Buyer Beware!
On our sister site www.TalladegaSpoilerRegistry.com we constantly track the sale of for sale status of the 1969 Ford Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler/Spoiler II and related cars. On that site we recently provided everyone with an update on the sale of a number of cars at auctions and other outlets over the past few weeks. One of those cars is already back on the market. The 1969 Mercury Cyclone Cale Yarborough Spoiler which sold at Mecum Palm Beach for $26,000 plus commission is now for sale on eBay. The new owner has even provided a copy of the Marti Report. Unfortunately, he did not consult the Talladega Spoiler Registry site before bidding.
Although he got what appears to be a very good car and recent restoration with a desirable 428 CJ Ram Air, the buyer did not purchase a 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler. He has a very desirable and equally rare 1969 Mercury Cyclone GT Pre-Spoiler dressed up to look like the real deal but missing some critical details.
The VIN is 9H15Q538746 with a build date of 12-27-68. The Mercury Cyclone Spoilers were not built until after Jan. 1, 1969 and Pre-Spoilers or what are sometimes called Color Code cars were built prior to that time but stopped on 12-31-68. The Data Plate located on the driver side door shows a blank in the “Color” location, a real Spoiler will have the proper MX (Dan Gurney Special) or MT (Cale Yarborough Special) code.
It is possible that neither the seller or the buyer knew the difference and it was likely a lack of information that allowed this mistake to take place. The lesson learned here is to do your homework and question anything that does not look right.
There were a number of clues that suggest this was not a real Spoiler. If you want to know more check out our Forum Post on this car that was up prior to the Auction.
As for other cars, don’t buy any collector car without first checking the VIN and Data Plate with reputable decoder references or web sites. With the price of muscle cars remaining higher than their more plain Jane counterparts the temptation to attempt to pass one off as the more valub
