OK, that didn’t actually happen, but it could have happened. That’s the state of things right now with the Porsche 911, especially on Bring a Trailer. What is going on with the 911 resale market, and is Bring a Trailer responsible for this phenomenon?

The Porsche 911 market is on fire and there are no firemen around

This post from Bald Tries back in 2020 perfectly depicts the state of things in the used car market right now. The website describes itself as “Premium Automotive Satire,” and we can see why. Remember when people would sell water bottles or used towels from sacred musicians on eBay for thousands of dollars? The same could be said about anything that might have touched a golden Porsche 911.

“Symbolizing the exploding vintage Porsche collector market, a discarded two-ply Bounty paper towel that was once used to collect leaking oil from beneath a 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera S in Guards Red sold on Bring a Trailer last night for $65,000 plus site fees.”

Ryan Lowe | Bald Tires

Is the 911 market so nuts right now that this could be taken as an actual article? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. In the last year alone, 1,543 911’s sold on Bring a Trailer. For the most part, the sales price was around $60,000 to $90,000, but there were outliers.

Take a look at the graph from Porsche 911 sales on Bring a Trailer

At the time of publication, there are 45 auctions for Porsche 911 vehicles live on Bring a Trailer. There are 4,952 results of previous sales. This data does include all versions of the 911 that would fall into the broader category; however, that’s still a ton. The article by Bald Tires pokes fun at the fact that people seem so obsessed with the versatile 911 that buying a discarded paper towel for $65,000 doesn’t seem that stupid.

The most expensive options are a 1967 911S Soft Window Targa 5-Speed that sold for $427,000 on Mar. 5, 2021. A 6,000 mile 2016 Porsche 911 R went for $411,000 back in July. And just recently, a 2019 GT2 RS Clubsport sold for $548,991 at the start of September.

While the used car and new car markets are experiencing a few growing pains, it seems the 911 is leading the way.

Where does the market go from here?

If buyers are willing to pay for the Porsche 911 on platforms like Bring a Trailer, the rest of the market can do nothing about it. It isn’t just Bring a Trailer, either. A 1993 Toyota truck sold for $45,000 on eBay this week. It isn’t just the 911 experiencing this phenomenon. It seems to be any and all used cars.

For now, Porsche is still pumping out highly desirable cars. The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 is so incredible even the Tom Cruise was seen advertising one. All of these listings shown on Bring a Trailer are actually “sold,” so it’s not like these supercars aren’t flying off the proverbial shelves.

If you have a Porsche 911 and don’t drive it, you could probably sell it right now for more than you paid for it. It seems this might be the peak of the 911 fandom, but there’s no telling how long it will last. the 911 has proved to have staying power on the market.