I was truly amazed at how small a percentage of returns that were listed in the NCRS clubs recent balance sheet published in the Corvette restorer. As a "non-profit" they have to reveal certain information to the public. It certainly is a good thing they don't have to deal with the correctness issue of their parts, i.e. proprietary manuals because some of the information in them is plain bunk.

I've come to this conclusion from many club member who wanted parts that did not exhist except in the NCRS judging guides. Like stainless radio bezels in 1967 and AC horns mounted the way you would guess from reading an Assembly Manual - not a real Corvette.

In the former example, either the author never held a radio bezel in his or her hand or they don't know the difference between anodized Aluminum and stainless steel and they are authoring a technical manual. I'll bet most housewives could tell the difference between these two base metals.

In the latter example, the author merely faked that section and never saw a real AC Corvette. Fudging it. Well intentioned amateur week end warriors that are driving the process. I'm not saying all is bad but come on, the 4th edition of a manual and it's the same. I'm also convinced nobody proof reads these for accuracy. (Don't volunteer me, I don't work for free and I don't have thousands of unpaid volunteers on my staff.)

Getting back to the rate of return based upon their volume, they a 2006 revenue of $933,324 of which $277,339 is "club sale items" and their was $549 in refunds. Amazing only .0019 rate of return.

For the sake of comparison, in the past couple years I read some Corvette Fever or Vette magazine blather article where David Walker of Zip boasted they had 2 girls just to handle their returns. Wow from one extreme of $549. in refunds to two employees just to handle returns.