[Ron Wood]

Dealers were partially responsible for the practice. Some lowlife individuals would purchase a gun with 3-day inspection. The reason for buying was that the last two digits of the serial number matched a mis-matched piece they already owned. The dealer would get back the gun at the end of the inspection period and refund the purchase price, only to find out later that parts had been swapped out. So dealers resorted to obscuring the last digits to prevent this swindle. With the advent of Internet selling, photos have pretty much made this non-effective, but not listing the full serial number still hangs on.