maybe this wouldnt work as well as i think but maybe it would,
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if someone wrote a program that had a database of known serial number ranges for differeing company's/models that you would input your serial number and it would give you possible match's to help narrow down your search. This would not work with some of the smaller custom company's but I think it might still work often enough to be worthwhile. I dont know enough about how different the serial number ranges are between companies to know how viable this is... and it would take some time/effort before it had enough info in it to be worthwhile.