Selling on Pcarmarket & Stuttgart Market Letter

Selling a Car on Pcarmarket

By:RichEhrlich;Photos:RyanBoxler

Warning; This story has limited Porsche content.

As many of you know, especially if you are on the Signal chat, I owned a 1993 Nissan Skyline GTSt, model M (R33 generation) that I purchased in 2018 from an importer. Through many trials and tribulations, I made the decision that I needed to sell it. Based on some solid advice from Mark Miller and others, I decided to sell the car through an auction on PCar Market website (https://www.pcarmarket.com/). While there is more to the story, the short answer is PCar is an excellent site, and Adam Hill, the founder of PCar Market, and his team are wonderful to work with.

The modern generations of the Nissan Skyline, the R32 (1989-1994), the R33 (1993-1998), and the R34 (1998-2002), were Nissan’s answer to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. They were easily customizable neo-luxury cars that spanned the market from two and four door, four cylinder cars to the GTST with a rear drive, single turbo 2.5l inline-six motor aimed squarely at the M3. And the top of line Skyline GT-R with a twin -turbo 2.6l inline-six and all-wheel drive which competed on even ground with the 911 of the same time period. The modern cars that are sold as Skylines in Japan are the basis of Infiniti here in the US.

Long before the Fast and the Furious movies, I knew all about these cars, and wanted one. But, our rules prevented these cars from being imported for sale in the US. While I considered buying one from Motorex in the early 2000’s, it was just not feasible at the time (If you want to learn about why there are a handful of fully legal Skylines here, look up the story of Motorex on the internet). When the R33 became 25 year legal for import, I quickly purchased my car, VIN ECR33-004938, built in August 1993, making it one of the first 25 year legal R33 Skylines in the US.

To make a long, complicated story as simple as possible, it was a very painful process to get the car in good shape. As with any older car, there were a lot of things that needed fixing, including a very long list of “since we are doing this, we might as well do this other thing, too.” Long delays in getting parts from Japan, the pandemic, and personal issues for my mechanic meant that the car spent much of the last four years in pieces. Of course, this is the main reason I bought my Cayman, so I could have something cool to drive while waiting for the Skyline.

When it was finally “done,” I still had problems that ended up requiring me to have MA Motorsports in Glen Arm, MD, redo many of the things that the original mechanic did. (I highly recommend MA. The owners are members of PCA Potomac, and regularly do track days with them). Despite the excellent work by MA, I was no longer able to really enjoy the car, so selling it became the best option.

Deciding that the easiest way to sell was with an online auction, I went with PCar Market. After sharing the details of my car, Adam called me to arrange the auction for the car. He explained that my desired price was out of line with the market, and we agreed on what would be a more reasonable reserve price.

The process is fairly easy. After agreeing on the type of auction and reserve, if any, you pay the $99 listing fee. PCar sends you a link to a shared drive to upload all of your photos and documentation. While I had some excellent photos taken by Chesapeake member Ryan Boxler, and his buddy Ian Wollcock, who are both amazingly talented, I was coached through some additional photos and videos by Dylan from PCar.

You then fill out an interview sheet for the car, which they use to write the auction description. Once PCar has all the information and photos they need, the completed auction listing was shared with me for approval. I approved the listing, and the week long auction was live!

Even though Dylan took great pains to assure me that the only time that matters in the auction is the last 15 minutes, it was a nervewracking week. I have been through a lot of stress and crazy situations in my life, but watching that auction for days with no bids or comments was hard! Two things that Dylan emphasized is responding to questions quickly, and the importance of being transparent with the car.

With just over 24 hours left in the auction, I got my first bid! While it was nowhere near the reserve, I was grateful to just have a bid at all. True to his word, the action started with just a few minutes left. Just like other auction sites, each bid adds two minutes to the auction end time. After a flurry of bids, the auction ended with a final bid of $22,000, which was below my reserve. The car then moved to the “Deal Tank” section of the website, where interested parties can still see the car and make an offer to purchase the car.

Working with PCar, the high bidder and I tried to reach a deal. In fact, his brother is in college locally, and I met with him to check out the car. Meanwhile, another bidder contacted me, and made an offer. Once I accepted that offer, he backed out the next day! While the original high bidder decided to pass, he had a friend, who I will call Mike, that was interested. Mike and I agreed on a price and he sent a deposit. Then the buyer who backed out was suddenly interested in the car again, and I got an offer via PCar. Since I had a deal and a deposit from Mike, I declined both offers.

Well, the timing meant that a wire transfer was not possible, so Mike and a friend of his drove down from PA, and we meet at the nearby Bank of America branch. Mike got a cashier’s check for me, and we finished the paperwork inside the bank. I handed over the keys and title, and Mike drove his new car home.

So what did I learn from this? PCar is excellent to deal with. Their process is straight forward, and they provided excellent support and service to me. While the car did not sell through their website, I don’t think it would have sold without my having listed it on PCar.

Also, you need to have realistic expectations for the value of your car. Just because you want a certain price, that does not mean the market will support that price. The original price I wanted, based on the purchase price of the car and the significant amount of money I spent on restoring it, was not realistic based on the current market. While I got more than my purchase price, it did not come close to what I spent fixing the car up.

In retrospect, I do not think PCar Market was the best venue for this particular car and I might have done better on a different site. But, if you are selling a Porsche, Audi, BMW, or something more along those lines, PCar is a great choice, and I highly recommend them.

This is the auction site:

https://www.pcarmarket.com/auction/1993-nissan-skyline-gtst/

This is the original listing for the car:

https://www.japaneseclassics.com/vehicle/1993nissan-skyline-r33-coupe/

By:DavidK.Whitlock

The March Porsche market came in like a lion with four auction houses competing for top honors during the 2023 Amelia Island Car Week selling a total of 49 cars for a dollar volume of $14,594,160 (excluding fees) at a strong 83% sell-through rate. Newcomer, Broad Arrow Auctions, locked out the podium producing all three of the top sales over the long weekend (also the top three for the month) with a 1987 959 Komfort standing on the top step at a sales price of $1,550,000 followed by a 2005 Carrera GT at $1,375,000 and a 1994 911 Turbo S Slant Nose X85 at $1,100,000.

While February was the month of the 964 Turbo, March was back to the ‘80s with an influx of 3.3-liter Turbos. Of the 13 cars on offer, 10 found new homes with an average sales price of $185,853. Factory M505 Slant Nose examples brought strong dollar figures with a 1988 Coupe selling for $260,000. 993 Turbos looked strong as well with all cars selling above $200,000 and a 71% sell-through rate. If it didn’t cross $200k, it didn’t sell. Of note was a rare 1996 993 Turbo X50 car which sold for $238,000. A pair of 993 Turbo S’ on the other hand went 0 for 2 with both ‘97 examples failing to sell at $652,993 and $559,000, both well above the moving average and in line with recent prices.

Sellers of 1-2-year-old cars appear to have adjusted their expectations (and reserves) as we saw a sell-through rate of 79% compared to last month’s sell-through rate of 54%. Average GT3 pricing was at $260,000 but was propped up by a PTS (Paint To Sample) GT3 Touring 6-Speed which sold for $340,000. Take that outlier out of the picture and GT3 bids averaged $240k, which is a bit down from the previous month. The highlight of the category for me was a 2022 718 Spyder 000 Package car which sold for $181,000. As the 718 phases out I expect these to remain strong, if not gain over the next five years.

The ‘60s 911s had a tough time selling this month with a sell-through rate of 55%. Leading the sales was a stunning 1969 911 T/R that sold at Gooding & Co. for $420,000. One of three cars built for that year, this example had period Sebring and Daytona history and will be an instant invite to Rennsport Reunion 7 in September. Two notable no sales were an original 1968 911 ‘Sports Purpose’ bid to $320,000 and a 1967 911S Soft-Window Targa bid to $373,000. 912s remained strong with an average price of $52,000 and a top sale of $71,000.

On the water-cooled front, 996 pricing continues to be impressive as they come into their own and buyers begin to look past the “runny-egg” headlights. Leading the charge was a 2004 996 GT3 RS that sold for a record $330,000 (excluding fees). Not originally sold in the US, a handful of GT3 RS’ have found their way to our shores via Show and Display laws with this example fully upgraded to drive legally on our soil. 996 Turbos also remain strong with two ultra-low mileage cars selling for $131,000 and $155,000.

Other notable Porsches offered this month were a 1987 Kremer-Porsche 962 C which was an absolute steal at $820,000 and a 1968 907 K that continued the trend of classic Porsche race cars failing to sell this year with a high bid of $4,000,000. We also saw new five-year auction records for a 914-6 at $148,400, a 981 Boxster Spyder at $120,000, a 911SC at $105,000, and a Cayenne Transsyberia at $70,500.

There were no signs of lambs as March remained lion-like throughout the month with a 76% sell-through rate and total sales of $43,102,480. Up from 73% and $33,527,283 the previous month, Amelia Island definitely helped the cause. We’ll see if April brings showers to the market next month but if I had to guess, spring will keep on going up and up.

David K. Whitlock is a writer for The Stuttgart Market Letter, a daily market update for Porschephiles, by Porschefiles, delivered free to your inbox. To sign up, go to: www.stuttgartmarketletter.com