Sometimes, the position that wholesale market pricing drives the retail market can cause a stir from those who proclaim that only what an enthusiast is willing to pay for that next shiny Corvette drives the market. And yes, that position isn’t completely out of line. But, as a used-car dealer for 17 years, when my fellow dealers were out at the dealer-only wholesale auctions buying frantically and paying “whatever it takes”, that was driven by the retail activity. And that hyper retail activity will cause wholesale prices to increase. [Author’s Note: This market report is FREE and not behind a paywall. Yes, FREE! If/when any pop-ups appear, please click to dismiss them and continue enjoying the article. One may require two steps–first, the arrow on the left, then the x on the top right.]
I can surely attest that if things were slow on my lot, I wasn’t out buying them up at the dealer-to-dealer auctions. And, I certainly wasn’t paying wholesale at the auction to sell it for under wholesale on my retail lot. Years ago, I got into a back-and-forth with an acquaintance on the Corvette Forum when he said what I paid at the auction was irrelevant. He claimed the retail market was independent of the wholesale market, and they weren’t tied together. In simple terms, he was wrong. He said take the loss on that nice truck; what you paid at the auction doesn’t matter. Sure, the retail market could fall (or crash) after a dealer makes that wholesale purchase, but that would be rare in the 30-50 days it takes a dealer to sell a unit.
If you are new today, I developed these exclusive wholesale market reports 66 weeks ago to give enthusiasts and shoppers insights into the market. If you want to check out interesting wholesale trends, especially as we moved from the Florida to the Texas market, we have our full archives below today’s results. In this week’s report, we have a battle between two of the top wholesale dealers, Texas Auto Value and GiveMeTheVin, so sit back and enjoy because these dealers like to hammer their wholesale Corvettes!
