I had no idea, Joe.
It sucks that my good fortune came at the direct expense of someone else, so to speak.
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I'll recap my entire experience, as best as I can remember it...
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I was scanning Craigslist & Facebook Marketplace as I do on a continuous basis and found the ad for this package. It was relatively late on Friday evening, 4-13-2018. The price was $2,500. The thing that caught my was that the air cleaner assembly (base and the filters) was a 1969 A12 unit, and I needed one for my 1969 A12 4-speed Super Bee. I had no interest in the small block Six Pack set-up itself, or the fiberglass air cleaner lid.
I called first thing Saturday morning (4-14-2018) and finally got a call back an hour or two later. He admitted to not really knowing anything about the set-up and stated that he was simply selling it on behalf of his customer. The story was that they were de-tuning the radical small block street/strip Duster and were removing the Six Pack in favor of a fuel injection set-up. As the conversation was drawing to en end, I offered to buy just the air cleaner assembly, however that was simply not an option. I then offered $2,000 and would bring him the payment immediately (Wrenchers hot rod shop is about an hour drive from my house) to which he replied that was not enough and he already had a standing offer of $2,200 (I am now assuming that was you?...mind you he made no mention that there was any deposit taken, nor that it was anything more than a standing offer). With that I simply said alright, and before I could consider offering any more I'd have to lay eyes on it.
I thought about it all night Saturday and all darn day Sunday. I couldn't imagine it would be an original A12 air cleaner base on a small block hot rod Duster, so I had to assume it was a steel reproduction from
www.shakerhood.com. Even so, it still had some value to me, but I figured if it were a repop, it was about an $1,100 air cleaner assembly (with both filers and the fiberglass lid) and the running Six Pack set-up on the intake was probably worth ~$1,400. So his $2,500 price to me seemed to be all the money it was worth.
The photos were horrible in the ad, but I kept convincing myself it was an original. Monday morning finally arrived (4-16-2018) and instead of heading to work on, I headed straight out to Novi to personally verify if this system was worth sweating over any longer. It was without question an original 1969 A12 air cleaner base, and that was all I was truly after.
I offered him $2,300 on the spot OR (my ace in the hole, I would come to find out) I would do a cash + trade for my brand new in box / unopened Holley Sniper EFI unit that I had just purchased for my own Duster 360 4-speed project about a week before all this.
Bill stated that he would run both of my offers by the owner and see what direction they wanted to go, but in the meantime he had me e-mail a couple of photos of my Holley Sniper EFI system to him so he could properly consider the offer. I did so the following day.
A couple days later (4-19-2018) I spoke with Bill again and the deal between him and I was struck. The feal I made was my Holley Sniper EFI system (purchased from Summit Racing off eBay for $900...regular price $1,000, however I had a 10% rebate coupon from eBay) and $1,500 cash ($2,400 out of my pocket). I immediately went up there that evening around 8:00pm and gave him the EFI system and all the cash. I took the air cleaner assembly then and there so it was safe and sound with me.
Fast forward two months (6-5-2018), and I picked up the intake and carbs as they were finally removed from the Duster (the car went out for some paint work, and I was a-okay with waiting since I already had what I wanted in my possession and my plan for the intake and carbs. was to simply re-sell them anyways, to recoup most of my initial $2,400 investment.
The carbs ended up being a 1969 A12 4-speed center carb. (List # 4391) with the 1972 440 Six Pack outboard carbs (6405, 6406).
I knew the center carb. was an A12 4-speed unit, however I never jesr of the numbers on the outboard carbs. I actually assumed they were from a non-Mopar application.
I just found out what there application was yesterday (6-10-2018).
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As an aside...He also had a second set of Six Pack carburetors sitting on a one piece 1" thick billet aluminum Six Pack carb spacer for $1,000 at the time of the original complete system listing.
I never had an interest in these, and apparently neither did anyone else...however I noticed the price dropped to $750 a week or two before I picked up the intake and carbs. So when I was there to pick up my intake & carbs. (on 6-5-2018) I offered him $500 for the loose set, and we eventually agreed to $600.
These carbs ended up being a 1970 440 4-speed center (List 4375), a 1969 440 rear (List 4394-1), and a 1970 340 rear (List 4789)
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So I bought all the Six Pack stuff he had for $3,000 out of my pocket.
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That is how things went from my side...
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