RennPulse | Edition 014 | June 2, 2026 | Market Pulse
THE LEAD
Forty-four Porsches changed hands this week for $4.03 million. That's nine fewer cars than last week — and $760,000 more money. The average sale jumped to $91,669, up 49% in seven days.
The market didn't get busier. It got richer at the top.
One car tells the whole story: a 1998 993 Carrera S, Arctic Silver over black, 4,500 miles, manual. It sold on Bring a Trailer for $381,000. Sixty-five bids, 158 comments, and a final number that would have read as a typo two years ago.
Meanwhile the bottom kept grinding. Three 996 Carreras traded between $15,250 and $30,000 — same badge as that 993, twelve times the spread.
When volume drops and the average spikes, it means the cheap cars stayed home and the trophies came out to play. That's exactly what happened. This wasn't a hot week. It was a top-heavy one — and those are the weeks worth reading closely.
AUCTION INTEL
Year | Model | Miles | Trans | Price | Platform | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | 911 Carrera S (993) | 4,500 | Manual | $381,000 | BaT | Top sale of the week |
2022 | 911 GT3 Touring (992) | 1,716 | Manual | $277,000 | PCAR | Manual Touring, still over sticker |
2019 | 911 GT3 RS (991.2) | 1,200 | PDK | $274,000 | BaT | Delivery-mile RS |
2011 | 911 GT3 (997.2) | 17,000 | PDK | $270,000 | BaT | The 997.2 GT3 climb continues |
2024 | 718 Spyder RS | 22 | PDK | $230,000 | BaT | ~$160K MSRP, two model years ago |
2008 | 911 Turbo (997.1) | 23,000 | Manual | $166,000 | BaT | Manual 997 Turbo premium, real |
2019 | 911 GTS (991.2) | 39,700 | Manual | $139,000 | C&B | Manual GTS holding firm |
2000 | 911 Carrera (996) | 64,400 | Auto | $30,000 | C&B | Reserve not met — still the floor |
Three of the top eight were manuals, and every one of them cleared six figures. The 718 Spyder RS — a car you could option to roughly $160K in 2023 — printed $230,000 with delivery miles. The GT department tax is alive and well. And down at the bottom, a clean 996 Carrera couldn't clear $30K on reserve. The barbell market, in one table.
MARKET PULSE
Total GMV: $4.03M ▲ 23% from last week's $3.27M
Average sale: $91,669 ▲ 49% week-over-week
Completed sales: 44 ▼ from 53 (-17% volume)
Air-cooled flexed. Beyond the $381K 993, two 356s traded at $148,000 and $127,000, and a 930 Turbo brought $68,000. The old guard isn't going quietly.
718 GT cars are a market unto themselves — two Spyder RS examples cleared $200K ($230K and $210K).
996 remains the floor: four sold, averaging $23,111, with one reserve-not-met. If you want into a 911 cheap, this is still the door.
The takeaway from the numbers: money is concentrating, not spreading. Fewer buyers writing bigger checks for the best cars — and more hesitation on the middle and bottom.
THE DEEP CUT — The 993 Split Is Now Official
Six weeks ago, in Edition 011, I wrote that 993 prices dropped 24% in the spring. This week a 993 sold for $381,000. Both are true — and together they tell you exactly where the value is.
Pull the last 60 days of 993 sales and the split is impossible to miss. At the top: a 1997 Carrera at $652,000, this week's $381,000 Carrera S, a $258,000 Turbo. At the bottom: high-mileage driver-grade Carreras changing hands at $52,000 to $117,000.
The trophies are gone. Don't chase a sub-5K-mile, single-color, books-and-tools 993 unless you have generational-collector money — that race is over and you'll lose it.
The actual buy is the sorted, 60K–90K-mile manual Carrera in the $90K–$120K band. That's the segment that softened this spring while the headlines went to the record cars. A mechanically honest driver 993 with a recent top-end service and clean PPI is the most underpriced air-cooled 911 on the board right now. Buy the car, not the auction headline.
PIT LANE
What we're watching this week: whether 718 Spyder RS supply finally catches up to the hype — two over $200K in a single week is a lot of cars surfacing at once. Also keeping an eye on the 996 floor: another reserve-not-met would tell us the cheapest 911 is cheap for a reason, or a steal. We'll have the read next Tuesday.
Reader question: "Did I miss the 993 boat?" — On the collector-grade cars, yes. On a clean driver, no. See The Deep Cut above.
Garage tip of the week: If you own one of these air-cooled trophies and it's sitting more than it's driving, insure it right. We use Hagerty for agreed-value coverage — it's built for cars that appreciate, not the depreciating-asset math a standard policy assumes. (Affiliate link — we only recommend what we'd use ourselves.)
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