How to sell a boat before March? (not an ad, looking for advice)

hibby

I'm going to live in Japan in March. I have a motorboat which is parked up on its trailer in my dad's place for the winter.

Ideally I would like to sell the boat before I go, and would be willing to accept a low price for it rather than just abandon it at the end of my dad's garden. But realistically I imagine it's hard to sell a boat at this time of year (and also I know there are far more sellers than buyers right now).

To make it more complicated I'll be selling my car at some stage over the next month, after which I won't have a tow hitch and won't be able to move the boat or demonstrate it to a potential buyer.

So, here are my questions:
1) Is it even worth advertising it for sale right now?
2) Is there such a thing as dealers who would either take it off my hands at a low price for resale, or who would keep it on their premises and try to sell it on my behalf?

For information, the details are:
13' Dell Quay Dory (open boat, Boston-Whaler style with GRP hull, suitable for lake and inshore use) from the 1970s;
40hp 2-stroke Mercury outboard engine, manual start, also from the 1970s;
Snipe trailer.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

fergal.b

Hi hibby your best bet would to clean it up take lots of photos and if you can a video of the engine running and put it on ebay or adverts.ie for open to offers, you never know how will bite "I like old merc's" so there might be others out there. If a dealer was to take it on they would look for a cut or charge you storage. Or you could always cover it up and keep it as a classic for when you come back.

ISAW

Call a few brokers and see if they will accept say 5 or 10 or 20 per cent commission and have a rock bottom price that they can go below. Then drop it off in their place and leave them sell it. They will have to put it online and you can observe the price and they will email you when any offers come in. You may lose a bit in price but get to move it off site and get their market reach.

connel42

Quickest way is to get an ad up on Donedeal as it's the most popular at the moment. Very important to have the price near to as low as you are prepared to go. Clean the everythiong and take good photos.
Be honest when talking to people on the phone so they know what to expect when they come to view.
I believe there is always someone out there for every boat - you only need one!
Good Luck

hibby

Thanks everyone for the good advice.

I'd like to investigate the broker option first. Can anyone suggest a broker or a list of brokers who might be interested in dealing with a relatively low-value boat? I'm in Dublin but I could deliver it outside Dublin.

tin79

hibby wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the good advice.

I'd like to investigate the broker option first. Can anyone suggest a broker or a list of brokers who might be interested in dealing with a relatively low-value boat? I'm in Dublin but I could deliver it outside Dublin.

For such a low value boat I would wonder if its worth going to a broker. They might be recluctant too given the value and they would want to set a minimum charge for themselves and you might be left with very little. You will shift it quicker on Donedeal if you clean it up, check the engine function, put up a good ad, list all extras and have some good pics with a low price.

i wouldnt worry about not being able to give potential buyers a test run for a low value package it should not be an issue, running the engine in a tank or on muffs should be enough.

A well advertised boat with good pics and a good price will sell any time of year. There are aways bargain hunters out there. I sold a boat on DD last feb, it was gone in 3 days.

murphym7

If it makes you feel any better, a lot of folks start looking around for boats after Christmas - gives time to look, buy and do up before the Summer kicks in. Good luck with it.

ISAW

Any broker who says "I cant be interested for that price" should probably not be in brokering.
Again I frequently post about a British broker I have never dealt with . He lists boats for about £100 to £50,000

Another rule of thumb is that the market is best at the beginning and end of the season This would be around march and September.

Just a glance st the apolloduck homepage and you will notice a number of "featured companies"

Ned_led16

Ask for 20% more than your willing to negotiate and remember just cause u paid x for it and thinks it worth x is entirely irrelevant.. you can sell boats all day on donedeal but know one will buy unless the price is right!!!!!!

Pricing is the art or science of estimating the value for a specific purpose of a particular interest a particular moment in time taking into account all the features of the boat and also considering all the underlying economic factors of the market including the range of alternative investments

The estimated amount for which an asset should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arms length transaction after proper marketing wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeablay prudently and without compulsion.


People selling boats seem to have forgotten we are experiencing the worst recession since 1927...get a grip lads and reduce your prices if u want to sell!!!!! if u dont want to sell then keep the prices as they are but your wasting your time and the buyers time!!!!!!

tin79

ISAW wrote: »

Any broker who says "I cant be interested for that price" should probably not be in brokering.
Again I frequently post about a British broker I have never dealt with . He lists boats for about £100 to £50,000

Another rule of thumb is that the market is best at the beginning and end of the season This would be around march and September.

Just a glance st the apolloduck homepage and you will notice a number of "featured companies"

If you see my ad for a boat on adverts ie that sold in april , i think, I had two brokers tell me it wouldnt be worth their while unless they agreed a minimum price.

This price was several hundred and so for a boat that I sold for 1900 wasnt a good deal for me.

hibby

Just popping back in to thank everyone for the advice so far. It's been very informative indeed and maybe I have more hope of selling than I thought. I'll come back and let you know how I get on.

hibby

Okay, I took the cover off today and gave the boat a bit of a wipe-down and took some photos. The ad is up on DoneDeal now with lots of photos and video as suggested. Not sure if I'm allowed to link from here? Anyway if anyone's interested they can search for "Dell Quay Dory".

I couldn't get over how cheap it is to advertise on DoneDeal: only €3.

I've listed at €2800 but I'm open to offers. On the other hand I don't absolutely have to sell before I go - I can just leave it there and it'll be buried in leaves when I come back to Ireland!

Just noticed I said in my OP that it's a Mercury engine and that fergal.b said he likes old Mercs - actually it's a Mariner. Sorry about that; I didn't intend to mislead anyone.

fergal.b

The add looks great but I would leave out "hard to start" and instead of holes to outer hull maybe say slight repair to hull or say nothing till someone comes and looks at it.:D

Best of look with the sale "put it up on adverts.ie also"

tin79

Good Luck with the sale.

I think you might get 2K or so for it. Hope it goes well let us know

tin79

Looks in nice condition btw!

hibby

fergal.b wrote: »

The add looks great but I would leave out "hard to start" and instead of holes to outer hull maybe say slight repair to hull or say nothing till someone comes and looks at it.:D

Taking your advice, I've changed the wording a bit (holes in outer hull -> minor hull damage; Hard to start from cold -> some effort to start from cold), but I still want to be up-front about any issues to avoid wasted time.

I can't believe how many views the ad has already got. First offer last night was €1300 (no thanks! I don't need money that badly.)

Next I got an e-mail offer of "two euro for the lot". I am 50-50 whether it's someone having a joke at my expense or they actually meant €2000. It sounds like a joke but they included their phone number, so...

tin79, interesting that you think it might go for around €2000. I don't really want to part with it for that. I'd be more inclined to wait and see if I get a better offer. On the other hand if someone makes an initial offer of €2000 they might be willing to pay a bit more.

tin79

hibby wrote: »

Taking your advice, I've changed the wording a bit (holes in outer hull -> minor hull damage; Hard to start from cold -> some effort to start from cold), but I still want to be up-front about any issues to avoid wasted time.

I can't believe how many views the ad has already got. First offer last night was €1300 (no thanks! I don't need money that badly.)

Next I got an e-mail offer of "two euro for the lot". I am 50-50 whether it's someone having a joke at my expense or they actually meant €2000. It sounds like a joke but they included their phone number, so...

tin79, interesting that you think it might go for around €2000. I don't really want to part with it for that. I'd be more inclined to wait and see if I get a better offer. On the other hand if someone makes an initial offer of €2000 they might be willing to pay a bit more.

I am just basing that on my own experience selling a similar package. Mine was a 14 foot Dory, 65 hp 1996 Suzuki (elec start with PTT), fish finder, 2007 2.3 hp honda aux, all leather seats and I got no interest initially at 3K.

Added a lot of extras and eventually dropped down to 1950 and it sold.

You never know but I think you would be doing well to get close to 2,8K here but if you can hold out for a while you might do.

hibby

The 2 euro guy came back and confirmed he meant €2000. I would still hold out the hope of getting an extra few hundred, but based on tin79's experience 2000 might be about what I can expect.

If so I'll have to consider whether I'd prefer to keep it or let it go at that price.

fergal.b

Let it go for what you feel it's worth to you,I think €2000 is a good price and I would take it but it's not my boat and I hope he is not reading this By the time you come back you might be able to get a superyacht here for €2000 the way things are going

murphym7

fergal.b wrote: »

Let it go for what you feel it's worth to you,I think €2000 is a good price and I would take it but it's not my boat and I hope he is not reading this By the time you come back you might be able to get a superyacht here for €2000 the way things are going

I agree - take the 2k. A bird in the hand and all that. I wish I had done the same when selling my yoke last year.

cdublin

Nice boat for inshore work (or lake but I'm a sea man!).

I'm a boat owner myself and have bought and sold a few over the years. I think you are right with the accuracy in your description, maybe even a few pics of the repaired damage would be good.

Also, make sure to advertise it in as many different places as possible to increase your selling chances.
Put it onto www.adverts.ie and www.buyandsell.ie, both are free/3 euro. It'll only take you another 10 mins but your widening your chances in a slack market.
Maybe lighten up on the price. If your willing to let it go cheaper then advertise it. I think you'll end up letting it go for 2k ish.

Also, put it onto the fishing forum seaanglingireland.ie you may need to join up (free) to do this but they have a good buyandsell section and boats sell in there.
Nice boat for inshore fishing around dalkey island etc and some mackerel bashing!

hibby

Okay, I may have a buyer at €2150, delivered (with 2 life-jackets and some other stuff included). About half of what I paid for it, but not bad in the current market I guess.

The engine hadn't been run for around 8 months so I started it this evening to see if it would run okay. As I expected it took a good few pulls before it fired at all, but then I was able to get it going and it seemed fine. So hopefully the buyer will be happy with the boat and get plenty of enjoyment from it.

fergal.b

Good for you, I also sold one of my boats on friday the fish must be biting

A tip for anyone who lets the petrol sit for a few months is to add a stabilizer and let it run into the engine this will stop the build of gum and varnish as petrol can go bad in 30-60 days.
It might be worth your while just checking your spark plugs and giving them a clean before he comes to look at it.
Best of luck.





.

hibby

And, SOLD. €2150.

I want to thank everyone here again for the good advice. It worked out well for me in the end, although I was sad to part with it.

I drove it up to [a town about 100 km away] where I had arranged to meet the chap in a car park at 10 this morning. His friend turned up instead because the buyer had forgotten he was going to a christening this morning!

The friend was knowledgeable about boats, and about Mariner engines because he has a RIB with a Mariner 50. He took out one of the spark plugs, stuck his finger in the hole and asked me to pull the rope and turn over the engine once. He pronounced himself satisfied and put the plug back in and the cover back on.

He said not to worry about the torn upholstery because he has a friend who is a "trimmer" and will replace the cushions. I was pleased at the idea that the boat will be fixed up with nice new upholstery!

tin79

hibby wrote: »

And, SOLD. €2150.

I want to thank everyone here again for the good advice. It worked out well for me in the end, although I was sad to part with it.

I drove it up to [a town about 100 km away] where I had arranged to meet the chap in a car park at 10 this morning. His friend turned up instead because the buyer had forgotten he was going to a christening this morning!

The friend was knowledgeable about boats, and about Mariner engines because he has a RIB with a Mariner 50. He took out one of the spark plugs, stuck his finger in the hole and asked me to pull the rope and turn over the engine once. He pronounced himself satisfied and put the plug back in and the cover back on.

He said not to worry about the torn upholstery because he has a friend who is a "trimmer" and will replace the cushions. I was pleased at the idea that the boat will be fixed up with nice new upholstery!

Well done - a good result for you. Good luck in Japan