Buying a Classic Porsche 911 on Bring-A-Trailer

Buying a 911 RS America on Bring-A-Trailer - Part 5.

Porsche 964 Porsche 911 — Bring-A-Trailer Listing for 1993 Porsche RS America

Bring-A-Trailer is the “go-to” site for many Porsche enthusiasts every night if you want to buy or you just dream of buying. In my quest for the half-price Classic Porsche of my search it is a prime resource.

Part 5 of my series to buy a 1993 Porsche RS America in the $65,000 -$75,000 range, I turned to Bring-A-Trailer to pursue a Guards Red model that appeared on the site. It was a very clean model, though with a little higher miles at 58,000. It also featured Fiske wheels that are incorrect for an RS America, but if you read the details you see that the correct Cup wheels come with the car.

The biggest challenge with this model is that it was based in Canada. A US buyer would have to deal with how to bring a car into the US. According to commentators since the car was originally sold in the US it is not much of a problem to re-import the car.

When the car first appeared I dismissed it because it was just too clean for me to believe that I could get it in my target price. My estimate to myself was a price of $85,000-$90,000. But, I kept watching for education on the market, and just in case…

The first bid came out at $5,000. It was never going to happen, but someone has to start the bidding and why not try. From that point, the bids kept creeping up over the days leading up to the final day of the auction when the real action and bidding ramps up. Finally three days before the end of auction a bid came in at $50,000. It was starting to get real but it was still off the mark of reality to make the sale happen.

It was at this point that I decided I might look at this one more seriously. The bids just weren’t there and a motivated seller just might let it go. Part of the process with Bring-A-Trailer (BAT) is that you must be registered and have a credit card on file. I had not bid in quite a while on this site so in preparation for the final day’s action I prepared with doing all the paperwork that BAT requires. Don’t wait till the final day to do this or you will miss out on being able to bid.

The final day of the auction came and the first salvo was fired with a $57,500 bid. The final hour of the auction came after the bids slowly climbed to $60,000. It was time for me to jump in under the moniker 911Racer with a bid at $61,000. In the next 50 minutes it became a bidding war between 911Racer, WernerR and dmptodd.

Going into an auction it is always important to set a maximum price that you will pay. It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement of an auction and overpay for a car because you just want to win. I had set a maximum price of $65,000 but remember that my target is to buy one of these for $65,000 -$75,000 so I had some room. Several bids of mine took me up to $63,000 before I was eclipsed by bids up to $69.640. I stopped to think as I watched the bids jump beyond my $65,000 stop but still within my buy range. It was time to act with one final bid of $70,140. With the BAT fees added in I would still be within my $75,000 maximum price to pay but just within.

Dmptodd wanted the car more than I did and quickly raised the bid to $71,000. I was out for good this time. All of a sudden a new bidder entered the fray, tbaker with a $72,000. WernerR and dmptodd quickly regained control of the bids until tbaker came back at $75,500.

WernerR dropped out with a final bid of $76,911 while dmptodd hung in there with his final bid of $79,000. An interesting thing happened here, tbaker jumped dmptodd with a small $500 increase but then all of a sudden a new bidder cpersico entered with an $80,000 bid. The three original bidders who were looking for a deal were now out and the serious buyers were marking each other off. Tbaker bid, then cpersico and back and forth. The final bid was $83,500 by tbaker and the auction was over.

BAT has a unique system to beat the robots that plague eBay bidding. The auction stays open as long as there are bids coming in.

This Porsche RS America did not sell at $83,500. The seller must have had a higher reserve price on the car meaning he would not sell it unless it hit that price. My guess is that the reserve was $90,000.

BAT offers sellers and buyers the opportunity to do a deal after the auction ends. BAT will provide the final high bidder and the seller with each other’s contact information in case they want to communicate to get a deal done. I don’t know if this happened or not, but BAT currently shows this car as a no-sale.

There will be other RS America’s out there for me. Patience will be required. I am no hurry.