A friend bid on a lot of 427 NOS blocks when Ford was getting rid of them in 1979. He and another friend won the bid for some 53 NOS 427 blocks. The auction was sealed bid, with the parts FOB Fred Jones distribution center here in Tulsa.
As it turned out a lot of them had issues with the assembly or machine work and had been returned to Ford dealers across the country. While they were all fixable, and he was not too upset since the bid was just $200 each, they were not truly as advertised.
As you related it pays to examine so - called "NOS" parts carefully.
I am dismayed how that version of Lucas ended up in the Ford service parts program. I would be so ticked off to open your box only to find those!
Talk about box shock! A few years back I bought a box of the C8ZZ lamps in the service recall campaign stamp on the box expecting to find the Lucas lamps inside. To my surprise when I opened it was the pair of Marchal fog lamp they had taken off and replaced. Basically new old stock takeoffs so at the end of the day it was a pretty good buy
That is a all too common story that I hear tell of and have experienced first hand over the years of finding the take off in the new replacement box .In Tim's case it was OK given the new take off part replaced Unfortunately not so for most. Also interestingly enough many parts new in the box parts that were found to be defective were placed back in the box and on the shelf were mainly electrical type items . They didn't get sent back for some reason and ended up in the hands of parts pickers cleaning out shelves. It is hard to tell sometimes of if the defective electrical part is bad until it is tried to be put back into service. It can be hard to convince someone trying to sell a part that is supposed to be NOS (typically on ebay) that it is the takeoff put back into the new box. They can't believe their lying eyes and the new box is what they go by and you can not convince them otherwise.