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Re: TURBO on Ebay - intelligent caution-READ (archive)
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Posted by TJP on April 10, 2000 at 03:02:46:

In Reply to: Re: TURBO on Ebay posted by Big R on April 03, 2000 at 12:42:40:

Be very careful of the gray market! Big R is correct, our friendly gov't will take your gray market car if it was not perfectly imported. I know.

A very, very long and expensive story short: A Ferrari I bought in'92, that was imported in '83 and changed hands several times, was registered and driven for 9 years, and had what appearred to be legitimate papers, was siezed by US Customs in '94. The papers weren't real! It was sold and exported by Customs to New Zealand after having been used by the DEA as an "undercover" car for 2 years. I got NOTHING except what lawsuits against individuals provided me some 2 more years later and one hell of a baroom tale. While I recooped some $, I lost 4x what I recovered.

Check with Customs, EPA, and DOT using VIN #'s to verify. It is relatively easy and takes only a few days, sometimes hours. While they can be very nasty - they are capable of really helping. DO NOT ACCEPT PAPERWORK WITHOUT VERIFICATION BY THE GOV'T! Many of the early/mid 80's gray mkt's, with emphasis on those brought in thru Houston, had bad papers.

Wiser & Poorer
TJP

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