Sold the toon and the prices are bonkers

WaterDR

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
730
Purchased my pontoon new in 2012. Market was crappy back then. Sold it just now for more than I paid for it.

The pontoon market is insane.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
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Jul 23, 2011
Messages
47,296
all markets are nuts compared to 2012.

boat, car, housing, guns, you name it.
 

ahicks

Captain
Joined
Sep 16, 2013
Messages
3,957
I'm glad to hear you did well on the sale. Now what are you going to do?
 

WaterDR

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
730
all markets are nuts compared to 2012.

boat, car, housing, guns, you name it.

Gun prices are dropping now. Boats are not up around here....Pontoon's are. And I don't know anyone that can say they bought a new car 5 years ago....used the hell out of it....and then sold it used for more money.
 

Steveatpa

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Apr 3, 2017
Messages
31
I agree..... Used pontoon boat prices are very high. We had to look for ours for three years before finding one because 1) most people treat their boat like crap. I can only assume they either dont care or they have no place to put it when they're not using it. And 2), I cant afford a new one so I had to find a used one. Thus, I had to wait as long as it took to find the right one which wasn't mostly destroyed by sun damage and lack of maintenance and care. Then when you do find one, there's ten other people looking for the same thing and its gone before you get there. Supply and demand raises prices.....

Actually I think the craze in the market is because people are moving back into the boating world and patio/pontoon boats offer a great combo for pleasure and leisure. Such opportunities for society are seemingly cyclical. Same thing for RV's/trailers. It was only about five years ago when I could go to most camp areas whenever I felt like it. Now today if you're not reserving spaces months ahead, or even years in some cases, there's no more room.
 

WaterDR

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
730
Yea, I can only speculate but it seems as though a lot of pontoon buyers are first time buyers. So, no one is trading in any. There are just no good used ones out.

Consider this....I have 6 offers on ours....all sight unseen. I had two full price offers and one more than full price...again, all sight unseen.

I sold on CL. Wrote up a very nice listing and provided a detailed description report.

When I bought the thing used, I laid about 20% below list. Prices has since gone up and those heavy discounts just don't exist anymore.

The same new boat was about 8 to 10k more. Sure...new ones have some better features too such as nether lighting packages and updated floor coverings.

At some point the bubble is going to bust
 

charleso

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
179
Toons are prety much crazy ridiculous in my area. See complete rebuild jobs for 5 g's. One twelve year old with destroyed upholstery for 10. Inquiries stacked up on all of them. They usually sell in a couple of weeks. Makes me feel good about my boat. Bought an 17 footer with a 60 Yamaha 4S two years ago. Motors still worth more than I spent on the complete package.
 

ahicks

Captain
Joined
Sep 16, 2013
Messages
3,957
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact pontoons are replacing the family runabouts in many homes. When I bought my first 'toon back in the '70's, there were just a handful of them on the entire lake. Now, you see them at nearly every dock. Marinas are at least 90% 'toons.

You have to ask yourself what happened to water skiing? Toons are just terrible at pulling when compared to anything even half way decent in a conventional boat. Yes, I know they can pull, but they'll never be in the same class as a ski boat. Point being, water skiing activity is WAY off. If you remove that interest from boating, THAT'S when the pontoon's abilities really start to shine. At least that's the case until you start talking about big water (all bets off at that point!).
 

WaterDR

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
730
Pontoon's are just so much better than runabouts now. Better tubes, more people, bigger motors....better layouts. The stigma is long gone. They have become cool.

AND chicks gig em. Don't underestimate that. Power boats either go 3 mph or 35. Women I know all seem to like a 10 to 15 mph cruise. Wine doesn't spill, you can still have a conversation and the hair doesn't get messed up. When momma digs boating...boats get purchased. We have lots of friends with boats and they all end up on the pontoon.
 

WaterDR

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
730
Yea, I can only speculate but it seems as though a lot of pontoon buyers are first time buyers. So, no one is trading in any. There are just no good used ones out.

Consider this....I have 6 offers on ours....all sight unseen. I had two full price offers and one more than full price...again, all sight unseen.

I sold on CL. Wrote up a very nice listing and provided a detailed description report.

When I bought the thing used, I laid about 20% below list. Prices has since gone up and those heavy discounts just don't exist anymore.

The same new boat was about 8 to 10k more. Sure...new ones have some better features too such as nether lighting packages and updated floor coverings.

At some point the bubble is going to bust

Typo...I bought NEW not used
 

jkust

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Messages
4,942
I can speak to this as we live at our main lake home most of the time in the summer. It is a large lake and it is to the point that 80% of the boats on the lake at any given time are pontoons. It balances out with fishing boats, $100,000 plus wake boats, waverunners and then finally bowrider style boats. Most people will have at least two or three boats on boat lifts in front on their shore and what seems to be happening is they are combining two or even three of the boats into one pontoon. You pay one insurance policy, get to remove two boat lifts which themselves cost a ton. Problem with pontoons is that many days the lake is windy and there is no place to escape the wind on most models and because the lake is large, you need a decent sized engine to get anywhere in any acceptable amount of time. That puts the entry level new pontoon with a barely medium sized engine at 50k for a bottom of the barrel model. You drop down to the standard 40hp or 50hp on what generally are lower end models and then the people complain about the whole problem with getting anywhere going 12mph. I can think of many times that out of nowhere the weather just turns bad against what they said in the weather report and a storm just appears and we are hustling back pushing the 300hp to get the heck off the lake. Gotta have a giant engine or two to do that on these huge tritoons these days.
 

ajgraz

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
1,858
This may be the first time in history that a private seller made money on a boat!
 

WaterDR

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
730
Yup!

In 2009 I also bought a 2001 premier. It was neglected and dirty. Paid 6k for it. Had to pay 750 to pay off the guys unpaid storage. Paid another 450 to clean up the motor. Kids and I scrubbed it. Looked great. Had it three years and sold it for 11k.

That 11k I put into the 2012 Sylvan I bought that I had 5 years and made money on it. That's the irony of this entire thing :)

My Sylvan had an MSRP of 31k if I recall. I bought brand new for 25500. But the dealer had to then pay me back 1500 due to a screw up. I sold it for over 26k.

It was in very good to excellent shape when sold.
 

clemsonfor

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Sep 19, 2005
Messages
1,011
That price on the first boat seemed like a good deal on an 8 year old boat.
 
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