We see novel car collections come up for auction all the time, but Greg Rusk’s stockpile of vehicles is eye-catching for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s beyond huge. Hagerty says “1,300 cars,” but apparently nobody, including Rusk himself, is exactly sure how many vehicles he has. Secondly, the makes and models he’s got are, well, they’re certainly not bad, but some do seem kind of random. Many look more like decent scores you’d find on Facebook Marketplace, rather than, say, a sultan’s squadron of supercars.
Given the somewhat modest nature of many cars in Rusk’s fleet, which Hagerty has dubbed “The Generous Collection,” and the fact that everything’s going up with no reserve, you might actually be able to snag a deal here if you’re savvy.
The shortest version of Rusk’s story is that his money comes from running a cardboard company, Rusken Packaging. The “generous” moniker comes from his willingness to buy cars he might not have particularly needed or wanted from folks at full asking price, to help them out in some way or another.
Hagerty ran a full 40-minute video tour capturing some of the cars kept between Rusk’s “six or seven” buildings on family property in Alabama. The dialogue between Mr. Rusk and Hagerty host Tom Cotter is quite pleasant to listen to—I started scrubbing through this just looking for cars to call out and ended up getting sucked in and watching almost all of it. Roll it right here if you’d like:
Rusk says he got started car-collecting with Cadillacs, and basically went through phases where he’d be into other makes and models, and then start buying and stashing them as well. He indicated to Cotter that many of the vehicles were driven for just a weekend or two before being mothballed.
That feels a little silly to me, but also relatable. My collection stands at a puny seven vehicles right now, and there are a few I haven’t driven in many months. (For what it’s worth, yes, I have started to streamline and prioritize.)
There are a few hot commodities in the mix of Rusk’s many cars, like Porsches, cool Camaros, and a bunch of sweet trucks. But due to the daunting scale of the sale and pedestrian nature of many machines here, I really do think some people are going to get good deals. The auction is being facilitated by Broad Arrow via Hagerty, which says titles and paperwork on the cars will come through after October 29. Many of these cars are old enough to be title-exempt in some states, but you’ll definitely want to check in on the documentation status if one of these machines catches your eye.
The immense collection is being sold in multiple parts, with the first batch of 235 cars live online now. That part of the auction ends on Monday, Oct 20, at 2:00 p.m. eastern. I’ll whip up another post soon with some of my favorites for you to check out. Meanwhile, scroll down a little and swipe through some imagery to give you a sense of the scale of this sale and Rusk’s collection as it stands. There are a few gems, but mostly, it’s just a lot of random vehicles in various states of neglect. Still, it’s quite fascinating to look at. You can find the first batch of for-sale listings and check current prices on Hagerty’s auction page.
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