Runaway Markets
Middle and lower income workers have a lot on their plate right now: AI automation replacing their jobs, stubbornly high inflation, rising consumer debt, and federal policies that are gleefully taking from the poor to feed the rich.
Anyone who may have had some disposable income to buy a collector car is now tightening their belts and holding on to their wallets. But there’s one market segment that’s seemingly unaffected by all of this, in fact, it’s thriving. Porsches have been on an absolute tear, and there’s no end in sight. According to hypercars.io, the auction results for Porsches on Bring a Trailer have claimed the top sales position for 51 weeks in a row. And their eye-watering sale prices are proof positive that the super-rich are doing just fine, thank you, better than ever.
The old adage “It takes money to make money” still rings true. Consider this 2024 911S/T - the seller on BaT had ordered it new at the MSRP of $331,420 - plus a presumable extra amount for dealer markup. This edition was limited to 1,963 copies, and Porsche could pick and choose whom they sold them to. The size of one’s bank account didn’t matter; you had to have repeat-customer credentials to even get one. Over the 13 months that this seller owned his, only 23 miles were added to this fantastic car. Once it came onto the auction block, there was no shortage of bidders with deep pockets who had missed out on the pre-order and wanted one RIGHT NOW, dammit.
The result? A sale price of $805,992 - and a profit for the seller that was assumed to be somewhere around $400,000. Not a bad return on their investment, eh?
Next up in crazy town is this admittedly awesome Porsche 918. A world-class hypercar that stickered at a cool $1M in 2015, this one was ordered with the Weissach option and showed an odometer reading of 180 miles. To protect their investment, the original owner only drove this car an average of 18 miles a year. Their buy-and-hold strategy worked. The bidders jumped in feet first to this auction and the water churned as they fought it out.
At the end, only one warrior remained, and $2.9M was paid for the privilege of owning this spectacular beast.
But on the other side of the deep end, another battle was already underway. The bidders on Bring a Trailer had taken notice of this name displayed in the auction title: Singer. This is a company founded by a former Porsche engineer who has the magic touch when it comes to reimagining old Porsches. His creations are not so much a restoration of the car as they are a renaissance, utilizing partnerships with some of the best brands in the automotive world to create bespoke masterpieces.
This particular car is known as the DLS, for “Dynamics Lightweight Study”. Using a 1991 model as a base, every inch of the car was reworked, with custom wheels specifically made for it by BBS, and specially designed tires from Michelin to wrap them in. The Williams F1 team assembled the 4.0L motor, and Recaro was enlisted to come up with these super cool plaid seats. Great work, everyone. Singer actually made 75 of them last year, all sold before a wrench was even turned.
Apparently, in this world we live in, Norbert Singer knew 75 people who could write a check for the car’s $2M MSRP when it debuted in 2024, and Bring a Trailer attracted another well-heeled crowd when they listed this lightly used example last month. Hey, if you’ve got $2M laying around for a toy, what’s another $1M?
That’s right, this car sold for $3M. Three….Million….Dollars. Will that be cash or check for you today?
I think Ferrari experienced something like this in the late 1980s, maybe? Rocket-like pricing from speculation buyers, but it eventually crashed. I wasn't into the scene then so not sure if it's similar to Porsche today. I wonder if any buyers will get stuck holding a Porsche bag (big if).
Yet another interesting article, you’re getting good at this! Seriously. This article spoke to me not because im in the market for a GT Carerra, im light years from this market but it does remind me of why i some years back had to politely excuse myself from owning Porsches altogether. For a couple of decades i was able to find some beautiful examples mostly 993s, 964s, and older air cooled beauties but no more. What was once fun became something different. Being a regular citizen and not being a member of the ultra rich meant saying goodbye to driving my beloved Porsches but cheers to all who still can!