We’ve all bought things in the past, put them away, and simply forgot about them. Things like a $10 electronic gizmo, or like me, a $150 tablet (ugh, don’t ask), are somewhat normal, but how about a $500,000 collection of Corvettes?->ke1280 I don’t think that is something that I could stash away in various garages and simply forget about.

Well, one guy did. Meet Peter Max; he’s the man who bought this collection of cars to create some sort of art show out of, but instead allowed them to rot for the last 25 years.

The back-story goes all the way to a contest that VH1 – remember that station? – ran back in 1989. The music-video station collected one Corvette from each year between 1953 and 1989, and gave them away.

There was a catch, however, as the savvy network required people to enter via a hotline that charged $2 per entry, which ended up with VH1 turning a nice profit.

The winner was one Dennis Amodeo, who took delivery of the estimated $600,000 worth of American fiberglass and steel, and sold them to the aforementioned artist for $250,000 in cash and $250,000 in future profits from his art.

As you can see by the image, the cars fell into serious ill-repair over two and a half decades until a man and his partners approached Max about buying the cars. Max agreed, and now the cars are now on the way to becoming whole again.

Click past the jump to read more about this forgotten Corvette collection.

Why it matters

This is exactly why non-car people with a lot of cash shouldn’t buy huge lots of cars. They just sit around and collect dust, eventually rotting after the person loses interest or passes away. But for these Corvettes, their stories will continue, thanks to the efforts of a few investors. Chances are that they got these cars for cheap and are prepared to make a nice profit off of them.

Just for reference a base 1953 Corvette fully restored books in NADA Classic for a whopping $266,800. I am willing to bet that one would fetch even more than that at auction. Hopefully that one is able to be restored!

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray