The Money in Porsche Books and Posters
Similar to many Porsche lovers, I have acquired a collection of posters and books over the year. I was surprised to learn recently how much some of these Porsche books and posters may be worth.
It first started with the RM Sotheby’s Porsche Auction at the Porsche Experience Center. There I noticed that the limited edition Porsche Carrera RS book sold for $2,000 plus. I was shocked! I have one on my shelf and had no idea of the value. I originally bought it around 2000 when I purchased a 1973 Carrera RSR, raced it, enjoyed it and of course sold it way too early before the big run-up in RS prices.
Oh well, I kept the book instead and it had a nice run-up too. I know I thought it was a lot of money then, probably around $250, but at the recent RM Sotheby’s Taj Ma Graja sale it now sold for $3,000.
This sale result prompted me to look at the rest of my collection relative to the other book sales at Taj Ma Graja.
The complete Karl Ludvigsen Porsche Excellence sold for $720. Got it - once again a late ‘90’s, early 2000 purchase.
The other surprise was book three, again a Karl Ludvigsen Excellence was Expected history but it was a special Automobile Quarterly edition that sold for $720. My son Sean found my copy at a Goodwill Thrift and bought it for $5 as a Christmas gift to me. Now it is worth $700 plus. Better than tech stocks, though the condition of my copy probably doesn’t justify the $700 price, but it is still good.
The other Porsche memorabilia that I own are Porsche posters. Most of mine are rolled up in tubes for storage, but I have kept many over the years. Quite honestly I don’t even know what I have. Some day it will be a surprise to open all the tubes and discover, ala Christmas what I saved. But once again, based on RM Sotheby’s recent auction results they can have value. All of these recently sold for $200 -$300 each.
I’m still collecting Porsche books, brochures and posters. Not for the money, but for the love of it. If in the long run they have financial value that it great but in the meantime they have had tremendous emotional value for me to enjoy the history, art and technology of Porsche.
