NOS

Q: NOS

I keep seeing NOS in parts catalogs. What does it stand for?

A: NOS is New/Old Stock, which means leftover factory replacement parts. Many people pay ridiculous amounts of money for NOS stuff, but there are problems. The first is that the parts that went to the bins were sometimes the assembly line rejects, called “seconds” so they are not as good a quality as what went on the car. Also, since a lot of NOS kicked around the shelves of warehouses and dealers and swap meets, they are usually “shelf-worn” or “shop-worn”, so that is strike two.

Next problem is scam artists who sell used parts that can pass for new, and the trick is to keep the NOS part’s box, put the used part in it, and when selling the “NOS” part, ask the customer if he doesn’t mind not gettng the box, since he only wants the part to go on the car. The customer frequently agrees, and he’s been scammed, as well as the next few guys. This happened to me on a 1969 power top switch. I can’t remember the guys name, but he’s a bent-up little guy about 5’2″ tall who sells GTO parts, this was at a POCI convention in Ohio, probably Cleveland.

Hemmings Motor News always had a page in front that listed all the common abbreviations used in their ads.

Any proposed updates, changes, pictures, and/or corrections, please use our comment section below (may need to click on permalink to access comments feature). Information is subject to change and offered as is without any warranties or guarantees. Please review our Term's Of Use for more information.