[DeTomaso] Odd ebay listings

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sat Jun 15 00:35:51 EDT 2013


In a message dated 6/14/13 18 14 9, panteraplace at hotmail.com writes:


> Could be and probably another good reason for not publishing full VINs on
> the web.  I've been told that someone tried to publish my VIN on a 
> website,
> but they have the number wrong so I guess it does not matter.
> 

>>>Not yet, anyway.   At least, not to you.

However, I think it's important to point out that you're displaying what I 
consider to be spectacularly faulty reasoning.

My VIN is THPNMD03960.   It's important to me that this is public 
information.

Why?

Well, by way of contrast, consider several scenarious surrounding your 
"I've got a secret" philosophy about your car's identity.

Let's say that somebody plucks some Pantera photos off the web, or from a 
car show, then attempts to market the car somehow and assigns it your VIN.   
Prospective buyers would hopefully conduct due diligence, and look for that 
VIN in the registry to try to learn more about the car.   Failing to find 
any information, they are left to proceed on good faith.   An unsuspecting 
buyer can be seduced by a well-written ad, money changes hands, then the 
perpetrator disappears into thin air, leaving the poor would-be buyer holding the 
bag, with nothing to show for his expenditure.

Granted, this doesn't affect you personally--it's somebody else's problem.  
 But you could have prevented it and chose not to.

Now, consider a more powerful scenario.   You come home from work one day 
and find your garage door open, and your Pantera is gone.  Thieves have 
spirited it away and it crosses the country.   Through various shenanigans, 
dubious paperwork is generated which gives them the appearance of legitimate 
ownership of the car, and the thieves then offer it up for sale.   A prospective 
buyer, once again, does his due diligence, and finds no information in the 
registry, and presented with a real car and matching paperwork, money trades 
hands and the car is now in the hands of a new owner.

The car could then trade hands, legally, several times, and many years 
could go by before it's discovered that the car was stolen.   You, of course, 
would have no recourse because your insurance company paid the claim the 
moment you reported the car stolen to them, and thus they technically became the 
legal owners.   Their lawyers can go after the car and attempt to seize it, 
and eventually they would prevail, but in the meantime, there would be years 
of legal wrangling between the various parties, with claims and 
counter-claims.   You would also have a very difficult time, as you would have to 
engage lawyers to go after your insurance company if you wanted to retrieve the 
car and return their payment to you, and there is no reason to believe you 
would be successful in that endeavor.

(Note that this actually happened with a non-Pantera not too long ago; lots 
of lawsuits resulted but the car was returned to the person who lost it 40+ 
years ago, only because the car wasn't insured so there was no insurance 
company to claim it).

In this instance, having your car fully documented in the registry would 
have made it virtually un-steal-able.   Well, thieves could still take it, but 
it would be much, much more difficult for them to sell it, because there 
would be plenty of information contrary to their story available to the public 
(and also, presumably, because you would have updated your registry entry 
to highlight the fact that your car had been stolen).

The Shelby guys figured this out many, many years ago.   It is virtually 
impossible to get away with stealing and then selling a Shelby, because their 
registry is so air-tight.   The overwhelming majority of classic Shelbys 
(probably 98% or more) are fully documented in the registry, so it's a simple 
matter to pick up the book (they are very old-school still) and verify the 
story behind a given car.   Too, the club does an excellent job of policing 
the marketplace, and whenever a potentially fraudulent car comes to light, 
they issue a very public warning about it (much as we try to do here, albeit on 
a much more haphazard basis).

So, you can keep your car's identity a secret if you wish, but don't think 
that you are doing yourself, or anybody else, any favors by doing so....

Mike


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