each year.
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With the auction proceeds, Nelson, a farmer, said there's always equipment that could be bought for the farm, or the money could be put away for retirement.
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Nelson spends his winter fixing up and maintaining his vehicles. He takes his coffee to his shop in the morning and starts 'puttering.'
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'Winter is when I make the progress,' he said.
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Nelson is currently working on several projects, including modernizing the drivetrain of an old school bus from Lomond, a village in Vulcan County.
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'I'll leave the outside looking just like it did when they were hauling kids around,' he said.
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Nelson's auction is unique due to it being an 'eclectic' collection of many different types of vehicles and items, said Todd Schwindt, president and CEO of Sylvan Lake-based EG Auctions, which specializes in selling classic car collections and is running the auction.
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'They're not all muscle cars. He's got classic trucks, he's got restoration vehicles, he's got hot rods, he's got trailers, he's got toys and motor bikes that he's selling,' said Schwidt.