Mark;
I think we're going off in the wrong direction here; I wasn't trying to give you a hard time, and I was
not casting moral judgements. I know you weren't trying to be dismissive in a "s**t happens" manner, that's why I prefaced my earlier reply the way I did.
As far as fake trim tags goes, let me put it this way: Hypothetically speaking, of course, what would be the purpose for someone to take a plain-Jane base model Camaro and stick on a tag in an attempt to pass it off as a Z28/COPO/whatever? In the simplest of terms, they are trying to make the car appear to be something it is not. So by doing so, who are they trying to fool? They obviously aren't trying to fool
themselves since they know the car is a fake, that would be absurd. So, if they aren't trying to fool themselves, who
are they trying to fool? Along those lines, can you give me one legitimate reason to install a fake trim tag on a car, other than to replace a lost/damaged/whatever original tag with a reproduction that is
100% identical to the cars original tag? Unless someone is trying to pass a car off as something its not, I can't come up with one other valid reason to do so. Even if someone were building a clone, what would be the harm in leaving the original base model trim tag on the car? If you answer "that will hurt the value of the car", then you've just proven my point that it's being done solely for financial reasons, and with a vested interest in decieving someone later on down the road with a fradulent tag. If it weren't, there would be absolutely no reason not to leave the original tag on, or as I previously suggested, stamping a repop tag with a big "R" right in the middle.
As far as passing moral judgements, let me again pose a hypothetical scenario; What if you were looking to buy a car, but you weren't aware that the cars trim tag was bogus? Let's say I was standing right there with you, looking at the car, and I spotted the bogus tag, but I failed to inform you about it and let you drop $80K on a car that's only worth $20K. Which action would've been more "moral" on my part...to let you get taken, or to speak up and try to warn you first? To a lesser degree, what if you were about to drop $1K on a restamped carb that's only worth $600.00, and again, even though I knew it was a restamp, I failed to warn you? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and take a wild guess that you wouldn't be too happy with me if I'd stood by and said nothing in either scenario.
I'll spell out my motives in plain English for anyone who cares to read them: I have absolutely no vested interests to promote, and I am not in the least bit interested in casting moral judgements on anyone. What I
AM interested in is trying to protect (what is left of) the integrity of this hobby (I use that term very loosely here, as we all know the term "business" would be much more accurate), and to try to help people from making costly mistakes if I can. If that makes me a bad person, or "morally judgemental", I guess I'll just have to live with that.
I know this is very difficult to belive in todays world, but even as a businessman, I honestly have the
buyers best interests in mind.
That being said, if we still disagree, then its mutually respectably. I have nothing further to add, I've spoken my peace on the subject and I am done.
Eric
p.s. forgot to add, re: the term "high zoot", that is just a term used to describe something on the higher-end of the spectrum in regards to value or rarity, and is not derogatory in any fashion.