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On 21 Mar 2005 09:15:57 -0800, wrote:

snippage ~~

When a boat is listed
at $32k by ALL the different used boat price guides, including the
Regional NADA you recommend, and you see the overwhelming majority of
listings at double that or more, what gives? An extra forty thousand
dollars on a thirty thousand dollar boat sure sounds like some pretty
hefty "price padding"

I have to be honest, I haven't seen that in the past year or two.
I've been looking for a mid-sized boat between my 20 foot Ranger
(which I decided to keep - more on that in a second) and a 31 foot
Contender fish-around. I'm still looking. Most of the boats I've
looked at have been around 20% higher than what I would have expected,
but I don't think that's totally uncalled for - give some negotiation
room.

With respect to the Ranger, I had it on the market and actually had a
buyer for the boat - $1,000 less than I paid for it four years ago. I
added a T-top when I bought it, the engine had been completely gone
through top to bottom, the trailer had all new bunks, wheel bearings,
stainless steel discs and new pads, the gel coat is perfect with one
small whoopsie which I was willing to have repaired, new batteries for
the trolling motor, - in short, I've put a lot in it and felt that the
thousand or so off it's value was more for my mental well being that I
was selling a top of the line, mint condition boat for a fair price.
On a scale of one to 10, the Ranger is a 9.7 without exaggeration.

When the buyer wanted to have a surveyor for the boat, I kind of
wondered why, but at the time I said sure - practice what you preach
kind of thing. It is, after all, just a fancy bass boat. Turns out
that the "surveyor" was a buddy and they were going to try and beat me
out of 3 or 4 grand on the boat. I politely refused to renegotiate
and returned the buyer's good faith check - I didn't even cash it.
They went into a huddle in the driveway, came back and said they would
honor the original offer at which point I said the price just went up
10K.

So that's a story from the sellers side.

And I don't think I want to sell the Ranger anymore anyway - I've
become very attached to it. :)

In any case, good luck with the purchase process and enjoy it. It can
be a lot of fun and if you play your cards right, you will learn a
lot.

Live long and prosper,

Tom

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