Age of "new" tires

I guess I was lucky getting 19th week of 2022 Cooper Cobras installed 3 weeks ago. Local tire shop and he had to order them. I checked the dates before they started to mount the tires.
I had had 48 year old NOS Goodyear Rally GTs on the car mounted about 18 months ago and put about 300 miles on them while sorting out the car. One of the front tires developed cracks a couple months ago. Fortunately, I had an extra NOS to replace it and the shop mounted it. Radials are on now and who know if the old bias plies ever go back on.
Old rubber is good if it was stored properly. New rubber is of poor quality and deteriorates quickly in the sun. If a cars sit outside I would check the sidewalks of the tire regularly, especially close to the rim. And yes, sounds like a BS story from the shop.