Both Edelbrock and Holley sell "reman" versions of some of their carbs that were in fact returns, but they supposedly clean and test them. New gaskets might be installed if necessary. The carbs are reset to factory spec, reboxed, and shipped. Other than some witness marks around the bolt holes, they're indistinguishable from a new carburetor. Those carbs are never sold as new, and the part number on the box will not match the number stamped in the carburetor itself. As an example, a "reman" Edelbrock 1406 would have 6406 on the box (the latter's a guess but you get the idea).
If the carb smelled of gasoline when you first removed it from the box, then it was returned, put back on a shelf somewhere, and re-shipped without going back to Edelbrock. If it didn't stink, it was probably as Edelbrock shipped it.
It's worth mentioning that Edelbrock's quality control has apparently gone in the crapper in the last several years. If not since Vic Jr. died, it's certainly been since they left California. I haven't experienced it personally since I rarely if ever use their parts, but I've read enough around the interwebs to know things have gone sideways, particularly with their heads and intakes. At least one longtime racer/porting guru/Edelbrock head fan was recommending Speedmaster heads if one was going to have work done. Edelbrock castings had gotten inconsistent, with terrible core shift and porous castings. The issues were not exclusive to Edelbrock's Chrysler offerings, they seemed to be across the board. He claimed--not happily--that Speedmaster's raw castings were consistently better, but the machining needed to be checked and sometimes corrected. This was around the time I bought my Speedmaster heads, but in fairness it had no bearing on my purchase. Unless they were dirt cheap, I wouldn't have bought Edelbrocks for my purposes.
