I need boat selling advice.

[travnews]

I have returned to college, and I'm now debating on selling my boat. It's a 2002 Moomba Outback, 337 hours, always in the garage, well maintained, very clean, stargazer w/zbox, great stereo system, and it has a great ski wake. I live in SE Idaho and am wondering the best way to go about putting it up for sale. There is a great classified site called KSL out of Utah that I will put it on. Is there other websites that I should post my boat on, and if so when is the best time to sell it. Also how should I factor the selling price when I have added options such as the Stargazer and the zbox. This boat is set up for skiers, even though it is has a good wake for boarding also (has no tower). I love this boat; I've had a couple guys ski behind it at 35off and liked the wake as well. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[Steven_Haines]

Ski it again

[travnews]

How does shipping a boat and trailer work?

[skinut]

Try uship.com. If you ever want to ski give me a call. You're always welcome. Quinn

[6balls]

post on ski it again, onlyinboards, boattraderonline, waterskiboat.com, craigslist

 

My second piece of advice: don't sell. Ask yourself what it will take to buy something as capable in a few years when you want back into skiing. If you take good care of it like you have, the boat will last a lifetime. I've got a mint 22 yr old Centurion and a mint 13 yr old SN 196. Neither are worth as much to sell as they are to me and my family long term.

 

 

[BraceMaker]

Beauty of Ski-It-Again is that you can easily tell potential buyers that they need to come and get it.

 

Craigslist isn't going to get you a "focused" group, and you'll get a lot of folks who don't know what an inboard is asking you about trolling motors and the like.

 

You'll probably do best selling the Z-Box separately, bet that'd sell well on SIA. The PP I would leave in the boat, but offer to reduce the price a certain amount with out it (say 500$). Put the PP too high and people feel like you're devaluing the boat.

[6balls]

Some nice used one's here. Not sure what Brandon's cut is at central kentucky inboards:

 

http://www.centralkyinboards.com/boats.asp?Type=Ski

 

A couple of nice late 90's SN's and a nice '08 MC 197.

 

Might be a decent place to sell a boat depending on cut.

[Waternut]

I agree you'll get more people who don't understand boats on craigslist but you'll also get a lot more hits from that site than all the others combined IMO and it's free. I can't see someone willing to drop the money necessary to buy a nice direct drive boat asking about trolling motors. Remember...LOTS OF PICTURES!

 

As lame as it is, I'd highly recommend keyword tagging things like mastercraft, nautique, correctcraft, and malibu. Same goes for adding the words wakeboard and wakeboarding. Some guy tagged his post and that's how I ended up with my boat. Moomba is a fairly popular name but those who learned and enjoy skiing and wakeboarding behind an outboard or I/O may not know all the manufacturers despite wanting to step up their game. If they've never heard of Moomba, they won't know to search it and will never see your boat.

[AggieSkier]

My neighbor sold a boat and the buyer used Showroom Transport. Very reasonable. http://www.showroomtransport.com/

 

Lots of Canadian buyers so I'd list it on Calgary & Edmonton Craigslist.

[Bulldog]

Use kijiji.ca too.

[bdougherty]

Brandon of Central Kentucky Inboards sold one of my boats to Australia. He is very professional and really works to move your boat. Can't remember his cut but was more than reasonable. He is in Kentucky but is really connected through out the county and world in my case. When it is time for me to up grade I will work with him again.

[Brady]

@travnews maybe post it on some Pontoon boat sites. They seem to think their boats do well here.

[BrianCinAz]

I just sold one of my boats via craigslist 2 weeks ago. I had it listed for about 4 weeks. We are just beginning our boating season here (95˚ last week, 85˚ this week). There are a lot of idiots on craigslist. Be prepared. You should be very descriptive in the ad. 5 or 6 pictures should be enough to let them see the general layout and condition. Be prepared for the lowballers. Several people will offer you half of your price just to buy it so that they can relist it themselves for a profit; that practice is common on CL. Just ignore those idiots. The other idiots will drive out to see it then whine about every little detail. Again, just ignore them. (I told them to go pay $20k more for a new one if they want showroom new) Be patient, the ad is free, but you pay for it with your time dealing with the idiots. The guy that bought my boat called from 200 miles away, said he would take it if I would hold it for 3 days. I did and he did. Easy transaction.

[Kelvin]

I have advertised on all the sites, but my last boat sold thru a local Craigslist ad. The Australian buyer was looking hard for this particular boat to have found a Malibu Response LXI on the Houston Texas Craigslist site.

[ForrestGump]

I've had two boats sell through Craigslist. One was listed for 3 days before selling. One was listed for 8 days. Both boats sold to out of town people.

[Waternut]

@Adley People in general just like clean stuff. It's hard to convince yourself to buy something expensive if it looks like crap unless it's a screaming deal. A few years ago, I was gung ho about buying some car I found on craigslist. It drove fine, was in good shape, and looked decent but what ultimately turned me off was a ton of pinestraw in that little well between the wiper arms and the hood. It was completely an irrational decision based on emotions of some visual flaw that turned me off. Obviously there were a couple of other little minor things but had the pinestraw not been there, I'm pretty confident I would've bought it.

[6balls]

If it's dirty in the ad, or there's water stain from being left in the water, or there's a bunch of clutter on the floor from a day at the lake like ropes and skis strewn about, I move to the next one. Clean it as advised above, organize it...take everything out of it.

[Johnbrad]

Do not be rigid on pricing. It's good to sell at the best price, but let your customers' interest be uppermost.

[BraceMaker]

C'mon @johnbrad - these are ski boats - if it doesn't sell you ski behind it more then try again.

[estrom]

Craigslist can be a pain, but gets the most hits. Also be aware that you'll get calls from people wanting to sell your boat for you for a fee. Having said that, I use it more than anything else. I also used it to buy our current boat, which I traveled out of state for - about a 7 hr trip.

[Horton]

@bracemaker

JOHNBrad is a spammer. So is Adley. Look away

[BraceMaker]

@Horton - I am aware, I just like the thought of Indian Call Centers getting notification emails.

[Horton]

http://media.tumblr.com/fe497dd337d9af8479bb6398b9565d16/tumblr_inline_mg6n5ltl6X1rxe4lt.gif

[BraceMaker]

panda^3

[travnews]

After much thought, I don’t think I can sell my boat. Thank you for all of your suggestions, but it’s better off in my garage, even if I don’t have as much time to use it.

 

@6balls thank you for your second piece of advice. I think that is exactly how I feel.

[ForrestGump]

Good news, @travnews ! You'll probably be much happier you kept it.

[6balls]

@travnews good choice. It may get less use while you are back in school, but when you are done it's priceless to still be able to have a beautiful, very capable boat without making a big $$ out-lay to do it. Sounds like a great boat.

[Bobbyroy]

Sell it through Craigslist..

[Thomasbb]

Why don't you consult a boat broker?

[Harrybb]

I think you should take an initiative if you really want to sell your boat.