What does a marti or galen report tell you , can they be frauded ? Frauad does not discriminate whether art, stamps, paintings ect. Ateast a gm canada report will tell you if it had deluxe seat belts wood wheel ect. when there is no build sheet available .For 40. bucks back then a gm canada report was cheap assurance before i purchased the car in question, check body & serial # on car.

Even with a report a potential buyer should check with the inspector to verify what they are reading is what the inspector actually wrote assuming he even wrote it. Twice I have come across cars with reports or authenticity letters with my name on it and neither of them were real. One car was being sold by a very well known collector and museum owner. It took the threat of a lawsuit to get him to remove the fake letter from his ad. Fraud has been around on collector cars from the beginning but it sure has dampened my enjoyment of it in recent years. I was also duped by the same guy selling the fake 69 Chevelle discussed on here earlier and I once called him a good friend at one time. Money sure has a way of ruining some people.

That it does, Rick. Sadly, that it does.

Paperwork tells you what it was, not what it is.

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Thanks, yes a birth certificate .

I find it sad when a thread like this is so relevant. Reading through it, many have provided factual contributions. To Rick's point, it is taking the fun right out of this. Ironically, I find so many people will pass on good cars when there isn't a plethora of documents.

Chuck nailed it with this comment.......
"Uneducated buyers have no problem paying twice the market value of a real car for a FAKE car, yet uneducated AND educated buyers dont want to pay market value for a REAL car."

If nothing else, it strengthens the value of original unrestored cars IMHO

Tim

That is a VERY good point Tim! More than once I have seen a complete NOS car with documents, purchased, stripped of all its NOS parts and many of its dated parts only to be replaced with repop parts and resold using the same inspection documentation and other information showing the restoration. Again, I have NO respect for the people that buy and sell cars and do this to them. It is all about filling their pockets full of money. I will never let greed get in my way and run my life.

After reading all this I'm not sure I would ever buy a car that wasn't from an original owner with photos through the years to back it up. Or at least someone who has owned it for 30+ years before all the greed got involved. Sheesh.....

Good idea but an original owner can deceive you as well if you are not fully educated. I have a friend that bought a '67 Corvette 427/390 from the original owner in Canada. It was his first collector car and he was not in a position at that time to fairly evaluate the car.

He brought it to my place a few months after getting it and wanted my opinion. It was a tough day for him when we went through the car and found that the car had been repainted (original owner said it was original paint), the motor had been rebuilt and the decked the block removing the broaching and stamp, wrong carb, wrong starter, wrong alternator, radio added (was radio delete), wrong valve covers, and the list went on....He has since corrected all the issues but it was costly.

As stated above get an inspection by a trusted expert.

Best advice is buy a car that is unrestored or at least a car that a former owner fully documented with video before the restoration .