New source for buying a used boat.

[Bubba1235]

Long story short, I went with a buddy that is a car dealer to a car auction this weekend and was suprised to see there were 5 boats in the lot. 3 were junk but two of them would have been pretty decent and if I had taken some cash with me (all purchases had to be cash or a cashiers check) I would have brought them home, they really went cheap.

Yeah, I'm going with my friend for the next auction. If you know someone that has a car dealer license you might wnat to tag along.

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: New source for buying a used boat.

What kind of boats & what were the prices? Just curious.

LK

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: New source for buying a used boat.

The used boat auctions are notoriously cheap and risky--but don't the two go hand in hand? These are often the boats that are dumped on charities for deductions, and note this: the amount of the deduction is what you saw it sold for.

You have to really know what you are doing and getting into, or be very lucky, to make it work. I could see a lot of rotted out bowriders and cabin cruisers at those things, but no one would give up a decent center console; too easy to sell.

However, if the auction is for bank repo's, you may get some great deals. But I think most of them cycled through a year ago after the recession started.

 

[cr2k]

Re: New source for buying a used boat.

If there is no report offered ask if you can pay for an independent apraisal and mechanical report. You could end up with a cracked block, a munched drive train to a rotted transom, or stringers.

Lots of freeze damaged stuff getting dumped.

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: New source for buying a used boat.

While looking for auctions, check out estate auctions. While rarer, the boats that are at them usually go cheap. A friend bought a '99 Welcraft walkaround with 200 hp OB on it for $1800. It was sitting on a 1 year old aluminum trailer. It needed a good cleaning and a few incidentals, but was perfect mechanically. Just be careful, they don't always go like that!