Old Ownership Titles

Does anyone know the laws, issues or other ramifications involved in selling an old title for a car that no longer exists? Is such a title useful to someone who owns a similar car that is without one? The case in point is a 1940 Packard 110 Certificate of Title, issued on March 31st, 1970 in the State of Washington, for a parts car that has long since been scrapped. I was a teenager then and was surprised to just discover that I still had the title but here we are.

Has to have a matching vin plate to be useful, but those can be purchased blank and punched with the correct number. I've done it for a jeep and several fire trucks, since fire trucks seldom were titled. In those cases I did actually have a title but whoever made them used the wrong number or made one up so I had to make a plate that matched.

The sheriff who comes to inspect here in Colorado doesn't seem to care as long as they match. I suppose it could be illegal in some way but it's a victimless crime. It cost over a thousand dollars for a friend to get a title for his Amphicar through a title service so it's worth some money if your car matches an available title.

But you are just selling a neat old piece paper, what someone does with it.......

That's pretty much what I thought. In the past I've bought Packards with a title that had the wrong engine number and during the trasfer to my name it was easy enough to have the car re-verified and the error corrected. Once I bought an early 1940, sold in late '39, where the title had somehow ended up with the wrong year and even that was correctable. Of course, the DMV wanted to stamp a number on the chassis but I refused so they relented and corrected the error.

I've gone ahead and posted it with a scan in the Classified Ads of my Packards / Imperials Page in case anyone is interested and it is far cheaper than going through a title company!