Galpin Motors President Beau Boeckmann Is Selling 129 Cars in Arizona With No Reserve, Including a One-Off Ford GT Rebuilt After a Wreck

RM Sotheby’s will sell 129 cars from the collection of Galpin Motors President Beau Boeckmann: 59 at a live auction in Arizona on Jan. 28, 2027, and 70 more in an online sale that closes Feb. 4. Every lot on both of RM’s lot pages carries the same line, “Offered Without Reserve.” Boeckmann runs the Los Angeles-area Ford dealership his father, Bert, built up after taking sole ownership in 1968, which Galpin’s own history page says has been the world’s top-volume Ford dealer since 1989.

RM’s Oct. 21 press release puts the total at “120+” cars, 50-plus live and 60-plus online. The lot pages list 59 and 70, and 129 is Backfire News’s tally from those pages. The most expensive car by estimate is a 2017 Ford GT Competition Series at $1.1 million to $1.3 million. Two more Ford GTs sit lower on the list, a one-off Galpin GTR1 and a factory 2006 car.

A one-off Ford GT with a salvage-title past

The 2005 Galpin GTR1 began as an ordinary 2005 Ford GT, delivered new in April 2005 to Astoria Ford in Oregon. RM’s lot page says it was damaged in an accident in September 2008 and acquired with a salvage title in March 2009. Galpin Auto Sports then replaced the body with a design of its own, built with Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters, and showed it on the concept lawn at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. RM says a modified, supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 makes more than 1,000 horsepower, and the listing repeats Galpin’s claim of a 2.9-second 0-60 time. Galpin planned at least six GTR1s, according to the listing. This is the only one built. RM estimates it at $550,000 to $750,000.

The same sale includes a stock 2006 Ford GT with 1,264 miles, one of 22 finished in Tungsten Grey with side stripes only, estimated at $550,000 to $650,000. RM’s lot page notes that its CARFAX report shows an accident, and that the car joined the Boeckmann Collection in June 2026. The two ranges share a $550,000 low end, and the GTR1’s top estimate is $100,000 higher. By Backfire News’s comparison, RM is valuing a one-off body, nearly double the factory horsepower and a salvage-title history at a $100,000 premium at the top of the range.

What “without reserve” does to an estimate

A reserve is the seller’s secret floor. California’s Commercial Code section 2328 treats an auction as with reserve unless the goods are put up without reserve in explicit terms. With reserve, the auctioneer can pull a lot at any point before announcing the sale complete. Without reserve, a lot cannot be withdrawn once bidding is called for it, unless no bid comes within a reasonable time. Catalog estimates on these 129 cars are therefore RM’s guesses, not minimums. A lot that draws one bidder sells to that bidder. The online sale’s cheapest estimates are $5,000 to $10,000, on a 1973 Zagato Zele 1000 and a 1957 Auto-Union DKW Schnellaster project.

The winning bidder also pays RM. Under the bidders’ conditions posted on the Arizona sale page, the buyer’s premium on motor cars is 12 percent of the hammer price up to $250,000 and 10 percent of anything above it, and 20 percent on non-car lots. A GTR1 hammered at $650,000, the midpoint of its estimate, would carry $70,000 in premium ($30,000 on the first $250,000 and $40,000 on the remaining $400,000), for a $720,000 total before taxes and fees. That is Backfire News’s arithmetic, not RM’s quote.

Customs, coachbuilt one-offs and a $25,000 buggy

The 1932 Ford Highboy Roadster “The Edelbrock Special” was built and raced by Bill Likes, a machine shop operator for Vic Edelbrock Sr. RM credits it with 13 land-speed records at El Mirage and Bonneville, says Likes retired it in 1957, and estimates it at $400,000 to $600,000. It is offered with a bill of sale only. The 1984 Porsche 969 Turbo by Rinspeed, one of as few as 12, was shown at the 1985 Geneva Motor Show, spent 36 years with one owner and has fewer than 10,000 miles; the estimate is $225,000 to $275,000. The 1993 Aston Martin Virage “Vacances” Shooting Brake, stretched roughly 12 inches by the factory’s Works Service, is one of seven built and is estimated at $200,000 to $250,000.

George Barris appears throughout the roster, including a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda “Fireball 500” estimated at $100,000 to $125,000. At the other end sits the 1970 Barris T Buggy, one of 12 built and a September 1970 Hot Rod cover car, estimated at $25,000 to $35,000. That is less than the $70,000 buyer’s premium in the GTR1 example above.

What to watch on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4

The live sale opens the Arizona Car Week season and the online sale closes a week later. The number to watch is where the GTR1 lands against the factory 2006 GT sitting beside it in the catalog, because with no reserve, neither has a floor to hide behind.

When a collector sells 129 cars with no reserve, is that the fairest way to find what they are worth, or does it hand the bargains to whoever shows up with the fewest rivals?

About the Author

Shawn Henry

Administrator

Shawn Henry has spent years writing about cars, and it shows—not in a resume kind of way, but in how he talks about them. He's the type who'll notice the weird trim option nobody remembers and actually know why it mattered. At Backfire News, he covers pretty much the whole spectrum: off-road trucks and trail builds, performance cars, racing, and the collector market. He's comfortable getting into the technical weeds, but he never forgets that most people read about cars because cars are fun, not because they want a spec sheet. His beat runs from classic and collector vehicles to overlanding culture, modified performance builds, new automotive tech, and the industry news that actually affects what ends up in your driveway. Mostly, though, Shawn thinks the best car stories are about people—the builds they pour money into, the road trips, the communities that form around a shared obsession. That's the stuff he likes writing about, and it's what you'll find in his work here.

View All Posts