Quote:

....the rhetoric opining that documentation shouldn't be worth anything is largely irrelevant...



Hi Dave! I don't think that anyone is trying to say that the Broadcast sheet should not be "worth anything." The problem is that in some respects, the paperwork has become more significant than the actual vehicle it supposedly represents. Here is a scenario that actually happened a few years ago to a customer of mine. He bought a car but it did not have the Broadcast sheet when he bought it. At a later date he was contacted by the seller who said that he had come across some items (paperwork) while cleaning out his file cabinet. The seller wanted more money, NOT for the paperwork but for THE CAR that he had sold him a few months earlier! He would have been better off to tell the guy he wanted X amount for the Build sheet but he actually said the car was NOW worth more than what he sold it for! He said he would only give up the paperwork if the buyer agreed to pay the additional amount! While that PERCEPTION of value may have been true, what actually changed about the car? Did the vehicle morph itself into a different model when the paper work was discovered? Absolutely not! The car was exactly what it was regardless of the paperwork being found. Finding the Build sheet allowed the car to accurately be verified but in reality NOTHING changed with what he bought. (At least it was no longer a candidate for a parts car! )

It is similar to saying that a stick of gum isn't worth chewing unless you keep the wrapper! Having the wrapper might make you "feel better" about knowing that someone else hasn't touched it but there is no change in the actual piece of gum! What is more important....the gum or the wrapper? Paperwork only brings reassurance to the buyer or owner of the car. Sometimes paperwork adds value to a vehicle that is worth LESS than it actually is. Isn't THAT just as bad as "faking" paperwork to add value to a car? Why should "real" paperwork allow a lessor car to somehow be considered more valuable? Same logic only in reverse! It is the proverbial cart before the horse. How can one be acceptable while the other frowned upon?


PS....Speaking of gum wrappers, when I was a kid I chewed one of those aluminum wrappers that Juicy Fruit gum sticks come in and thought I had bit into a ball of needles! You can't do that when you have metal dental fillings.