Where do people sell boats these days?

texasclouds

texasclouds

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Bryan, Texas
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Mark
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Coulter Airfield CFD
I haven’t looked in a while, but do people still use Boat Trader? Craigslist?

I need to sell my El Pescador 24’ boat since I’m not using it much. Any tips would be appreciated.

thanks,

Mark
 
texasclouds said:
I haven’t looked in a while, but do people still use Boat Trader? Craigslist?

I need to sell my El Pescador 24’ boat since I’m not using it much. Any tips would be appreciated.

thanks,

Mark
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+1 on marketplace. Craigslist seems to be pretty dead. I stopped using cycle trader years ago after not having much activity on my ads and finding better success with other sites (marketplace, OfferUp, etc).

If you do use craigslist, I believe they started charging for vehicle ads (not sure if boats are included).
 
The boat market was raging hot 4 months ago and a ad anywhere would probably have worked. It’s cooling rapidly at the moment. I would do both Facebook and boat trader. Realize that in a declining market you need to price the boat carefully. Overprice it just a bit and you might find yourself chasing the market down and not quite catching it. Comps from more than a month ago are not really valid.
 
FB Marketplace as well as the boat manufacturer-specific FB groups. I follow a Cobalt owner's group that regularly has items posted for sale and sold quickly. Good way to judge market prices/value as well. I moderate a group for Mark Twain classic boats that sees similar sales traffic, albeit much lower volume than some of the more popular brands. Market is definitely cooling off right now, even moreso than the typical post-Labor Day price drops. A lot of people are feeling the pinch of inflation so those loan payments get tougher to justify and others just want to get cash out of lesser-used assets.
 
Jeff767 said:
... Comps from more than a month ago are not really valid.
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Is comp data publicly available? Realtor.com is nice b/c you can see sales price. On boattrader, the add just disappears.
 
SoonerAviator said:
NADA is usually about the only moderately updated reference I've seen out there for boats.
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Thanks. I was thinking as much. I'm (not too seriously) eveying a boat which is priced at the NADA price, but I'm thinking it's probably stale and therefore high. After around 5 months, the seller is now using a broker (priced the same) so that's an indication of increased motivation. I'm thinking the economy is headed lower and there will soon be more motivated sellers.
 
Mahneuvers said:
Thanks. I was thinking as much. I'm (not too seriously) eveying a boat which is priced at the NADA price, but I'm thinking it's probably stale and therefore high. After around 5 months, the seller is now using a broker (priced the same) so that's an indication of increased motivation. I'm thinking the economy is headed lower and there will soon be more motivated sellers.
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Yeah, I've been browsing as well, just to get a feel for the market. I know the model I want, but I'll probably hold off for about another year. We have an older 20' runabout, but it's really undersized for the lake we generally run on these days, and I'd be going about 30 years newer (and 6'+ longer) if I made the move. Hard to justify $50K+ for a 15-yr old boat though, when the one we have functions fine as it is.
 
Facebook marketplace seems to work be prepared to get low ball offers
 
Having sold a ton of various items including boats Craigslist has been the where virtually all my leads ultimately came from even with the listing fee. The paid sites like Boat Trader were worthless and while FB Marketplace is becoming more common, it opens the listing to too many people outside your geographic area and potential yahoos.

With either CL or FB market place you just have to be willing to wade through all the scammers. Cash in hand in person you come look at the boat sale only, no other option even considered...otherwise don't wast my time. Only other payment option is we BOTH to to buyer's bank for them to issue cashiers check with me present.
 
2coolfishing. Com was started by a friend of mine and although still has some traction and a good place to list this boat another is dosfrio.com which is the same guy and most of the hard core coastal guys visit which this boat is right up their alley…
 
SoonerAviator said:
Yeah, I've been browsing as well, just to get a feel for the market. I know the model I want, but I'll probably hold off for about another year. We have an older 20' runabout, but it's really undersized for the lake we generally run on these days, and I'd be going about 30 years newer (and 6'+ longer) if I made the move. Hard to justify $50K+ for a 15-yr old boat though, when the one we have functions fine as it is.
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I'm in a similar boat. Have a perfect functioning good looking center console but want to upgrade by about 2 feet to something with a little more seating capacity and bigger engine. At current prices I would need to double what I have invested in mine. Hard to justify.
 
With all the free options I'm not sure posting to boat trader is worth it. I still see some movement on CL in my area so probably worth a try, usually full of scammers these days though. FB is obviously the best place to sell anything these days as sad as that is to say. Another good option is Thehulltruth forum. You have to rack up some post before you can put pictures and such up.
 
Grum.Man said:
I'm in a similar boat. Have a perfect functioning good looking center console but want to upgrade by about 2 feet to something with a little more seating capacity and bigger engine. At current prices I would need to double what I have invested in mine. Hard to justify.
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My dad bought ours when I was about 9yrs old for $5K or so. The transom went bad, so he said if I wanted to pay to repair it, I could have it. So I repaired it myself for less than $1K, refreshed the engine (Ford 351w) and added a better stereo. All-in, I think my father and I might have $9K in it including purchase price over 30yrs of ownership. Not a bad investment compared to the smiles it's provided. Four generations of family of been on the boat. I could probably get $5-6K out of it as it is. I think it will get harder and harder to sell the "classic" runabouts so it may time to get it sold and wait for a newer model to come along.
 
On the day the stock market had it's 7th biggest drop, the price of the boat I've been watching dropped 10K. Coincidence? :)
 
I used a reputable broker when I wanted to sell one of my boats. He got to handle the tire kickers.
 
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