Presentation matters

[sly_karma]

Helped a friend yesterday do an outboard switch. He has a family place on Savary and likes my concept of a "cabin boat" - a jointly-owned unit big enough to make crossings with people and supplies but small enough to be hauled out and stored at the cabin and thus avoid annual costs of moorage or trailering from the interior.

He started hitting the online classifieds and eventually settled on a nice mid 70s Hourston 15 with solid transom and stringers and an 80s Merc 50 for $1500. Was preparing to do an overhaul and cleanup on the Merc when he spotted a local ad for a near identical Hourston 15 with what looked like a Honda hanging off the back - it was hard to tell because the sole picture was blurry and the text had no mention of engine details. The owner knew the hull needed a lot of work and disclosed this in the ad, resulting in few enquiries and zero viewings. Since it was fairly close by, my friend went and took a look and found the hull had obvious transom rot but the engine was a quite new four stroke BF50 in perfect showroom condition. The battery was flat so it could not be started for a demonstration. He ended up buying the hull-trailer-outboard for a measly $1000 when that Honda alone would have fetched $4000.

The owner had the boat for sale for well over a month. He got only a few enquiries and none of them proceeded to come view the boat, so he became discouraged and started knocking down the price from the original $2000. My friend hmmed and muttered about the state of the hull (big stainless reinforcing plate inside the transom in an effort to bandaid over the rot) and the motor not able to be run. He leveraged that into a knockdown price of a measly $1000.

Of course, once connected to a charged battery, the Honda 50 starts and runs fine, good compression on all pots and the tilt/trim works perfectly. We switched the motors yesterday so he now has a solid hull with new power.

This seller made a series of errors which provide a lesson to all selling used items:

• he didn't properly understand what he was selling (I believe the boat was inherited from deceased parent)
• no research - an hour or two online would have shown him the market value of the outboard
• focus on weaknesses rather than strengths - honest disclosure of hull problems overshadowed the fact that he had a near-new outboard to sell
• insufficient detail - a list of features including the engine year and model would have caught the eye of knowledgeable buyers and got him his asking price or very close to it
• poor pictures - only one pic posted and the focus was blurry
• poor presentation at showing - boat was still tarped up, battery wasn't charged so the engine couldn't be started.

The second boat does need some hull work but it has a blue stripe Merc 50 that starts and runs. The sales plan now is to advertise the motor and trailer, hull is a project item but is a Hourston and rot does appear limited to transom. More importantly, the Merc is mounted on a hull so it can be demonstrated for a prospective buyer. We were not tempted to plunk the motor onto a pallet for storage or transport, my belief is that a motor that can't be started and run for a buyer is worth half or less what it could be. If a buyer just wants the outboard and not the hull, no problem. It's not fully rigged, just two bolts to secure it on the transom at present and the controls are simply clamped to the gunwale for demo use. After that, you offer the trailer with a free hull; if the trailer buyer doesn't want the hull, there is a short delay whilst the hull is taken to landfill. My friend will probably get his $1000 back via two separate sales and end up with a free, near-new Honda 4 stroke.

 

[Damien]

Yup, thats the story of many great deals on Craigs. I am super thorough with lots of pics of stuff I am selling.

The best deals I find, are just how you described. I grabbed a 30HP Mariner (Yamaha) last year for $500. I used it for a year, sold it for $1500.

The seller didn't have any pics and didn't have it set up for a test run. I re-sold it with a video in my ad of it starting and running. First guy that showed up, bought it. I have 10 more stories just like that...

 

[casper5280]

I have a buddy that doe's the same thing. Just goes though classified ads and basically just buys **** and reposts it with a better ad. He makes a fair amount of money just flipping ****.

 

[Clint r]

Me too. It’s a hobby of mine. I check the last 24hrs of ads on 3 different sites pretty much everyday at the same time. Sly Karma is spot on. Research is everything. I don’t want to derail the thread but here’s a short story about not doing your research. Jan 4th this year I checked the classifieds at my regular time and this was posted for a $1000.

1988 sportster 1200. I phone the guy and he says needs carb kit. No holds first one with cash and I’m the 5th caller. I tell him I’ll be there in 30 minutes and jump in my truck. I get there and he hits me with it also needs an inspection as it’s out of province. I go over it and know I’ll get the $1000 back plus if I part it out so never even dickered. Gave him his grand and loaded it up. Well I’ll be, put in a battery and it tried to run. Got a carb kit and rebuilt it and it runs great. Here’s where the research part comes into it: I go on line to see what’s involved in a motorcycle inspection and holy, can you believe it? no inspection necessary! $120 for the tax’s and I think $45 for the transfer. At the time felt bad for the guy but I didn’t know either.

 

[Clint r]

Ok here’s another example. I heard about a guy who had a sidecar bike for sale. About 1/2 of what they normally go for. I went and had a look at it Saturday. It started and drove but had what sounded to me like a misadjusted lifter. Guy said it started to make the noise right after he had the engine rebuilt. So, I made an offer he accepted and I brought it home. Took the valve cover off and no **** the lifter had about 1/2” of play between it and the rocker arm. Not sure how it even ran but looked as if maybe the rebuilder forgot to tighten the locking nut after adjusting the valves. Long story short, if he’d have checked it out himself, he’d still own an old sidecar bike with a rebuilt motor and I’d still be looking for one. Seriously, a ten minute job and the guy let it go cheap becuase he didn’t bother to research the problem.