I was on E-Bay this afternoon and came across this ad. POPS for sale, In fact this seller will make one for you.

JIM CLEMENS CORVETTE (seller)

This was his add:

I AM OFFERING AN ORIGINAL, GENUINE "NOS' ADDRESSOGRAPH PROTECT-O-PLATE MADE TO THE EXACT SPECIFICATIONS OF YOUR 1965-1972 CHEVROLET CORVETTE, CORVAIR, CAMARO, CHEVELLE, CHEVY II OR OTHER CHEVROLET MODEL. THE PLATE IS STAMPED OUT ON A GENUINE GM ADDRESSOGRAPH MACHINE. EVERY CHEVROLET PASSENGER CAR BUILT FROM 1965 - 1972 CAME FROM THE FACTORY WITH A PROTECT-O-PLATE THAT WAS AFFIXED TO A WARRANTY BOOK. THIS PLATE WAS STAMPED WITH ENGINE, TRANSMISSION AND REAR END DATES CODES, AS WELL AS OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION. THE PROTECT-O-PLATE I OFFER YOU IS BACKED BY 30 YEARS OF VAST - ONE OF A KIND KNOWLEDGE OF CORVETTES PROTECT-O-PLATES AND WARRANTY BOOKS. I HAVE BEEN OFFERING THESE ONE OF A KIND, TRUE TO ORIGINAL PROTECT-O-PLATES TO THE DISCERNING CORVETTE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988. BACKED WITH YEARS OF NCRS JUDGING HISTORY AND A MEMBER OF NCRS SINCE 1979. ALSO, BLOOMINGTON GOLD HISTORY. OWNERSHIP OF MANY CORVETTES AND A VAST LIBRARY OF ORIGINAL CORVETTE AND CHEVROLET DOCUMENTATION THAT IS UNMATCHED BY ANY OTHER. PRICE STATED OF $295 IS FOR THE PROTECT-O-PLATE ONLY, STAMPED OUT AS ORIGINAL TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS. INCLUDES ORIGINAL GM DYMO LABEL TAPE AFFIXED TO P/P WITH ORIGINAL OWNERS NAME AND ADDRESS. ORIGINAL WARRANTY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT AN EXTRA COST. UPON PURCHASE, I WILL FAX OR E.MAIL AN ORDER FORM TO BE COMPLETED BY THE BUYER. $5 ADDITIONAL FOR SHIPPING. OTHERS HAVE TRIED, NO ONE COMPARES TO THE QUALITY AND ACCURACY OF THE PROTECT-O-PLATES OFFER BY JIM CLEMENS CORVETTE. IN BUSINESS SINCE 1988.

I guess you can now create an instant history on a car. In the case of a Camaro as I cannot speak for other cars listed. How would you prove what driveline you had in the car? How would they know the original owners name and where the car was sold? To me this is very deceptive as it attempts to fabricate a false history. In my opinion this is no different than making a fake Trim Tag, thoughts? :confused:

And this my friend is only one example of why this hobby is going to hell in a handbasket. I feel things are so bad in the fraud, re-stamp lines right now they will never get back to the letigamate ways of years gone by.

Wrong, just wrong! How many people get burned everyday... An earlier thread, they were discussing selling the trim tags on Ebay, wouldnt ebay be an accessory to auto fraud/theft.

I don't like it either, I think it's wrong.

Isn't things like this pretty common practice in the Corvette world?

Again, I think it's completely wrong, don't even care if you where the original owner and confirmed everything on the POP, IMO, you have the original or nothing when it comes to the documents.

IMO,

Paul

In the Corvette Community, Anything Goes to make a correct, numbers matching, date coded car. Now Protect-O-Plates to legitimize a car that was made correct. This is Outrageous Behaivior, Forgery and Deceit. I feel bad for the person who comes along paying big dollars for a car thinking it is something that it is not.

In the Corvette Community, Anything Goes to make a correct, numbers matching, date coded car. Now Protect-O-Plates to legitimize a car that was made correct. This is Outrageous Behaivior, Forgery and Deceit. I feel bad for the person who comes along paying big dollars for a car thinking it is something that it is not.

The guy who fabricate those POP-plates on demand, should be ashamed to destroy everything called originality of an old car and should be banned in our hobby.
-He should even have it stopped up the *** himself :angry:

This is old news guys... but the hobby has not gone into the hand basket. This is a common struggle in our world whether you are playing with cars , widgets or anything else. There are always those involved who are less than honest .
You just have to spread the word. People always come up to me to talk about my car and when the discussion turns to the possibility of them getting into the hobby I let them know about this site and the need to be careful .

It's up to us to spread the word and protect our hobby .

It used to be a fun hobby, Always hoping & dreaming of finding that true barn find, with original paper work. But like everything else. When you see a car advertized now with original paper work it means nothing. IT ONLY HURTS THE REAL CARS & REAL PAPER WORK. Stuff like this is why the market keeps going south. I know of a used car dealer in NJ. Who has been buying fake paper work for the past five years and has sold a ton of muscle cars with it. How do I know this, They have ended up with some cars I've owned with no paper work and some where along the trip from VA to NJ, They find all the paper work to the car. It is sad! It is becoming harder to sell real cars than fakes. I guess people will have to come up with ways to prove REAL PAPER WORK NOW.

That guy has been reproducing P-O-P's and trim tags for over twenty years, but his potential customer base just got smaller last year; his stuff won't fly in NCRS or Bloomington Gold Corvette judging any more. :)

:beers:

there is a guy in florida and texas who have the original machines- plates- tapes- booklets. well known in the corvette hobby for 20 years.:noway:

Just more proof that you really need to do your homework and track people down before you make an investment into one of these cars. We just got burned this past year by doing a trade-in of a car expecting to get a legit car with the protecto-plate. Shortly after the trade, we find a lawyer who was investigating the car's history, de-bunked the plate as being fake and had it destroyed. That seriously hurt the anticipated value we had placed and paid for on the vehicle.

1 know 1 guy for a fact had an entire box of nos booklets left over from dealers that went out of business. i mean all years of booklets. 66-67-68-69-70s.