Holley 'Tri Power' carburetors for '67 - '69 Chevy Corvette, $15.

These carburetors were sitting on a table in the middle of the driveway. When I asked the seller how much he wanted for them, he told me that '$15 would do it.' These Holley Tri-Power carburetors cost a fortune to buy new back in the day, and vintage ones can be worth even more nowadays because of the great collector value of the cars they'll be used on. Having paid the guy for these carbs... I naturally had to ask him where the intake manifold was that these carburetors went on, and he said, 'Oh, that's still on the car. I'm not selling that.' Have you noticed anything wrong here yet?

I could understand why this guy would give away a thousand dollars' worth of car parts if he didn't know anything about them. If they had belonged to an old roommate, for example, or if he'd gotten them at an auction, this whole scenario would've made more sense. We were just looking for some way we could attribute the low price to his ignorance of how valuable these things really are. But we couldn't do that, because they came right off his own valuable muscle car!

Now, what's the big deal with these Tri Power carburetors? The answer to that question is muscle car. Something you absolutely must be aware of is the fact that there are many thousands of eBay users who fanatically collect, restore, drive and show those incredible cars from Detroit's muscle era, which started in the early 1960's and went absolutely nuts, with faster and wilder cars being introduced every year until around 1970, when several events conspired to end the fun once and for all. First came the skyrocketing insurance rates for these powerful and dangerous cars. Then, there was was the Clean Air Act of 1970, which called for pollution control devices that ended up sapping much of these cars' performance. Then, the oil embargo of 1973 limited the supply of gasoline. I think most folks will informally agree that the end of the muscle car era occurred around 1972.

The muscle car era is unique in that it's a chapter in automotive history that could only have been written in America, with our cheap (at the time) gasoline, our wide open spaces, and our penchant for pursuing high performance through brute force rather than the finesse of, say, Ferrari or Porsche. But this era did serve the important purpose of demonstrating that you could get good performance out of a relatively low priced car, and that people didn't have to drive underpowered dogs just because they couldn't afford a Lamborghini!

Now, back to these carburetors. Anyone who's ever been out of their house knows the name Chevrolet Corvette, because the 'Vette has been at the forefront of American automotive performance since it was introduced way back in 1953. Understandably, the Chevy Corvette was kept at the fore of the 1960's muscle car craze, packing some of the baddest motors ever shoehorned under a car hood. A testament to the Chevy Corvette's spot in the muscle car pecking order is the fact that although the Holley Tri-Power carburetor setup had been around since the 1950's, the advent of better-performing four-barrel carburetors in the mid 1960's made them increasingly less important for high-performance applications. Nevertheless, in 1967, General Motors deemed that the only General Motors application to receive this triple carburetor setup would be the 400 and 435 horsepower versions of the 427 cubic-inch engine (the baddest motor of its time and an automotive legend in itself) in the Corvette.

The important lesson about these carburetors is that we have here a very rare and desirable high performance part that was only offered for two years. For the guy who wants to bring his 1967 through 1969 Corvette back to original condition, these carburetors are a 'must have.' Many of the remaining Chevrolet Corvettes of this vintage are now show cars, and the more original a car is, the more points it'll get at a show. The guy who's just after something for his 'daily driver' Corvette may not need - or even want - the Holley Tri-Power carburetor setup on his car. But for the purist, there's no other choice.

Wait a minute... if these carbs are for a 1960's car, why are they in boxes that look like something right of a contemporary parts house? Well, the fact is that you can buy new versions of these Tri-Power carburetors today, and they come in boxes just like these. But if you look at the sticker on the side of each box, you'll see the real story. Back in 1999, these OEM carbs were sent to Eckler's, a highly-respected supplier of new and used Corvette parts, where they were reconditioned to factory-fresh specifications. The guy just never got around to putting them back on his car. So, after Eckler's rebuilt these carburetors, they simply put them in new carburetor boxes for shipment back to the owner. That explains the mystery of the old carbs in the new boxes. By the way, Eckler's also has a huge website where they sell every accessory you can imagine for Chevy Corvettes.

The answer to how old these carburetors really are lies in that cluster of numbers stamped into their air horns (the top part that sticks up out of the body of the carburetor) in the above pics. The last three-digit number tells the story, because that's the date stamp that Holley used back then. The first digit signifies the year, the second is the month and the third is the week.

An interesting note here is that Holley switched to a four-digit date code after 1972, which means that if you come across a four-digit date code, you may well be out of the muscle car era.

There's one last, very important thing to mention here. You'll notice that in many Gallery entries, especially those with the profit potential we have here, I go into what appears to be more depth and detail than anyone could realistically be expected to know. The most damaging impression I could give you here is that you have to be an all-knowing wizard with the knowledge of the ages in your head to be successful in this business. The fact is that some of my Gallery entries are the result of lots of research and learning on my part, because you deserve as much information I can provide you with. But notice that at the time I bought these carbs, I didn't know everything I detail above... but neither did I have to! One look at the '1967-69 Corvette' and the '427' on the box was more than I needed to make this deal a go.

If you want to learn about how you can profit from the muscle car craze on eBay, the Chevy Corvette is a great place to start. Corvette parts and accessories can make you lots of money on eBay if you're willing to take a few minutes and research a bit about this incredible opportunity!

This set of Holley 'Tri Power' carburators sold on eBay for $1150.