One more comment you made that I forgot to address was that of ebay and the vehicles that are listed with conflicting years. In defence of those who legitimately list gray market vehicles (a comment which might seem to cover lots which are not legitimate) are the sellers who get slammed by people unfamiliar with the gray market rules of the late 70s, and all the '80s. The ebay formats which a lister has to endure are written by part time college kids, long on IT, and short on experience. The Ebay Motors format does not allow vehicles beyond a certain year, which don't also have a 17 digit VIN. The US adaopted the 17 digit format well before many other countries, but vehicles allowed into the US during the 5 year gray market period did not all have 17 digit VIN numbers. There are hundreds of brain dead DMV employees, accusing potential registrants of fraud, when it simply comes down to their ignorance. My son's Stage one was registered from day one in NY, one of the toughest states for DMV regs. It was subsequently reregistered in RI (not so tough), where my son purchased it. The hoops the AK registry put my son through when he took his truck out there was seemingly endless, until the guy he bought it from sent him a duplicate registration from RI. He then got his plates, with no apologies.
I find it pretty unfair for people on the various boards to start threads which, by inference, make the seller out to be some shyster trying to pull a fast one and profit from the sale of an illegal vehicle, when much of the time it boils down to either no knowledge of past import rules, or, frankly, jealousy.