took a beating,but i sold my grady.

[whitey]

i sold my last grady,a '90 trophy pro.i had a ton of money in it,new transom,new fuel tanks,bulkheads and cockpit deck lids,along with a fiberglass bracket.in quick words,i was way upside down in the deal.i sold it because i went for a fishing trip on a 32 albermarle,i was so impressed with that boat,i searched for one and found it,and the rest is how they say "history"
i know people who have had their boat on the market for over a year.mine was on the market for a little over a month.i got lucky,real lucky.a few boaters saw my boat in the water at my dock-it's good to live on the water :wink: the second person who looked at it bought it.there was absolutley no way i was going to get what i had in it back out of it,i knew that-a boat is definatley not a good investment.i got less than half of what i had in it.the engines never let me down,i had only one real problem,the alarm was going off for oil,it was a small electrical problem.these engines were 200hp yamaha 2 stroke carb'd engines 1990 i had just about 1,000hrs on them.they were serviced regularly,and they ran excellent.the boat was where the problems were,the transom needed to be replaced,along with stringer work,the fuel tanks were a problem,the bulkheads where the fuel tanks are,there was a problem there,the bracket was another problem-it was a long list,a very expensive list too.
all in all,i wish the new owner,rich,good luck with the boat,you bought a trouble free boat-if there really is such a thing.i'm going to miss the old girl.i really hope my cummins diesels in the albermarle run as good and a s long as the yamaha outboards.i was really impressed with the yamaha engines.
thanks for letting me share my story

 

[Capt Bill]

Well, we all do what we gotta do.... Good luck with the Albie. Those Cummins should serve you very well. I had the older 6bta5.9's in my 29 Blackfin, and those engines were nothing short of fantastic. Started right up at the touch of the key, even after having sat for a year back in '02 when I was doing restoration work. Never burned oil; no black smoke or soot on the transom; no vibrations... never a problem in 6 years (except a dead spot in the stbd starter, which I replaced).

Drop back in on us and let us know what your doing.

 

[gw204]

Albes are awesome boats. I was all set to pull the trigger on an immaculate 280 a few months ago, but couldn't unload my Grady. Seems in this market, the only people selling are those that are willing to take a beating. I'm not one of those folks...so I'm still a Grady-owner.

Good luck with your new boat!

 

[whitey]

brian,i hate to break this to you,but,you're gonna take a beating or you're going to have to keep the boat you own.i made the decision to sell it for what i was offered.i allready purchased the albermarle,and the grady was taking up space at my dock.again,the decision was made to sell.it was obvious i was never going to come close to getting out of the boat the amount i had into it,i faced reality.boats are not a good investment-remember that.

 

[gw204]

brian,i hate to break this to you,but,you're gonna take a beating or you're going to have to keep the boat you own.

Yep. I fully understand that and that's why I still have the boat. As stated above, I am not willing to get crushed on the price.

It's a buyers market. That being said, if I can't get what I want as a seller, the only thing I'll be buying is a pair of engines.

 

[gradyfish22]

Awesome choice in a new boat, I would go with an Albie over a Grady Express anyday as well, yeah you have more noise and less cabin room but the albie rides so much nicer when it gets rough out there. My next boat will either be an albie or carolina classic in the low 30 ft range, or if I can save enough and have the time, a custom carolina boat where I buy just the hull and deck and finish the boat off my self at work. You will be very happy with the new rig and I wish you the best of luck!!

 

[Grog]

In a perfect world, I'd have the CC or Albe for the off' trips and the current Grady for the inshore/bay trips. With Barnegate Bay being shallow a big boat will wind up being a PIA.

 

[magicalbill]

I am a Grady lover...I have no intention of selling my 232, but one of the things I was told and read about was that Gradys hold their value well.

Seems to me as if they are no different than other boats in that regard.

I had a Seafarer for 10 years. Sold if for a little more than 1/2 what I paid for it, and that was the going rate..Don't get me wrong; I was OK with the deal, but I don't see that Gradys are any kind of an "investment" over other brands.

I suppose, too, that you have to factor in the nutty economic era these days.

 

[choogenboom]

In July I sold my 1994 228G w/250HP Yamaha and no trailer on Ebay in 5 days for $18.5K. 3000+ people viewed my ad and it had about 300 "watchers". The bidding in the final minutes was a feeding frenzy. The sale price is right where I felt it should have been. The buyer was from Texas and bought it site unseen and drove to South Carolina to pick it up. Where else can you get 3000 buyers viewing an ad which cost only $50?! No other advertising medium comes close.

This is the 2nd boat I sold on Ebay - the first one, a 1988 Malibu Skier, I had listed in the local paper, craigs list, and boattrader.com as well as Ebay. I also created a web site for it with lots of pictures. I got maybe one inquery each from the local paper, craigs list, and boattrader.com. It would have been painful if I had relied on them to get the boat sold. It was sold right at retail blue book in 7 days on ebay. Boat was in California, buyer came out from Texas and paid cash. I seem to have a penchant for attracting buyers from Texas

In general, I would advise against buying a boat on ebay only because it will get bid up to a price thats higher than what you would pay for the same boat for sale in the local classifieds. Thats because the guy selling the boat in the local classifieds is going to be desperate as they have been trying to sell it for months and gotten only 3 calls and one person out to look. In the meantime they are paying yard fees or storing it in the driveway where its only getting older and worth less by the day. That puts you, the buyer, in the driver's seat of the price negotiation.

My tips for a successful auction on Ebay are:

1. Go overboard on disclosure - disclose absolutely everything you know is wrong or think may be wrong with the boat. No surprises. Also disclose in painful detail all the maintenance you did do. Tell a short story on the boats history - who you bought it from, where and how it was used and why you are selling it.
2. Take pictures in high resolution of absolutely every nook and cranny of the boat. Lots of closeups. Ebay will only let you display 25 pictures so I made my own photo album on shutterfly (its free!) and put a link in my ad to go to the boats photo album on shutterfly for more pictures. In all I think I posted 98 pictures.
3. Disclose engine hours and compresssion check results.
4. Most important, and probably hardest emotionally to do, is make your auction a "No Reserve" auction and hilight that in your ad's one line description. The words "No Reserve" are like chumming the waters ... it creates a feeding frenzy around your auction.
5. Require a sizable deposit ($500-$1K) at the end of the auction as that will flush out the weak buyers. Do not let the boat out of your posession until full payment has cleared your bank. Cashiers checks or even cash are not foolproof. Wire transfers are foolproof.

Disclosures - I have no stock or other interest in Ebay. Many people, myself included, have had negative experiences using Ebay. Always be cautious and use common sense, and if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

 

[gw204]

My tips for a successful auction on Ebay are:

1. Go overboard on disclosure - disclose absolutely everything you know is wrong or think may be wrong with the boat. No surprises. Also disclose in painful detail all the maintenance you did do. Tell a short story on the boats history - who you bought it from, where and how it was used and why you are selling it.
2. Take pictures in high resolution of absolutely every nook and cranny of the boat. Lots of closeups. Ebay will only let you display 25 pictures so I made my own photo album on shutterfly (its free!) and put a link in my ad to go to the boats photo album on shutterfly for more pictures. In all I think I posted 98 pictures.
3. Disclose engine hours and compresssion check results.
4. Most important, and probably hardest emotionally to do, is make your auction a "No Reserve" auction and hilight that in your ad's one line description. The words "No Reserve" are like chumming the waters ... it creates a feeding frenzy around your auction.
5. Require a sizable deposit ($500-$1K) at the end of the auction as that will flush out the weak buyers. Do not let the boat out of your posession until full payment has cleared your bank. Cashiers checks or even cash are not foolproof. Wire transfers are foolproof.

Disclosures - I have no stock or other interest in Ebay. Many people, myself included, have had negative experiences using Ebay. Always be cautious and use common sense, and if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

Great advice! Thanks!

I had previously not consider using Ebay to try and sell my Sailfish, but based on the success you have had, I think I will give it a try. As you said, where else can you get that exposure for $50.

One question though... Given that you ran "no reserve" auctions, how did you set the starting bid price? Did you go low and bank on the fact that the bidding would run the price up, or did you start high to protect yourself just in case bidding did go as hoped?

Thanks again.

 

[choogenboom]

One question though... Given that you ran "no reserve" auctions, how did you set the starting bid price? Did you go low and bank on the fact that the bidding would run the price up, or did you start high to protect yourself just in case bidding did go as hoped?

I set my starting price at $1. Setting a high starting price discourages bidder participation. Someone did a study on ebay bidding behavior listing identical items but with different starting prices and reserves. The same item with no reserve and lowest starting price always had the most bidders and watchers and sold for the highest price, in some cases higher than the same item at a normal retail web site. Thats right - people bid higher than fair market value, just because they wanted to win. The psychology behind it is the low price attracts more initial bidders and then it gets competitive - people want to win and want to beat out the other bidders. I believe part of it is the "safety in numbers" mentality as well - if so many people are bidding on it then it must be good, right?

Be patient and don't panic if your boat which blue books at $40K is bid to only $20K two hours before the auction closes. Thats normal. Look at the bid history of similar boats to yours to get an idea for what will happen. Usually the real buyers only bid in the last 60 seconds - in my case the price went from $13K to $18K in the last 60 seconds. The smart buyers realize that starting a bidding war early can only work against them and drive the price up, so they try to do a stealth attack in the final seconds. In Ebay slang thats called "auction sniping".

Good luck!

Chris

 

[Grog]

You had good luck with using no reserve, but with my luck there's no way in hell I'd do that.

 

[Capt Bill]

Be patient and don't panic if your boat which blue books at $40K is bid to only $20K two hours before the auction closes. Thats normal.

Talk about nerves of steel. Thought I had 'em, but I'm not sure I could sit still for that. Suppose your $40k boat was $20k 2 hours from closing, but only went to $22k? I know the answer. You have to be willing to trust the 'system', and sell for whatever price it ends with. And just suppose it ends at $10k :shock: :shock:

 

[choogenboom]

It does take a leap of faith and you do have to trust the system and be willing to accept that your boat is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it. In the case of my boat sale on ebay, with 3000 unique viewers of the ad, 300+ watchers (a watcher is someone that has actively added your item to a their watch list which is an indication of interest in your item) and 16 bidders I am comfortable that the price discovery process worked and I got what it was worth at the time.

Note that some sellers will include in their ad "Item is for sale locally and I reserve the right to end the auction early if the item sells locally". I don't think you can end an auction within 12 hours of the scheduled close of the auction but by then you'll have a pretty good indicator of the level of interest and could pull the plug if interest was low. What you can't do is bid on your own item, or even have family or friends bid on your item . See http://ebay.about.com/od/glossaryofebay ... _shill.htm for a description about why that's verboten.

 

[CJBROWN]

Yeah, the 280XF with diesels is on my short-list too. I'd like to pickup Todd's '98 on a trailer up in WA.

But I'm not going to give mine away either, will just keep using and enjoying it.

Otherwise, there are some nice move-up Grady's around that would work too. Lobster season is here now, it's easy to launch and cheap to run.

Ebay? Seems extremely difficult to get a decent price to me.

 

[BirdRock]

[/quote]

Be patient and don't panic if your boat which blue books at $40K is bid to only $20K two hours before the auction closes. Thats normal. Look at the bid history of similar boats to yours to get an idea for what will happen. Usually the real buyers only bid in the last 60 seconds - in my case the price went from $13K to $18K in the last 60 seconds. The smart buyers realize that starting a bidding war early can only work against them and drive the price up, so they try to do a stealth attack in the final seconds. In Ebay slang thats called "auction sniping".
[/quote]

Chris is absolutely right. My wife and I use Ebay for purchases all the time and under no circumstances will I bid on anything prior to the last 60 seconds. Ideally I'll make one bid with 5-10 seconds remaining and hope it sticks. Bidding early and often will only let others know your interested and will drive up the price.

Bid late, bid strong and win. It does take big huevos to put a 10-15-20K boat for sale with no reserve but it's only worth what someone will pay for it. May as well cut to the chase.