Advertised for sale on another website

[DoubleEnder]

There is a well known U.K. based magazine that covers the classic boat sector. It has a website, and advertises boats for sale. I got in touch with one vendor who told me that the boat was sold…..3 years ago! Any views on this? I think that advertising boats for sale in the small ads of a magazine is probably well out of date (through Wooden Boat still does it apparently with success) and most people use either a broker or a site such as Apolloduck. But this is rather odd. What’s the purpose?

 

[LittleSister]

I guess the small ads provide a bit of income, and make the mag more appealing to prospective purchasers of it, and if they showed how few current ads they had, it would reduce both prospective advertisers and prospective mag purchasers.

 

[srm]

What’s the purpose?

To fill unsold advertising space and look like an active market place. I had the original owners of Classic Boat Magazine re-run my charter adds when the boat was not going to sail that season. Embarrassing when I got enquiries.

 

[DoubleEnder]

Hmm I think it would devalue those ads that are real. what’s the point of looking … I don’t know, I guess it’s hard to make a magazine pay. I haven’t bought a boat mag for years, and the subscriptions that I have are nearly all online only

 

[pyrojames]

There is a well known U.K. based magazine that covers the classic boat sector. It has a website, and advertises boats for sale. I got in touch with one vendor who told me that the boat was sold…..3 years ago! Any views on this? I think that advertising boats for sale in the small ads of a magazine is probably well out of date (through Wooden Boat still does it apparently with success) and most people use either a broker or a site such as Apolloduck. But this is rather odd. What’s the purpose?

I have browsed the website before and seen many boats that I know have sold. I think the only reliable adds and the relatively new ones, probably the first 30 boats or so.

 

[Bodach na mara]

This is not a new problem. In the pre-internet days i used to scan the classifieds in the yachting press and newspapers and visit boatyards in response to adverts of boats for sale and often found that advertised boats were already sold. Sometimes quite long before my inquiry.
Later on, in 1997 I took note of several boats advertised across southern England in brokerages between Ipswich and Lymington arranged a holiday in the form of a week travelling followed by a week in a hotel in Sandown on the IoW. Five of the adverts turned out to be for the same (sold) boat while others had also been sold. Thankfully the brokerage at Lymington marina told me that although the boat that I had come to see was sold there was another of the same class advertised by another broker in the town. Fortunately it was not only still for sale but was lying in East Cowes and we viewed it during our week in Sandown and returned home via Lymington where we arranged the purchase.
For the first search I had only limited access to a phone so was not able to eliminate many unsuccessful visits but generally I did the searching during touring holidays. By the 1997 trip my other half had a mobile phone supplied by her employer and very useful it was in arranging to view the boat in East Cowes.
My current boat was bought in 2016 following a trip ranging between Watchet and Woodbridge. The Watchet boat was an unpleasant surprise to both us and the broker, who had made a long trip to show it to us. It had been left to deteriorate since he had previously visited to photograph it and prepare the online description. It was not a waste of our journey however as we enjoyed our visit to an area that we had not previously visited and we got to meet the broker, John Wilson. We viewed a boat in Gosport which was already sold subject to survey and found out by using my mobile that one in Chichester was also sold. The following day we viewed one near Woodbridge following an enjoyable visit to the tide mill and wander around the town. We ended up buying the one in Gosport as the buyer tried to negotiate the price down and the owner contacted me to see if I was still interested.