A little over a year ago, I purchased what I thought was a genuine Colt M4 upper from YTM (aka www.blackrifle.com). I didn't know much about M4 markings until I read a link today titled "M4 markings and explanation":

[url=http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=42595[/url]

Curious of the fact, I dug out the m4 upper I bought from YTM and started looking for the tell tale markings.  While the identifications appear to be Colt, it was certainly NOT the real M4.  In fact, I compared it to another Colt M4 upper I purchased elsewhere, and there is definitely a huge disparities in terms of markings.  I felt something was wrong when this upper arrived with an A2 birdcage that looked worn (35% of it is bare metal) coupled with a chipped M4 hand guard.  I'm just wondering if anyone else has had bad experience with YTM?  I just hope my case was isolated and that it was a honest mistake?

I have bought several items from YTM for several years. They are even recommended by Colt as a source of parts in armorers school. That said, I think you got caught in the "garage sale" of parts Colt put on to raise some cash a little over a year ago. These were often parts that didn't make the milspec grade, and were not bad enough to trash. So, they threw a bunch of the borderline stuff together and aired it out. Didn't help Colt's name a lot. It did however, raise some capital when they were in dire need due to the BS lawsuits brought by a bunch of money grubbing politicians. YTM merely sold what they could get from Colt. All the really good stuff went into the contract for M4's for XVIII Airborne Corp and a few other M4 contracts.

Stg44,
I went with YTM for the the same reason you had mentioned - authorize Colt's reseller.  Perhaps I got caught in a bad time.  Thanks for your reply.  

The web site had been showing out of stock for some time now. I tried to pull it up. No response. I'll try the phone # tomorrow.  

About two months ago, an employee stated they will discontinued selling Colt products as they could no longer get a hold of them.