Some people just don't know what they have
 

...and it can be a real problem. I went to buy a set of "283 power pack" heads. He wanted $100 for the set and thought that was great deal. I was sadly disappointed with what I found when I got there. A set of plain old 283 2 barrel heads. 1.72 intake valves and small runners. How do you mistake THOSE for power pack heads? While I was standing there, he called them "double hump" heads. Really? Do you see two half circles on the head or just a rectangle with a peak in the middle?

It was a wasted trip except for looking at the SUPER COOL '55 Chevy pick up he had in the garage. The truck was beautiful. I just wish the heads were too.

Been there done that, before. Claim to be special or in the best shape you have every seen and turn out to be junk. Sorry to hear you wasted a trip, but you did get to see a cool 55.

On the flip-side, sometimes it works in a guys favor.

Yes it does, I purchased a deep grove crank pulley for a LS 6 or L78 motor at a swap meet a few weeks back in its original box and has never been installed. I see them going for around $400 or more after checking what it might be worth. I didn't pay anywhere near that price for it. I had no idea what motor it went on when I got it, took a chance because I needed a deep grove pulley.

One of my other cars is a 59 chev 2 door wagon.

I went to a small swapmeet a few miles from here.... this one seller had a this mustang stuff so I sorta walked on by but I saw he had a cardboard box that said "$10 for all" .. it was a complete set of taillight lenses, buckets and bezel for a 59 chev, chrome strips on lenses meant "upgraded" factory set ..... PLUS two headlight buckets for the same 59.

I bought them and the guy says what do they fit? I told him and he says "That makes sense. My girlfriends ex had one of those. She said "Just get rid of them"!!

They are worth about 400

Sometimes you do luck out. I bought a pile of 70 Malibu stuff from a guy, craigslist ad. All I wanted was the horns, hard to find horns with the flat mount bars for a 70. Got several horns, some windshield chrome moldings, front sway bar, power steering pump and a few other parts. Don't remember the price but it wasn't much.

We bought a 327 SBC engine that was supposed to be good and hubby tore into it to find that it was not rebuildable. It had chrome rings or something like that meaning it had been bored to the max and was no good to rebuild. We did keep the heads which are true double hump heads and used the oil pan but most of the rest when to a friend for scrap.
You win some you lose some! In this case $300 but at least we have the heads for rebuilding later on.

I've looked at numerous so-called "Rock Crusher" 4-speeds that turned out to be Saginaws...