(FORTUNE Small Business) – For seats to the hottest shows in town, you'll probably have to call a ticket broker. If you want to sit behind the wheel of the most coveted cars, you'll have to deal with a "car flipper."

As if car dealers weren't enough fun to dicker with, now there's a new automobile middleman. Flippers do research on cars in development and speculate on the models buyers will pay big bucks to own. Then they rush to dealerships and fork over hefty deposits for the showroom's first shipment.

With supply locked up in one hand, they demand high profits with the other. Early adopters are willing to pay $5,000 to $70,000 above sticker, say flippers. Among this year's must-haves are BMW's Z8, Chrysler's PT Cruiser, Ford's Cobra R Mustang, and Porsche's new 911 Turbo. "These guys use inside info and an innate sense of what's hot to get ahead of the market," says market analyst Eric Noble. And while they may be a bane to buyers, flippers have found friends among dealers who happily take deposits for cars that have yet to roll off the line. Automakers such as BMW don't seem to mind the new middlemen either. The company's inventory of two-seater Z8's is already presold for two years. Thanks to flippers, hopeful drivers can expect to pay well over the Z8's $128,000 sticker price.

--TARA WEINGARTEN