Are Porsche Flippers Misunderstood? Is It Time to Stop Hatin’?
The personal story of a prominent Porsche flipper might not change your mind on the controversial topic, but it will make you think.
Car-flipping has always been a controversial, hot button topic. But in recent years, incredible stories revolving around incredible profits have spawned a massive backlash. This is particularly true with limited edition Porsche vehicles, which have been raking in amazing sums on the secondary market. Things got bad enough, in fact, that they motivated the automaker to blacklist any suspected Porsche flipper.
As a general rule, most enthusiasts loathe flippers, who they perceive as evil people taking advantage of a situation in the name of profit. We simply label these folks as greedy and self-serving, which, of course, they are. But many a person (and business) has become rich over the years by identifying and seizing an opportunity. So, do flippers deserve the backlash?
In this fascinating video from VINwiki, we get to hear renowned Porsche flipper Doug Tabbutt tell his side of the story. At the ripe age of 20, Tabbutt took his $4,000 savings and used it to circumvent the system. A system, as he points out, that seems rigged to keep things exclusive. Tabbutt says he had to “work and claw his way up in the exotic car business, which is not easy to do because everybody’s backed by guys with huge amounts of money.”
After considerable work, Tabbutt’s first big moment came when a broker emailed him looking for a Porsche 993 GT2. After a quick email to one of his collector clients, he suddenly had a line on two of them. One of which became his first million dollar sale, and served as the first in a series of profitable Porsche flips. All by doing nothing more than acting as the middleman between buyer and seller.
Most deals, however, aren’t that easy. Tabbutt says that most involve “eight people, tons of moving parts, you can’t get a VIN number,” and other difficulties that he must navigate. Regardless, he moved countless Range Rovers and Nissan GT-R’s, raking in tons of cash along the way. But as he admits, he “really hit his stride” when Porsche rolled out the GT3 RS.
Tabbutt managed to secure 15 allocations for the car through a host of dealerships, which, as he says, was “pretty much impossible.” With deposits in place and contracts typed up, it was only a matter of waiting to take delivery of these special cars. It all seemed worth it, as he sold the first one for $40,000 over sticker price.
That success proved short-lived, however. As Tabbutt says, Porsche sees flipping as “the worst crime ever,” and they quickly began working to shut him down. Porsche contacted the dealers who owed Doug a car and threatened to revoke their franchise if they followed through with the sale. As a result, the once big-time Porsche flipper wound up with only two GT3 RS examples.
For most folks, that might seem like a satisfying end to the story, but Tabbutt sees things a little differently. For one, he was “legally and contractually obligated” to buy the cars. And ironically enough, he kept track of the VIN numbers of the cars he was slated to buy. According to Tabbutt, “almost all of them” landed in the hands of folks who proceeded to flip the cars for huge profits. So, in fact, “all the people who preached against” this evil practice profited from it as well.
Tabbutt even admitted his “sins” to a Porsche executive who told him “nobody should be allowed to sell Porsches except for us.” Doug responded with some interesting logic that certainly holds some truth, however. “I’m just fixing a problem that you guys created,” he said. “You guys got your pricing and your regional distribution wrong. If you raise your prices and send all your cars to L.A., Miami, all that, then I wouldn’t exist.”
It’s an interesting take on the entire Porsche flipper situation, that’s for sure. Tabbutt sees himself as just another businessman who recognized and took advantage of an opportunity. And we see this happen all the time in the classic and exotic car industry. Plenty of folks have made plenty of money tracking down cars for clients. Just not necessarily brand new ones off the showroom floor.
Today, Tabbutt is an avid Rennlister (username switchcars) and he runs SwitchCars, an exotic and sports car dealership based in Twinsburg, Ohio. And despite Porsche’s best efforts, car flipping remains a hot topic for consumers and manufacturers alike. And as long as Porsche continues to produce small numbers of highly desirable cars, the trend figures to continue. No matter what they do to try and shut it down.
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