Selling Whole -vs- Parting Out - Which is better?

I have a disabled but reparable outboard motor that's still modern enough to be of value (mid 2000s / 4 stroke) and I am trying to figure out what the heck to do with it. Would I be better off (financially) parting it out or just selling the engine as a whole? I could break it down in a day and list all the parts on an auction site. If anyone has ever tried to part out an outboard, would you mind sharing your experience (good or bad) with me?

-Jake
Lexington, SC

Re: Selling Whole -vs- Parting Out - Which is better?

The trick to parting out has to be: identify the buyer, the price, shipping the part, and getting paid for the part....could be a real time-consuming pain in the butt, unless used parts happens to be your specialty!...maybe Craigs List or EBay?...

Re: Selling Whole -vs- Parting Out - Which is better?

I would say it all depends on what's wrong with this engine. If the cost of purchase, parts, potential labor all add up to the same or more than a known good running engine, people would be less inclined to buy it whole unless they wanted a parts motor to set aside.

On the other hand, you break down the engine, list everything on ebay, but have to sit on the parts longer before they sell. Then you have to deal with shipping each part out. Some parts may not sell, because they just simply don't break that often. It's a tough question. A roll of the dice IMHO

Re: Selling Whole -vs- Parting Out - Which is better?

I haven't done it with an outboard, but several motorcycles. It all comes down to how much time you want to put into waiting for the parts to sell. Most of them that I have parted out, I ended up making the same as what I would have selling it whole - why, I wasn't willing to wait it out and scrapped the leftovers after a few big items sold.

Re: Selling Whole -vs- Parting Out - Which is better?

what is the value of your time? That's the most important part of the decision. The time you will spend on this (or any) project is your own time--nights and weekends if you work, typically--you won't take time off from the paying job for this.

So how much would I have to pay you to sit in a booth collecting parking fees and give up a night or weekend? $10/hour? $100/hour? $500/hour? The answer is driven largely by what you earn at work.

However, you discount the hourly value by the fun factor, the hobby side. I wouldn't spend my precious Saturday afternoon in a parking lot booth but I'd enjoy taking a motor apart, and the horse trading, but up to a point. I wouldn't want to sit around all day waiting for buyers to show up in response to an ad on Craigslist.

How much time it will take is driven by whether you have an active market. IN this coastal city with a GMA population of over a million, selling boat stuff is right easy. Not so in the hinterlands, or where winter shuts down the boaters.

For me, personally, I'd get rid of it in one piece and take the first local offer. Once I retire (if ever) I'd probably mess around with it.

Re: Selling Whole -vs- Parting Out - Which is better?

@RogersJetboat454 - I *think* if someone were to clean it up and put a new head on it they would have a reasonably good chance of resurrecting it. I personally was not willing to take that risk, but I think it has a pretty good shot at working out. I bought it very deeply discounted and as-it-sat with water in the oil because I wanted the pontoon boat it was connected to. -Jake