My thought experiment was not meant to hit a nerve, it was to just prove a point to the most extreme degree. All I was trying to bring to the surface was all things being equal, which is more valuable? Otherwise, why even worry about the fender tag if it brings $0 dollars to the table?

I really think that the huge hit in values our Mopar cars experienced since 2007 has something to do with this fabricated history. I think a lot of collectors at Barrett and other high end auctions had more money than brains before 2007, and when they finally figured out that the cars they were purchasing had issues of one kind or the other and they made some poor investments of dollars into subpar cars, well, it couldn't have helped our hobby. Not that repop fender tags and VIN tags can totally account for the downward trend of values since 2007 (I'm sure there has been a lot of discovery of poor restorations as well; but this kind of goes hand in hand); and I know that good cars are bringing better money than 2007; but values have not fully recovered yet either. I follow the secondary auction market, and other than the $3.5 million hammer price on the best 71 hemicuda convertible on the planet, the rest of us are still not back to the 2005 prices. Sorry for going off topic a bit, but really; isn't this the reason people want fender tags on their cars? If it didn't affect value, why make em up?

And yes, I really do like "swapman's" fender tags. Awesome, funny, one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Mark