I'm stepping back now but in closing at all points I wished the seller best of luck with sale for what is obviously a great wheel a box from what looks like the eighties. I imagine the buyer if they read the to and fro knows what it is and so should be very happy. Why would seller say sold if not - I don't doubt that. While obviously there are no absolutes and many exceptions on old stuff and some folks don't give a cr@p on authenticity. Or don't do due diligence ..them we hear the stories of not being the real thing when later they reach to ESR or help on car or part or whatever that is not to spec.
I simply shared and restated (and restated again in face of dismissiveness) what I know to be true and substanated But wasn't believed. Nothing personal against seller who I don't even know but think is a very experienced guy and certainly not impuning any reputations. Doubt we'll fall out over a storm on a teacup.
On the other hand when a number of experienced owners with knowledge and researched facts bother to intervene on the listing but are waived away dismisively by folks for some reason regarded as having ALL THE knowledge it is a turn off to inclusiveness. If folks who post unsubstantiated claim in face of multiple fact based proof choose to leave board then so be it. I doubt their egos are that fragile and surely all can learn.
On the other hand if a few folks can wave away inconvenient facts that may lose folks and probably over time dents integrity of the ESR as the source of best fact based knowledge. Breadth of input especially if substantiated should be welcomed certainly not the preserve just a handful of keepers of the knowledge. By the way Jim who is mentioned acknowledges in his 380 thread his earlier assertions were wrong based on input from Clyde and Brian iirc -- that's the proper way to do it imo -- but that acknowledgement was then regularly overlooked or ignored.
As a long term owner and researcher of RS I regularly find some folks "don't know their RS from their elbow" no matter how experienced or regarded they are among the circle. Doubt that is case with the seller who I hear is very knowledgeable and very experienced.
At the Rennsport event in UK an owner who owned and raced his original RS since 80s learned something from a comment during a discussion around a car he knew well and he was gracious in saying he'd learned something from the observation.. Not defensive or threatened. That is the point. Are facts when corroborated so threatening. After all I didn't make the unsubstantiated RS initial claim. I don't feel bad challenging it - if done by using many words, so what; it was correct after all. However this is spun correcting that original claim is not on the wrong side of this discussion. I didn't make the claim that is unsubstantiated.
No need to attack seller integrity though, but they could be more gracious once the facts established. This is a hobby and a community helping one another ...supposedly. I am irritated by the way this is still being spun even when the facts are pointing firmly to a beyond reasonable doubt conclusion. That is unhealthy culturally and if accepted as the underlying values here given the raison d'etre of the forum.
"Conventional wisdom of the dominant group" is dubbed COWDUNG for some reason among circles who think deeply about cultural behaviour, change and so forth : )
All ears if something new factual emerges of course.