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I see the controversy about when numbers matching started to be used by used car dealers and I would like to share my limited knowledge on the subject.
In late 1972 I owned a Texaco service station that I actually was running as a front for a used car lot because of the corner location. As some may remember this was during the oil embargo and all of a sudden a Ford Pinto or a Vega was bringing top dollar and over sticker price. You couldn't give a Corvette, Camaro, or GTO away and especially if it was a BB. Three guys that owned a used Corvette lot near my station decided to part ways and I bought them out.
The place was called Super Cars of Tulsa. They would not let me use the name as they wanted to keep it so I called it Super Car Center when I took over. Later in late '78 I changed it to "Corvette World" so that I would be closer to the start of the used car dealers in the phone book. Not to mention they still had a phone in their back bedroom with the Super cars of tulsa number that they seldom answered which pissed me off when customers would call and give me hell for not being open.
I will never forget my first Vette that I bought for the lot (Dec '72) was from the Chev dealer in Norman Ok. a Gold w/Green interior 390hp 4 sp car that was real clean. The first customer that test drove it was a clean cut black man and I let him take the car to show his wife and he took about 2 hrs to come back with it. I didn't let any of them out of my sight after that. Boy was I scared that he had stolen it.
Before that year (1973) was over I had quite a few vettes go through the lot and I remember learning early on about matching numbers from a tall skinny bearded guy from Bartilesville. Over the years I ran into him many times and learned to respect his knowledge about these cars. I used that knowledge to make the purchace of my #11 s/n '65 that I have had in storage all these years. I was not interested that much in original #'s matching cars for my own use since I already owned a Baldwin Motion '69 Phase III car. But could not pass up buying it for only $2,200 just because it was a hooker header equiped roadster and didn't see any collectable value in it till I wrote out the check and put the s/n on the check did it sink in that it was a eary '65.(350hp). He clued me in that it was perhaps the first car that was delivered with disk brakes form the factory and explained the matching #'s thing to me.
Back then low s/n cars were more valuable and BB cars were not as sought after as a FI mid year.
I also met Roy Sinor and his son Roy Jr. sometime back about then. I am not so sure that every one dealing in used Vetts at that time was s/n driven back then as C1's with high perf motors were all the rage. Mid years were just becoming popular to collect and I was one of the used car dealers that tried to be sure that all owners info was preserved to go with the cars if they came from a original owner.
I know that I used the knowledge of matching #'s to buy smart and it determined how high I would pay for a given car. I went out of town often on buying trips to keep the lot full of vettes on the front row. Most of the Texas Dealers didn't know comehere from sickem about s/n matching and I took advantage of that when I bought and I remember when Blackbook came out with the s/n info and from about 1978 on everybody was all aware of the s/n matching makeing cars more valuable.
OH yeah, some of you may know the bearded guy as Bill Mock.
Hope this sheds some light on the s/n matching #'s controversy from a dealers persective?
I know that I was not using the s/n matching in my advertizing unless it was a very special car and then only after '76 or '77.
In late 1972 I owned a Texaco service station that I actually was running as a front for a used car lot because of the corner location. As some may remember this was during the oil embargo and all of a sudden a Ford Pinto or a Vega was bringing top dollar and over sticker price. You couldn't give a Corvette, Camaro, or GTO away and especially if it was a BB. Three guys that owned a used Corvette lot near my station decided to part ways and I bought them out.
The place was called Super Cars of Tulsa. They would not let me use the name as they wanted to keep it so I called it Super Car Center when I took over. Later in late '78 I changed it to "Corvette World" so that I would be closer to the start of the used car dealers in the phone book. Not to mention they still had a phone in their back bedroom with the Super cars of tulsa number that they seldom answered which pissed me off when customers would call and give me hell for not being open.
I will never forget my first Vette that I bought for the lot (Dec '72) was from the Chev dealer in Norman Ok. a Gold w/Green interior 390hp 4 sp car that was real clean. The first customer that test drove it was a clean cut black man and I let him take the car to show his wife and he took about 2 hrs to come back with it. I didn't let any of them out of my sight after that. Boy was I scared that he had stolen it.
Before that year (1973) was over I had quite a few vettes go through the lot and I remember learning early on about matching numbers from a tall skinny bearded guy from Bartilesville. Over the years I ran into him many times and learned to respect his knowledge about these cars. I used that knowledge to make the purchace of my #11 s/n '65 that I have had in storage all these years. I was not interested that much in original #'s matching cars for my own use since I already owned a Baldwin Motion '69 Phase III car. But could not pass up buying it for only $2,200 just because it was a hooker header equiped roadster and didn't see any collectable value in it till I wrote out the check and put the s/n on the check did it sink in that it was a eary '65.(350hp). He clued me in that it was perhaps the first car that was delivered with disk brakes form the factory and explained the matching #'s thing to me.
Back then low s/n cars were more valuable and BB cars were not as sought after as a FI mid year.
I also met Roy Sinor and his son Roy Jr. sometime back about then. I am not so sure that every one dealing in used Vetts at that time was s/n driven back then as C1's with high perf motors were all the rage. Mid years were just becoming popular to collect and I was one of the used car dealers that tried to be sure that all owners info was preserved to go with the cars if they came from a original owner.
I know that I used the knowledge of matching #'s to buy smart and it determined how high I would pay for a given car. I went out of town often on buying trips to keep the lot full of vettes on the front row. Most of the Texas Dealers didn't know comehere from sickem about s/n matching and I took advantage of that when I bought and I remember when Blackbook came out with the s/n info and from about 1978 on everybody was all aware of the s/n matching makeing cars more valuable.
OH yeah, some of you may know the bearded guy as Bill Mock.
Hope this sheds some light on the s/n matching #'s controversy from a dealers persective?
I know that I was not using the s/n matching in my advertizing unless it was a very special car and then only after '76 or '77.
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