Next time buy a 996. They’ve gone up...
(Turbos at least)

My observation from watching the 993 market since 2012 is that there was a big run up from 2013 - 2015. Since then it leveled and has even come down.

I think it is simply demand has gone down and supply continues to be strong. There are always c2, c4, cabs, turbos etc available all over North America. Various colors and mileage.
There are usually one or two on BAT at any given time.

the 996 market is something that would make me very nervous

Nervous? If you buy a nice driver quality 996 and pay low $20's what's there to be nervous about? You're not going to wake up one day anytime soon and find out its a $10k car. If you paid something like $23k for one and in a year or two its a $20k or $19k car sure you're experiencing some depreciation but nothing like you would on a newer 911 or newer car for that matter, and its still a pretty fun car to have.

I'm with you, other than the Mezger engine cars. Heard way too many horror stories about the M96.

Exactly. I feel that way about 986,987,&996. I paid $8500 for my 987 with a dropped valve. I kind of use that as a guideline of where you can dump one if you need to. I figure $7500-10,000 for a car with an IMs failure engine. If I’m in for $20-25k. And it pops after a couple of years? Meh. Dump it and move on.

I spent about $10k rebuild my engine. That’s a wholesale price. More like $15k if you are paying. Not worth it most of the time imo.

well a turbo was mentioned and those aren't low $20s

50s for one you’d want now.
A 10% drop is still less than my truck depreciated when I started it up -before- I drove it off the lot :)

I never bought my 85 Carrera to make money. I bought it to drive . It’s nice but not restored. I will never restore it. But I did just spend money making it run nice. If I need to sell it in 8 years for $20k I’m
Good with that. Cost me 12k in 2010. I have put in 11k. And I have had 500k of fun!!

Hagerty valuation for 2001 turbo in "good" condition is $40K.

Why isn't that one you would want now ? As a driver.

Well..this sold fast:

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/1038465-fs-96-993-coupe-roller.html

Find a coupe with a stick at that price that doesn’t have a ton of miles.
Even as a driver I don’t want a tip or a rag top.

my DD is worth about $5000 tops and there are a lot of aircooled projects that i would want to spend that $40 on instead. Maybe just me

I hope that was sarcasm?

The boot maker and the shoes.

collector cars
 

i think 3 reasons that most collector cars are dropping.

1. when overall interest rates where even lower than today a lot of cash went into collector cars, the increase in rates has eroded some of that investment money.
2. the second reason is that the older guys are gettign out of the game and dumping their cars as they are down sizing.
3. third reason is that the younger crowd is not as interested in working or owning what is essentilall old technology and will not spend their money on them.

Will they go up again? the pristine garage queens should hold value, and perhaps increase a bit, but for the most part our cars are dead in the water as investments and unless the younger group decides to get into old cars which i highly doubt, you can expect you car to slowly depreciate every year probably based on an actuarial table as the geezer group fades into the sunset.
If you do not want to see the value drop every year then sell it now as it will never go back to where it was unless it is perfect.

lol yep 100%

I would add one thing with regards to the yuuutes. They don't know how to drive a stick. So even though today autos are looked down upon by the Porsche nerds, in the long run those will probably hold up better than the manuals.

Overall though this is what happens with old cars. They get hot when the generation that lusted after them as kids enters peak earning years. As that generation heads off into the sunset, the next generation has their own iconic cars and doesn't want dad's or grandad's iconic car. Right now 70s and 80s air cooled Porsches are owned, for the most part by guys in their 50s and 60s. They will in the not too near future get too old to drive them (hard to get in and out of one with a bad hip or knee, or what have you). So who will buy them at $40 or $50K? Certainly not a millenial whose dream car was an original NSX or a E39 M5 or other iconic cars of their youth.

That's not say values will drop to $0. There will always be a market for older cool cars. But the long term trend is nowhere but down. Demographics is destiny.

As one of the numerous "older guys" here, I have no idea what you are talking about !

Old stuff is always interesting. I say the classic 911 has a good chance of holding its long term allure as long as they don't ban ICE.

With 1 exception, every owner of an air cooled I spoke to when looking to buy one was and "older guy" who was getting rid of it because he a) didn't drive it anymore, b) was too old for it and/or health reasons or c) was downsizing and selling all his garage "stuff" before moving into a condo.

Remember "here" is not representative of the world at large.