Selling / buying a yacht on Ebay...good and bad experiences?

[firstascent2002]

My Huslter 30 is coming up for another yard bill and as I had decided not to launch it again due to family circumstances. I put it on the market in the autumn. It is a rotton time to sell a boat as anyone will tell you and so fair, despite being on at 30% less than the broker suggested and being prepared to take another knock on that still not a nibble....

I have to shift her before 1 May which gives two months.. . She does not own me much, we have managed 21 K miles together in the last 5 years including a solo transat so I feel have had my moneys worth but but right now I just can't afford another bill from her...

Ebay with a 99p start seems the obvious but I am worried at that low price people will bid then not follow through...I like the yard she is at now and don't want to pass them on a headache..

Any other bright ideas? I could put her in the forsale section but I was really hoping to get enough to buy and old wooden drascombe but maybe beggers can't be choosers...

Moan over

J

 

[SeaStu1]

Hi, sorry to hear your having trouble in selling on.

I have never bought or sold via Ebay but when l was looking for a boat 3 years ago l saw one on Ebay which l liked the look of. The seller was offering for people to view the boat beforehand which l did on 2 occasions before deciding not to place a bid on her. There was something amiss when the gear selector was in neutral so l walked away. The boat did eventually sell but for quite a lot less than others of a same class being sold privately.

At my club a couple of years ago someone was selling a 21ft yacht on Ebay. They put it on for quite a long time and advertised an open day one Sunday. From memory the open day was a success and quite a few people came along to the viewing and the boat sold when the auction came up. Putting a reserve on or having the starting bid set to what is acceptable to you seems sensible.

 

[SteveTibbetts]

I've sold two boats on eBay, the2nd of which I'd bought the same way. 1st sale went like a dream, the purchase of the 2nd was good but it took two attempts to sell the 2nd. Purchaser got it for close to the starting price, told me it was his dream to own a boat and he'd pay in full at he end of the week then disappeared. On the second listing I put a sensible 'buy it now' price and some one did within 20 minutes of the listing going on. Got an immediate deposit and 2 weeks later I'm handing over the keys and getting cash.

Overall I'm quite happy with using eBay but do be prepared for hefty sellers and paypal fees

I'd suggest putting a cheap but low starting price on, lots of people will bid a quid or 2 for anything that floats. And look at lots of other listings to see how,to put together an attractive ad with plenty of pictures

 

[bedouin]

Have you asked around the brokers to see if there are any who can offer a deal on yard charges while she is on the market?

You can of course always try the eBay route - I have doubts as to whether you will achieve a good price but with a with a well known and respected design like the Hustler you may get good genuine offers.

Maybe also worth talking to the owners association - do they have a for sale section?

 

[langstonelayabout]

I bought a 24' boat through ebay last summer and found that I got a reasonable to good deal; the brokers at the marina where I (privately) bought the boat were miffed not to get the brokerage business and weren't slow to tell the vendor and I... The downside was the deal was not completed on ebay itself - although it saved us paypal changes it also saved him the negative feedback when I identified a major fault with the boat.

I've also sold an 18' skiff on ebay a few years ago; it made a reasonable (market) price from a French bidder who then asked for more photos and rejected it with negative feedback, all without parting with a penny or seeing the boat. The chap who finished second came along from Newcastle (the other end of the country), paid cash and was very pleased with the boat.

People...

 

[langstonelayabout]

But on the subject of eBay, I think any vendor should take the best photos of their boat possible and post the lot, offering more via email at the request of an interested party.

I recently saw a boat on eBay that I'd have loved to view but the vendor really didn't want to email me any more pictures (that he said that he had on his smartphone) before I drove the 140 miles to the boat. He sounded about 30: how many people of that age can't use a smartphone to email pictures???

A shame as I'd like to have viewed it but really don't have the time to waste to view rubbish...

 

[Sneaky Pete]

But on the subject of eBay, I think any vendor should take the best photos of their boat possible and post the lot, offering more via email at the request of an interested party.

I would second that I believe e-bay gives you one free and the next nine are chargeable, I would suggest a photo hosting site upload lots for free put a link into the advert to save possible buyer having to search this info, clean boat de-clutter and be as honest as you can with the description as a possible buyer would be very pizzed off if they travelled a good distance to see something completely different from the description. Good luck.

 

[Rossynant]

+ 1
Nice boat, was looking for such myself in fact, and on ebay. Owner did not want to sell to me!
It's a problem of trust, both sides. This boat is for serious cruiser, who knows something about boats, but I imagine not much sought by inexperienced marina dwellers looking for disco party boat
So be serious. Put plenty of photos in good quality, including close-ups of important details on some other site, together with detailed description, sounding honest, faults described too. Link to this in ebay advert. Link to sources of info on boat type too. The trick is to be serious and appeal to serious people. Answer emails, prepare ready description for sending, etc.
You can also put normal advert on ebay (no idea what cost) for longer time.

As for experiences - tried to buy a few boats advertised on ebay. Descriptions being poor I asked for details, mostly no-one bothered to reply or just sent short meaningless answers. When description was good or details emailed on request - I was ready to buy some even without visiting, as most important things were described and shown, could accept some faults at low price. Interestingly the sellers excluded me, saying they cannot trust foreigner from far away as a serious offerent

Well, I also have no reason to trust a single word from someone who treats potential buyer this way. After all I'm the one offering cash. Might suspect that description is false or seller has some other reason to avoid experienced sailors. Nor would go long way to visit boat not knowing if boat really is there, or seller is, or if he wants to sell at all; I already had such experiences. Why should I spend time and money in vain?
Auctions (those that I took part) ended lower than I was going to offer, one I won (and was rejected nevertheless), only two boats actually were taken by the bidders, more were relisted; couple of boats were still for sale years later - and none of sellers contacted me, having my higher offer...

Outside Ebay also tried to make a deal on some - sellers mostly didn't bother to provide details I asked about, or rejected my offers (offered quite below "asking price", to be honest, but people do exaggerate on boat's value...)
What is striking, though: twenty-something sellers had a buyer who wanted the boat, cash in hand, and did not even want to talk. Not a single one. UK, France, Germany, Holland. They kept boats, lowered prices, put them on ebay later for almost nothing, whatever. In all of those cases boats were still for sale a year or two later at prices lower than my original offers, but not one seller contacted me nor did answer my further emails. Some still are waiting - well, their property, their choice.

Travels across continent on short notice are costly and not easy to arrange; in my case spent couple times more on travel than boat. Besides one cannot just go to look over every boat on market even when closer. Especially already fed-up with trying.

Keep this in mind and keep potential buyers informed. At the moment pound/euro rate makes UK boats attractive. Reason I bought in UK (crazy idea for my location) - seaworthy boats are hard to find on the Med.

Good luck.

 

[SteveTibbetts]

On the subject of long distance buyers.. The guy who bought my last boat contacted me when first for sale but I discounted him as he was too far away i thought in the north of Scotland (boat in NW Wales). He bought the boat quickly on the 2nd listing and all went well. When I met him he told me that he'd been looking for that size boat, at that price, for some time. He'd even once spent 28 hours on a mega bus getting to Plymouth only to find the boat had already gone cos the sellers didn't take him seriously.

Moral - dont discount long distance buyer!

 

[Trop Cher]

On the subject of long distance buyers.. The guy who bought my last boat contacted me when first for sale but I discounted him as he was too far away i thought in the north of Scotland (boat in NW Wales). He bought the boat quickly on the 2nd listing and all went well. When I met him he told me that he'd been looking for that size boat, at that price, for some time. He'd even once spent 28 hours on a mega bus getting to Plymouth only to find the boat had already gone cos the sellers didn't take him seriously.

Moral - dont discount long distance buyer!

I live in Ross-shire and bought a boat in Norfolk listed on ebay, The advert had good photos and the seller responded quickly to my questions, and therefore I was happy to take a chance buying the boat without viewing.
People in the north of Scotland are generally quite prepared to travel distances a bit more readily than others, I've a 120 round trip to do the shopping!
I've bought boats twice and sold once thru ebay without any problems. The last sale was three months ago, I had over 120 watchers and five viewings, resulting in a sale. Buyer was happy and I was happy, job done!

 

[V1701]

I've sold 4 boats (mine & others) by building a dedicated website & linking to it from various places - Apollo Duck, Boats & Outboards, ebay classified ad, Gumtree, etc. It's as good a way as any to try to sell good examples of older/smaller boats in my experience because you're not limiting yourself to one advertising platform & the boat can really be shown off with lots of photos & descriptions of everything. Take a look at the link in my signature, website that I built which describes the process, there's information, advice & links to help you do it yourself or I can build a website for you for very reasonable cost. Good luck...

 

[Seajet]

I've always thought one has to travel to find the right boat, but fuel is very expensive nowadays.

Personally I'm not a fan of E-Bay for major items like boats, too many of the sellers don't even know what design they're trying to flog !

How about a website / blog / owners association ? I know a 22' boat which is still selling well, though I admit not as quickly as before the recession.

If there isn't a Hustler Association, there might be one involving the designer, sorry his name escapes me right now, but for example there's a site dedicated to Oliver Lee on the ' Community ' section in the blue headband above this forum, must be others.

A while ago I knew someone having trouble selling his Pageant, he sailed her to Lymington town quay with a ' for sale ' notice, including his phone number which I think is important for people ' thinking about it ' to be able to come back later, she went within a week.

 

[Spuddy]

A chum had no joy with ads in the sailing comics apart from a few who said they wanted to view but didn't turn up. He put his folkboat on ebay with a reserve of £700. The last 30 mins of bidding put it up to about twice that.
On the other hand, another chum put a fishing launch on ebay. A punter came along and gave him a deposit but hasn't been seen since so the owner is still shelling out yard fees. So watch out for the "promise to pay at the end of the week" buyer.