Corvette crazy brothers turn hobby into business By ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor Murfreesboro Post Murfreesboro, TN -- In less than four years, Tommy and Donny Dement have turned a passion for classic Chevrolet Corvettes into a profitable business.
And they have done it mostly through the Internet rather than their Memorial Boulevard showroom.
“We are just Corvette crazy,” Donny, 53, said recently from the Vintage Vettes dealership he and his elder brother have owned and operated since 2004. “We love what we do.”
Tommy, 57, agreed, “It’s a hell of a way to make a living.”
The brothers developed a love for these sleek, high-performance cars they call works of art as teenagers growing up in Murfreesboro in the 1960s. Tommy bought his first Corvette — a 1960 model — in 1969 at the age of 19.
Tommy said the man who sold the car to him then still regrets it now.
Even back then these two-seat beauties were rare.
The elder brother later sold the car to his brother. Donny is the racer and restorer of the two brothers.
He won 11 national shows and a Grand National in 1985 for a 1960 Inca silver Corvette.
Over the next 39 years, the brothers have owned more than 40 Corvettes.
The Dement brothers have been in business together for about 42 years. They have owned and operated Round Back Electronic Sales and Service in the same building as their dealership for 28 years.
“This has turned into a better business than the other one,” Tommy said of Vintage Vettes.
Vintage Vettes specializes in Corvettes from 1953 to 1972 — the most rare and hard to find of the sports cars.
About 90 percent of their approximately 50 sales a year come through the Vintage Vettes Web site at
www.vintagevettes.net. The brothers also receive hundreds of calls each week from across the world.
Many buyers purchase the cars without first seeing them in person.
“The people we meet, they are just like us,” Tommy said. “They have a passion for these cars.”
Vintage Vettes arranges the shipping for a lot of these vehicles; other buyers fly into Nashville and drive the cars home as all of the vehicles the Dements sell are mechanically sound. They have shipped Corvettes to such locales as Moscow, Russia; Sweden; and Hawaii.
The Dement brothers even buy vintage Corvettes sight unseen; they find most of the vehicles they sell through connections they have made in the car show circuit.
“What we have found is that an individual will tell the truth about the condition of the car,” Tommy said, adding that they often can hear the car run through the Internet or request photographs of certain parts of the vehicle.
Vintage Vettes can arrange financing on the vehicles they sell, but most of their clients don’t need it.
Most Corvette collectors are baby boomers with disposable income.
“They are a very good investment,” Donny said. “They increase in price by 10 percent every year. They are very collectable.”
Classic Corvettes continue to increase in value because of their rarity. Only 4,500 Corvettes were manufactured in its first three years of production.
Production of the all-American sports car began in 1953. Only 300 of the first year model were assembled because they are all hand built; most of these vehicles now sell for between $300,000 and $500,000. The first V-8 Corvette was released in 1955.
Tommy said they sell their cars quickly because they price them under market value. The cars they list usually sell within a month.
More than 200 framed photographs of the Corvettes they have sold over the years decorate the walls of the Vintage Vettes garage.
Classic cars currently for sale on the Vintage Vettes Web site range from $42,500 for a 1966 nassau blue Corvette convertible to $125,000 for a very rare 1955 pennant blue Corvette roadster.
Vintage Vettes is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“We always love for people to come look at the cars,” Tommy said.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at
eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
Vintage Vettes
507-B Memorial Blvd.
www.vintagevettes.net 
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Corvette crazy brothers turn hobby into business 
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