[trader220]

Agreed... this new market for thees cars has changed the game a great deal. Its no longer a hobby for me when I have to think twice about where I park because my car is no longer a $25k car.

These sorts of zero value added flippers are making their money now and when the market cools off ( read that as prices stabilize, not go down) they'll back off and find the next hot market.

As you and others have pointed out, these guys don't know jack about the cars and add nothing to them. Historically their business model is to take shots in the hot markets. If they can do enough volume at high margin, if they pick up a clunker every once in a while, in their book they just hope they've sold enough winners to suck up a loser every once in a while. That way they don't have to miss a car doing a PPI or put anything into the cars. The way the market is they know someone else will buy it and they probably don't want to deal with the knowledgeable picky buyer.

Its not unlike trading in any market. 20 years on a couple of options trading floors and I would see the same forces at work. Guys would be in one pit for years and then all of a sudden one of the issues in that pit gets hot in a take over battle and all of a sudden there are 20 new market makers in that pit. All of a sudden there are 20 to 30 k options contracts a day trading in that issue. Where were those guys for the last 2 years when that issue was doing 3k contracts a day?