Pretty dumb question. Where do you all look for used boats?

[Baylinerchuck]

+1 for CL. Both of my boats came from those adds. Just expanded the search to areas where there are more boats for sale. Not many boats in central PA, so I expanded to the Baltimore and VA markets. The project boat in my signature is a Virginia boat. Search where the boats are.....

 

[Leardriver]

Craigslist and ebay. The pay sites like Boat Trader seem to be dealers who can't sell their boats because of pricing cluelessness.

​There are Craigslist search engines like Search Tempest where you can look within a chosen range, like a 1000 mile circle.

 

[oldjeep]

When I bought mine I used http://searchcraigslist.org/ , searched local dealer used stock, ski-it-again.com and brand/type specific forum site classifieds.

Ultimately the boat I bought was on Craigslist, onlyinboards and boat trader.

 

[jimmwaller]

thanks again everyone.

I really like the searchtempest setup... searching craigslist within a radius. But, I was playing around with it this morning when I noticed that some boats I had looked at on craigslist weren't showing up on searchtempest listings. Went back and directly checked against craigslist, and i bet about half the listings on craigslist weren't showing up on searchtempest.

My fault? Or is this a known problem?

 

[BWR1953]

It's a known thing. That's why I check several different engines.

 

[jkust]

Downside of Craigslist is that there are so many unresponsive sellers and or idiot sellers. When I was shopping for a Waverunner last year, I met the seller in a parking lot, made him an offer for which I was ready to pay him on the spot (the machine had like 8 hours on it) and he said to me, 'I'm not selling today, I'm just taking offers'. What a waste. Of course he called me back from my number on caller id and said he'd take my offer a couple weeks later by which time I was already cruising around on my newly purchased waverunner. The other thing is that Boattrader is mostly dealers and in my state you pay sales tax on a used boat purchased from a dealer but not from a private party or broker. If you buy a 50k used boat or whatever, the 7.5% sales tax is a lot of accessories. It's the price of a trailer for a nice used waverunner.

 

[ezmobee]

I found my Hydra-Sports on a Facebook group called Eastern Shore Boat and Marine Stuff. It serves a pretty large area around the Chesapeake. Tons of stuff on there. Not sure where you're located but maybe that or there's a similar site for your area.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Downside of Craigslist is that there are so many unresponsive sellers and or idiot sellers. When I was shopping for a Waverunner last year, I met the seller in a parking lot, made him an offer for which I was ready to pay him on the spot (the machine had like 8 hours on it) and he said to me, 'I'm not selling today, I'm just taking offers'. What a waste. Of course he called me back from my number on caller id and said he'd take my offer a couple weeks later by which time I was already cruising around on my newly purchased waverunner. The other thing is that Boattrader is mostly dealers and in my state you pay sales tax on a used boat purchased from a dealer but not from a private party or broker. If you buy a 50k used boat or whatever, the 7.5% sales tax is a lot of accessories. It's the price of a trailer for a nice used waverunner.

That would make the ol' blood pressure rise...... Hope he had to settle for a lesser offer. Better yet, hope he still has it.....

 

[GA_Boater]

thanks again everyone.

I really like the searchtempest setup... searching craigslist within a radius. But, I was playing around with it this morning when I noticed that some boats I had looked at on craigslist weren't showing up on searchtempest listings. Went back and directly checked against craigslist, and i bet about half the listings on craigslist weren't showing up on searchtempest.

My fault? Or is this a known problem?

Searchtempest has two ways of displaying results. Direct and Combined - I've found Direct to be much better and more inclusive with no deleted ads. Combined is filled with dead ads, limited by Google and slow.

 

[On Holiday]

I found my current boat by searching for the manufacture boating forum and checked the for sale section and my exact boat was currently listed for sale. I contacted the seller thinking the boat would be across the country and to find out it was in my home state albeit on the other side.

We sold our first boat through Craigslist and purchased it used at the local marina.

 

[jkust]

That would make the ol' blood pressure rise...... Hope he had to settle for a lesser offer. Better yet, hope he still has it.....

Yeah...to say the least. It was pouring rain and I got soaked. It eventually sold but he brought the price down to what I offered him.
I ended up buying mine from a Jet pilot who bought it new put maybe 20 hours total in 4 years since he was too busy flying around. That guy delivered it to my house then took my snowmobile trailer up to his cabin, put the lift on it and delivered that to my house too. Some time you find some decent people on CL. I once sold a car on CL to a stripper who paid in 10's and 20's and didn't want to test drive it. You meet all kinds on there.

 

[G_Hipster]

I found my Hydra-Sports on a Facebook group called Eastern Shore Boat and Marine Stuff. It serves a pretty large area around the Chesapeake. Tons of stuff on there. Not sure where you're located but maybe that or there's a similar site for your area.

Nice tip.

 

[Silvertip]

Nearly every grocery store has a "For Sale" or "Community" Bulletin board at their entrance or near it. Cars, boats, and sporting goods among other things are posted. Buy a Sunday news paper and check the classified ads. Drive around various neighborhoods on trips you normally make around town. Get off the beaten path and keep your eyes wide open. Very often an obviously not used boat is sitting in a yard and may or may not have a for sale sign on it. Go up and knock on the door and inquire if it is something you feel you could use. Check the "back lot" at area boat dealers. Check the are dealers "web sites" for "bargains". That alone would keep you busy for years and if you don't find what you are looking for you are not looking correctly.