Sagaser’s love for classic vehicles and a desire to preserve them lasted until his death in a tragic accident in 2018. His family has decided now is the time to release the collection. They have 292 vehicles and an assortment of parts listed for auction at their rural property south of Epping on Saturday, June 7.

“There’s quite a few very rare vehicles,” said Yvette VanDerBrink with VanDerBrink Auctions, based in Hardwick, Minnesota. Sagaser had saved many discarded Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth vehicles from around the countryside, but there is a sampling of other makes and models, too.

“He never met a car he didn’t like. That’s why there are some Chevrolets out there. There are some Fords out there. There’s one Pontiac, and it’s a really rare one. It’s a ’55 Pontiac wagon,” VanDerBrink said.

The auction will be online but also live, in keeping with the wishes of Holly Sagaser.

Submitted Photo

“She wanted to see who was going to be there. She wanted to talk to people and tell them about her husband, so we are doing it on site, with the online bidding,” VanDerBrink said.

Holly Sagaser said she and her husband frequented auctions, and there’s an ambience there that she enjoys and wants to experience in selling the collection at a live auction.

Paul’s hobby wasn’t just for himself but it touched the lives of his family, including sons Luke, Quinn and Laban. Quinn particularly developed an interest of his own in vehicle restoration.

Holly Sagaser assisted in hauling vehicles and helped with interior restoration on certain projects. She helped manage the business when Paul took on restoration projects for customers from about 1997 to 2008 and when he opened a mechanics repair shop in 2008.

Paul Sagaser grew up on a farm north of Tioga, served in the Navy and graduated from North Dakota State University in 1978 with a geology degree. He worked various jobs before his career in the oil field.

Submitted Photo A row of classic vehicles sits in Paul Sagaser’s “Field of Dreams.” These vehicles and many others will be auctioned by the Sagaser family Saturday.

Holly Sagaser said her husband’s oil field work took him off the beaten trail, where he kept an eye out for old vehicles, including abandoned vehicles in tree rows on farmsteads.

“He did not hesitate going out and looking for these old cars to basically save them from the crusher,” she said.

He would contact owners to acquire the vehicles and haul them from wherever he found them in western North Dakota, Montana and at times from South Dakota and Canada.

“There’s just about every year you can think of. There’s quite an assortment,” Holly Sagaser said.

Along with the 1938 Plymouth, the auction includes a restored 1965 Coronet 500 and a 1965 Coronet 500 convertible that was a gift from Holly on his 55th birthday.

A 1973 Volkwagen Super Beetle, which the Sagasers bought at an auction in Epping, was another find.

“It ran. We ended up doing what we call a quick restoration, and we got it painted and a new interior,” Holly Sagaser said. The car became their oldest son’s graduation gift. Later he traded it to his mother for a Dodge Lil’ Red Express truck his parents had picked up at another auction.

Holly Sagaser laughs about Christmas in 2016, when she asked for a dining room set and Paul presented her with a 1959 Plymouth Belvedere instead.

“It was running and we drove it. I think in 2019-2020 we did some work on it,” she said, noting it needed new brakes and other work so she never drove it very far. The last car Paul Sagaser brought home, the Belvedere is included in Saturday’s auction.

A number of the vehicles at auction have unfinished or no restoration, but Holly Sagaser said they remain restorable. For instance, a 1969 Dodge Charger has had initial restoration, while a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda convertible was a project Paul Sagaser never found time for.

Some vehicles would be useful for parts for other restoration projects, Holly Sagaser said. However, some vehicles also have potential for use in customized hot rods called rat rods or street rods, which place old vehicles on new frames.

Holly Sagaser said some pieces from her husband’s collection have been sold in the past several years, and he had sold some himself previously.

“He was pretty choosy about who he would sell them to,” she said. “He would grill them pretty hard – what their desire was for that car. He just wanted to make sure that they really loved that car and what they were going to do is restore it, because he didn’t want anybody coming out here and thinking they were going to (demolition) derby it.”

For that reason, nothing is being held back from the auction and discarded due to condition or desirability.

“That’s exactly what Paul did not want to do with those cars. You do not want to crush them. He wanted to save them. So we decided we’d take a chance, and they’re all just going to be sold,” Sagaser said. “It’s a gamble, but this is kind of honoring Paul in that sense.”

About a half dozen restored cars and half dozen cars the family still wants to restore won’t be auctioned. A 1970 Plymouth Superbird – the last car restored by Paul, in 2017 – will be kept.

“He just always loved that car and wanted one. It’s considered a mock Superbird, so it’s not an original, but he got the nose for it, the wing on the back and it actually uses a satellite body, but you can turn that into a Superbird, so that’s what he did,” Holly Sagasar said.

She also plans to keep a 1955 Chevy Bel Air that her husband acquired from an elderly lady in Montana.

“It ran and it was patinaed, but in good shape,” she said.

“We did a little tuneup on it and got the brakes done on it. We would hop in that car and just drive around the countryside,” she said. “We had the best time in that car.”

Eventually, Paul Sagaser restored it.

Holly Sagaser said the family hopes to find new homes for the vehicles that were so special to her husband.

“My husband called it the Field of Dreams,” she said of the rows of vehicles. “People would just stop by. They just wanted to go look at these cars because you don’t see them anymore.”

An auction preview will be held Friday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the site at 12301 58th St. NW, Epping.

VanDerBrink said the upcoming auction, detailed on the VanDerBrink Auction website, has been generating interest in Paul Sagaser’s collection from across the United States.

“We are just going to have a celebration of his life and collection,” she said.

“It’s just going to be epic,” Holly Sagaser added. “However it turns out, it’s just going to be an event that we’ll never forget.”