But how much can they get away with? To extract the most profit from this goldmine, dealers are letting the markets decide.

Howard Bolam of Gainesville Dodge had never sold a single item on eBay before he placed all four of the dealership’s Challenger’s on eBay.

Being a dealership in a small town, Bolam saw eBay as an opportunity to open up the sale to a national market. The same day he posted one of the Challengers online, the auction ended early when bidder used the “Buy it now” option and snagged the car for $52,985--$10,000 over MSRP.

It may sound like a lot, but by some standards it’s a steal.

“They’re going for $20,000 over sticker in Florida, but our manager doesn’t want to do that,” he Bolan explains.

“When these guys come to pick them up, we’ve got to look them in the face. It’s a question of how much is too much, and $20,000 is too much.”

A review of closed auction on eBay shows that to date, the most a bidder has paid for the car is $58,500 (the car was sold using “Buy It Now”). But several other have closed without a sale because the reserve price was not met.

While the reserve prices aren’t disclosed on the site, Bolan is guessing that dealers set the reserve price in the $60,000 range.

So, what’s causing these Dodges to sell for Mercedes prices? Scarcity.

Dodge dealers have each been allotted only a few of the 6400 Challengers. Each is guaranteed one, but some will receive more based on a formula that some dealers say is uses the number of 2006 and 2007 Dodge Chargers SRT8s that they’ve sold, while others believe it’s based on the number of cars they’ve committed to buy from Dodge for the upcoming year.

Dodge spokesperson Kathy Graham is tight-lipped about the exact formula, but sufficed to say, some dealers will be getting more than others.

That means that your local Dodge dealer may get two for the year while the franchise in the next town gets 10. But it’s not easy to learn who’s getting what-- each Dodge franchise is independently owned and operated, which means that there is no centralized list for cars.

Most allotted cars have already been sold, but if you’re determined to get your hands on an ’08, you better start working the phones. Or you can try looking online.

That’s what gave one dealer did.

“We saw somebody else do it and we thought we would give it a try,” says a dealer with Clark Chrysler Jeep in Methuen, Mass. who placed the car up for grabs online.

His dealership will receive three Challengers for the year—two of which have already been sold. At the end of the current online auction, if the highest bidder meets the reserve price their name will go on the signed order for the remaining car.

He’s had people call offering to buy the car outright, but he’s turned them down.

“The offers weren’t high enough,” he explains.

Chrysler is not fond of dealers selling their cars for more than the MSRP of $37,320 (actual sticker for a Challenger with all three options is $41,985, including $675 destination charge and $2,100 gas guzzler tax).

But they may have unwittingly started this trend.

Dodge auction the first Challenger to roll off the production line which fetched $450,000 at the Barrett Jackson auction in January. Challenger #2 went to the highest bidder in a private auction open only to Dodge dealers. Challenger #43--the only 2008 Challenger to be painted B5 Blue in honor of Richard Petty—raised $228,143.43 on eBay.

The proceeds from these auctions went to charity, but it’s not hard to imagine that the incentive for these six figure bids was more bragging rights than altruism. And don’t forget about the tax deduction.

But given the difficulty even finding one of these coveted cars for sale, could auctions be seen as a benefit to the customer?

“If the dealer sells the car for MSRP, then it could benefit the owners,” says Graham.

But that’s not going to happen – at least not this year.

Dodge Challenger