Got that straight - I was just wondering how negotiable - boats which
sold new in 1995 for under $100k going for $55k to $105k ten years
later. Could make sense in a sellers' market, but last I heard it is
tough going selling boats.


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Right now it's tough going finding enough boats to sell. Every broker I
know is doing a land-office business. At least here in the Pacific NW,
it is a seller's market, not a buyer's. Incredibly low interest rates
and a local economy that is beginning to recover have combined to bring
out the buyers.

There is a simple answer to your question concerning boat
depereciation. The boat that sold for $100,000 ten years ago and still
brings $100,000 today does so not because the boat hasn't aged or worn
out, but because the same boat today now sells for $200,000 new. Used
boat prices are justified by comparing to the cost of purchasing the
same thing new, more like houses than cars. (Likely due to the fact
that unlike cars, boats aren't shot after 5-6 years of average use).
Unlike real estate, most boats won't actually appreciate but if the new
price goes up high enough, fast enough, an older boat often sells for
the same amount of pre-inflated dollars ten years or 20 years after the
fact than it did when new.

I will be aboard a boat today that sold in the early 1980's, almost a
quarter century ago, for about $80,000. The boat is a decent value
today at $120,000. Factors involved include prices for comparable brand
new boats now marked at between 300-400,000- and the observation that
120,000 2005 dollars won't buy what 80,000 dollars would have brought
in 1980.