John Clay Wolfe, the president and founder of Give Me The VIN (GMTV), made headlines last week after selling a Tesla Cybertruck for $244,500 at auction, only to see the same vehicle being flipped again for $290,000 by a Porsche dealer. He now believes the market has already taken a nosedive, with a pair of subsequent Cybertrucks selling for just $195,500 and $189,000, respectively, adding weight to his assertion.
The two trucks were sold at a dealer-only GMTV auction today, the company said. The winning bids, which were $49,000 and $55,500 lower than last week’s winner, suggest last week’s sale was inflated by a number of factors.
“We experienced a single week correction because people raced to be first,” Wolfe said in a statement. “Not sure where it’s going to settle but we’ve adjusted all of GMTV’s offers on Tesla Cybertrucks based on today’s market.”
More: Porsche Dealer That Bought Flipped Cybertruck For $244,000, Now Flipping It For $290,000
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The company explains that the reason why that particular Cybertruck was the first privately-owned example to sell at auction is largely due to a clause in the purchase contract. It prohibits the sale of the vehicle within the first 12 months of ownership and stipulates that Tesla can impose a penalty on flippers amounting to “$50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater.” This clause has effectively discouraged early owners from selling their trucks.
On his YouTube channel, Wolfe labeled the clause “anti-capitalist”, and revealed that GMTV employees offered as much as $210,000 in order to convince owners to sell their Cybertruck. Eventually, GMTV successfully convinced as many as four people to agree to sell their trucks.
However, these transactions haven’t exactly been lucrative for the company. Wolfe conceded that neither the Cybertruck publicly auctioned for $244,500 nor the one sold quietly for $220,000 last week yielded significant profits for the company, which is a matter of concern.
Give Me The VIN is a vehicle wholesaler, and Wolfe claimed the company normally makes a thin margin of around $400 per vehicle. However, it sells roughly 1,000 cars per week, making big ticket items like these Cybertrucks more about fun and attention, than profits. Wolfe has not yet disclosed how much the company paid for two Cybertrucks it sold this week.
He previously said that he was expecting a market correction. Last week’s sale was a perfect storm of excitement over a new, limited production vehicle that likely helped propel the price. However, as Wolfe explained to Autonews on Monday, early examples of the GMC Hummer also fetched prices exceeding $200,000 initially, but they have since tapered off closer to their MSRPs.