On Aug 25, 8:34 pm, "JimH" ask wrote:
Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback.

It seems that there are some nice used boat deals on line, including on Ebay
Motors and other internet listing sources. The problem in most cases is
that these boats are located several hundred miles from me.

Buying locally is easy as you can do an initial inspection of the boat to
see if it is worth pursuing. That is not practical when considering boats
being sold several hundred miles from you.

The easy solution seems to be making the sale contingent upon a complete
structural and mechanical survey by a recommended "buyers surveyor", but
that can get to be expensive if prospective boats continue to fail the
surveys. As we all know sellers often overstate the condition of their
boats when putting them up for sale.

How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you
do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again?


I have purchased two boats on ebay.

The first was a Seadoo XPL (1999 which I purchased in 2000). I live in
Pittsburgh, PA and drove to New Jersey/New York for this. I did state
in the bidding emails that the bid was contingent on my inspection and
it meeting the description. I inspected it myself (easy to do on a
PWC) and started it up in the parking lot (again, you can do this with
a PWC). It was still under warrenty so I was confident everything was
OK. Had to go with owner to his bank to write the payoff check. There
was no title as New Jersey didn't require one on PWCs yet. Had to get
a Bill of Sale and fool around with PA to get a title on the PWC. The
bank gave me the title on the trailer. The guy took a bath on this
deal, but I guess he got more than he realistically was going to get
trading it in on a motorcycle. He and his girl friend tried to ride
this ski and found that they fell off and couldn't get back on (XPLs
are a bit tippy ;-) ). Well worth the drive and effort for me. I still
enjoy riding that ski 7 years later.

The second was a 1995 Sea Pro Citation 1900 Classic Cuddy. This was
purchased in 2004. This one required a drive to Cleveland. In this one
the boat did not meet the seller's reserve so I emailed after the
auction to let him know that if he wanted to sell it I would offer
$250 more than the highest bid but that it was subject to my
inspection. He had a couple others interested and a guy coming down
from Canada that was supposed to buy it, so I said keep me in mind if
that doesn't work out. Long story still long, it didn't work out so he
called. I went and checked the boat out. Fairly easy to see that it
had been very well kept and that there were no soft spots on the floor
or transom. It was late October and a bit chilly so we started it on
the hose and it started and ran fine. Went to his bank and wrote the
payoff check and bank sent the titles. This was a deal ripe for
problems since I had not had a professional survey, had not run the
boat in the water and in fact did not splash the boat until April of
the next year. But the boat was clean, the guy selling it nice, etc.
To my good fortune I have enjoyed this boat with nothing more than
normal maintenance for 3 years. I paid $4,000 and it booked for about
$8,000 (high retail). I figured that even if I had to put a couple
tousand in it it would have been a reasonable deal and I wouldn't have
felt totally screwed until I had put $3,000 to $4,000 in it for
repairs. The only real repairs that I had to have done is getting the
canvass restitched because the seams were starting to pull apart.

So, I have had good luck. Good DUMB luck, but good luck just the same.
Dave Hall