In recent years, you can’t go far in the world of collector cars without coming across a seemingly unending litany of “barn find” examples. Covered in dust, dirt, grime, chicken droppings or perhaps used as an impromptu shelf, a place to stack wooden pallets—whatever the case, the more inglorious a special car was treated, it seems, the better the story.

Articles and videos abound of people uncovering and rescuing these cars, whether found in an actual barn or some other structure. Perhaps we’ve become bored of stories of incredibly restorations (say it ain’t so!) or one-owner cars kept pristine for years.There’s no denying the allure of the barn find.

A couple of years back during the Scottsdale auctions, a barn-find Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing outpaced several restored examples sold that year, including some by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Years ago, these sort of cars might have been found and restored before anyone knew anything about them.

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