Being taken by memorabilia dealers- my new 430…

Bought a 430 scuderia from a nice private owner. He mentioned someone reached out to him during his ownership who had the original manuals and service book with stamped vin.


I contacted the guy and he claims a broker sold him the papers after the broker sold the car to a Ferrari store. This makes no sense. A more likely scenario, he was given the books after a broker or owner found them post sale and had no use for them.


He had reached out to the previous owner of my scud and said he had some items he may want that belonged to the car. PO I bought it from didn’t respond but forwarded me his email from a year ago with contact information.

I reached out and he asked me for an exorbitant amount of money for the papers… I did not appreciate that seeing as I’m his only buyer, but he claimed he had a dealer who wanted to buy them for $3500 and resell for $5,000. I only needed the service book with my vin, but he claimed he had to sell the whole lot as this other dealer wanted the stamped service book. Why would anyone else want a service book with my VIN on it?


I didn’t buy the car to flip it but I would obviously appreciate any documentation that came with the car. I expressed to him that I felt his numbers and conversation were very opportunistic. I made him an offer that was more than what some similar prices online were, and he called it a low ball and blocked me.


Does anyone have an idea of how or where I can find a blank service book?

It appears to me these “dealers” business model is likely buying and posting up these vin specific books to see if an owner of a car will pay up for them, knowing they’re valuable to only that buyer.

Experiences like this just go to show how decent guys like Ferrari of Houston are, giving the books to rightful owners for free, rather than extorting them.