Re: The economy and "weird" boat sales.
I've been seeing the same thing here, I went last night to look at a boat which was advertised as "turn key, needs nothing". The boat was an older Steury Craft with a mid 90's Yamaha 90 hp. No trailer, at least not one that will ever move again, (The springs collapsed and pushed through the rusted frame and are now against the bottom of the bunk boards). The motor looks to have had it's lower unit removed with a torch, the shift rod and all bolts are burned off and the drive shaft was laying in the bilge of the boat rusted to the hull. The deck was all but gone, the transom was soft but not broken yet. The hull was in fail condition cosmetically for an older boat. When I asked him how he figured it was turn key, his answer was that all I needed to do was put a new water pump in it and go fishing. Then I got this great remark: "You could ask the old owner if you don't believe me, .... but he's dead".
He didn't seem to see the huge holes in the deck, broken trailer frame, trashed motor, and rotted transom. He had it listed for $2500. If it were what he had advertised, I'd have probably offered him something for it, but in that shape, he's going to own it for a long, long time. Its not worth the effort even to take for free, let alone pay for it. There's a few other local CL ads listing bare 12' jon boats and several home made deck conversions for everywhere from $2500 to $6500. There's nothing harder to sell around here than a 12' tinny, especially one that has 400lbs of lumber and carpet bolted to it.
I've also seen some pretty crazy ads for trailers that were in pretty rough shape. I answered one ad for a 2001 3400lb tandem which was advertised as "$1,200, Like New!" when I got there, it was missing a spindle and wheel, the springs were rusted so bad it was hard to tell how many leaves there were, and the lights were from an old car. The add showed what looked like a new trailer sitting in front of the same garage. I gathered that the pic had been taken when the trailer was brand new. The seller said it was still new, even as I stood there in shock and disbelief that he described it as new. He said he only pulled it a block once a month right down the road during the summer. For pure entertainment purposes at that point I kept asking questions, he made like he didn't realize that the axle was broken and tried to tell me that he took it off to prevent theft. I asked him if he's put it back on if I bought it, and his answer to that was that he was disabled and couldn't do any physical labor any more. When I told him he'd most likely get more for it in scrap than as a trailer, he got belligerent and started hollering that I didn't know my --- from a hole in a ground and that I'd never find a better deal anywhere else. I was up that way a few weeks ago and it was still there rusting away, along with a few more in even worse shape. Everytime he puts the add up now I have a few buddies send off a few emails making appointments to see it for which they just never show. I haven't seen it listed for a few months now.
I had another guy who listed a free boat, no trailer, has motor but don't run. I got there, the boat was nice, no rot, good decks, and the motor was salvageable. He had gotten a notice from the city to remove it since it hadn't been registered in ten years. I got there, asked if he had a title, he said no problem, went and got it, it was already signed, I tossed the title in the truck, backed up and loaded the boat in about 10 minutes, the then started with how nice the boat was and "Don't you think you should give me a few bucks for it" I reminded him that the add said it was a FREE boat and motor, he went on about how the rest of the stuff in the boat didn't go with it, like the seats, steering and other life vests, I said no biggie and climbed in the boat and proceeded to toss them out of the boat. He then started on about really needing to get $400 for the boat. I at that point had enough and just unhooked it and slit it off the trailer, and drove away. I still had the title. Two weeks later he had an ad back up trying to sell it without a title for $800, four weeks later it was free again, I sent a couple of buddies to go get it, providing that it wasn't damaged or stripped. This time I got the boat.
His next ad was for it's trailer, he was trying to get $900 for a single axle bunk trailer with no winch stand. That finally got dropped to $200, then $50 and I sent a guy to go get it for me, who haggled it down to $25 provided he had the winch and stand, which he did. It turned out to be a fairly new power winch and cable. I actually forgot that I had the title in my truck at first, but after he wasted my time like that the first time, I wasn't about to go out of my way to take it back to him. After all was said and done, I ended up with a boat, trailer and running motor for $25 and a few cases of beer for the help. I sold the Power Winch on ebay for $111, and sold the Mercury engine for $577, and hung my own Evinrude 55 on it. The guy somehow got my phone number, called me up a month later to tell me that I forgot the new rod holders light he had bought for the boat and wanted me to stop buy to get them. I again sent the same guy that picked up the boat, this time he was in uniform on his way to work, no one answered the door and I never heard back from him again.
The worst part is that the boat was clean enough that if he had put an ad up for $400, I'd have probably bought it for that, but when he pulled the bit about suddenly wanting to sell it vs. give it away, after I had already loaded it, it became a matter or principal. I had half a mind to just drive away with it and let him just call the Police. I had a printed copy of the ad with a good pic of the boat with it's hull numbers showing with me, all I'd have to do is show them the ad, but I somehow figured he was better off with it lying on it's side in his front yard at that point.
We need a forum here in which to list some of the stupid, clueless ads on, sort of a best of list for entertainment purposes. A place to point out all the turn key boats that are for sale with 2' holes in them, or good running motors that just need new rings, or the assorted "Runs great, ready to go, turn key, no compression in one cylinder, but that's no big deal" type of ads.
