[njsteve]

The NICB records were more easily available in years past, than they are today. With recent, more stringent privacy laws, NICB now requires a law enforcement case number to link to the request.

The shipping records came from the auto manufacturers' assembly plant records and they are far from complete. Some plants never sent their records, some lost the records.

An example of a case I saw an NICB printout for was when a fourth, "1 of 3" 1970 hemi Roadrunner ragtops popped up for sale and some local law enforcement people were very suspicious. A check of that VIN in the NICB database revealed that it was originally a 383 car that someone created a new VIN plate for and put in the hemi engine code. It confirmed that the VIN RM27R0XXXXXX didn't exist, but the exact same numerical VIN RM27N0XXXXXX did.

The NICB data will show only three things: 1) The VIN, 2) the date of shipment and 3) the destination dealer code.