Quote:
Originally Posted by trader220
I was making a point that keeping a car for a month or 20 years means at some point you flipped it.
Unless someone is holding every car they ever bought then they have flipped a car.
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I think you are being overly broad in your definition of the term.
The difference between buying & selling and "flipping" is admittedly vague, though.
Every dealer buys cars with the express intention of selling them at a profit, and the less money they spend on the car from purchase to sale -- the greater the profit. That is the goal, after all.
Does a "flip" just define a fast resale, or is there some implicit dishonesty involved? Such as:
- exploiting a buyer who doesn't know what they are selling. Not illegal, and not exactly dishonest. Seller has an obligation to know what he is selling. Cavete Vendit is just as relevant as Caveat Emptor.
But this principle definitely gets dodgy at the margins -- like exploiting the widow who thinks her dead hubby's dormant '67S is a VW bug, for example. Getting a "bargain" approaches stealing when you know you are buying an item for pennies on the dollar and you are aware the seller doesn't have any understanding of what the item is. It may be legal, but ethical principles should be higher than the law.
- buying a car with know issues for a discount, then masking the issues (without fixing them) and selling at a big profit. This is obviously dishonest, and is where many dealers get a deservedly bad name.
I'm sure this is all well-trod ground on this board.