Not always NOS items

[Suzsmokeyallan]

A customer showed me a photo of a gauge he bought (for a princely sum) from a reputable seller which was supposed to be an NOS item. After waiting for it arrive to him, he then attempted to use it on his bike only to find the needle was bouncing all over the place.
See the photo he sent to me of the gauge.



After contacting me about it, he wanted it looked at along with some other gauges for restoration. As luck would have it, only that gauge got broken in the mail package to me, but thankfully the damage was done only to the glass and not the face.



Once I had the gauge in my hand, on closer inspection I could see the gauge had been opened before in such a way most people wouldn't notice, and this was what I found inside.






Needless to say hes not happy to begin with his costly purchase and more so now about whats hes seeing inside the gauge. This whole scenario now needs to be put right to make this gauge usable again.

Please be very careful when buying any parts considered NOS that are expensive, ask lots of questions and get as much photos as possible to have an overall visual idea of the condition of what you are buying.

[pearljam724]

I surely can attest to this. There are a few fraudulent large sellers on Ebay that make this false claim. The most recent similar experience I had was with the most popular 2 stroke seller in the U.S. I bought both the front and rear main harness from that seller that was claiming both to be NOS. As most Buffalo restorers would know, the front main harness is no longer available through Suzuki. Neither of my front or rear harness was in bad condition. But, the front one was a rats nest with some splicing here and there. So, I figured the new harnesses would grant me wanted time as I am nearing my completion and focus on the remaining several things I need to do. Turned out, that so called NOS front harness was recently built with 18 gauge wire. Not matching the rear harness gauge of 16 or the original front harness gauge. To boot, a few connectors did not mate with the originals. Had I known this, I would have never paid $200 for the both of them. I would have taken the time to restore my original harness. But, I couldn't see that problem from a picture. Until, I received them. There is only one seller on Ebay. That lives up to that promise of NOS parts that I have experienced. Quite a few crooks.