You never really know how http://www.craigslist.com is going to work, whether you'll sell your item fast or slow - but it sure is great when it works. Last week, we listed our fishing boat on Craigslist and it sold this weekend. Now, this was not some cheap floating tin cup, it was a 2005 all fiberglass hull center console Proline with a nice Suzuki motor that was quieter than our Camry. It was expensive, so that limited our buyer field, but there are people out there with disposable income that they want to spend on toys. Lucky for us, we got our asking price.
That was our problem, we bought the boat three years ago planning all sorts of water adventures and travels. But then gas prices started climbing close to the four dollar range (like they are now!), and we started looking at getting a scooter or something for DH to commute. Well, he wasn't going to go for that - he wanted a full fledged motorcycle. So we got our licenses and bought motorcyles that summer. Well, you guessed it, we love it. Any weekend that is nice for motorcycling, is also nice for boating - but we more often than not went motorcycling. So that nice boat sat on the trailer in our yard and hardly got used. We only put 60 hours on it in 3 years, which is pretty pathetic if you ask me.
We decided to see if we could get our money out of it and put it up for sale. We didn't need to sell it, but we'd put it out there. A while ago I posted these Craigslist Tips to sell stuff fast and they really work. One of the unknown factors that probably helped us this time, was that it is boat show season in Tampa. There was a boat show last weekend at the Fairgrounds, and now this coming weekend at the Tropicana Field in St Pete. Seeing the price of new boats and comparing it to ours, was a good deal for the buyers. Plus the warm weather gets everyone wanting to get out and play. Anyway, the boat sold for only $500 less than we paid over three years ago, so it was not a bad deal. One important tip when you are purchasing large items (boats, cars, houses) is to make money buying it, because you can't plan on making money selling it. If you buy it right, you can have it for a while and sell it for the same price, not costing you much. We were able to sell it for over blue book value as determined by www.nadaguides.com
One thing we did though, I would never recommend. We took a check from the buyers. But we're really the ones holding the cards so to speak. We still have the boat and the title in our possession while they ready their property for storing the boat. We're keeping it another week and the check has time to clear. After it has posted to our bank account, we'll let them come get it and complete the paperwork. We really would have preferred they just give us a small deposit of a few hundred dollars to hold it for them, and then get the remainder in cash - but they agreed to pay in advance the whole amount.
So, we're hoping that check doesn't bounce.