Hence, on the auction block, at least a handful of any prestige car model has a celebrity provenance, the Volkswagen Kombi/Samba/Bulli is a car of the proletariat, and hence its greatest claim is exactly where the model's name was derived from вЂ“ 'Volkswagen' means the 'peoples' car' in German вЂ“ it was so reliable, simple and dependable that it engendered great affection on a grand scale. Whereas most cars that fetch more than a quarter million dollars on the auction block these days were prestige cars to begin with, a sprinkling of these prestige cars were sold new to celebrities or people of public prominence. The Volkswagen Samba and Beetle are still the exceptions to the collector car rule, though.

Since then there are dozens of Samba vans that have sold for more than $100,000, and the entire collectible car industry has seen an extraordinary rise in values. Though Volkswagen enthusiasts coveted them closely, the US$28,000 figure was well above the prices fetched by Volkswagen Samba vans at that time. This car did sell at auction while the show was still running (see above), but that was well before Volkswagen Samba vans were even on the collector car radar and the collector car prices databases of the period were not even keeping track of Volkswagen bus prices at that time. The first indication that this sale may fetch a new record price is that a Volkswagen Samba Van with provenance has never before appeared at auction.

Vw samba for sale