So, you have a boat or marine-related item that you want to sell. Maybe you don't need it anymore, maybe you want to upgrade or downgrade, maybe you just need some money? There are many options available to you that will help you sell your used boat fairly quickly. I have over 15 years of direct sales experience and will share some proven sales techniques with you and let you decide how many, if any, you are going to try before turning the whole affair over to a yacht broker or dealer.

The most important thing to remember when trying to sell a boat in today's economy (awash in used boats for sale) is that:

THE MORE PLACES YOUR AD APPEARS...
THE BETTER THE ODDS OF YOUR AD BEING FOUND AND
THE FASTER YOUR BOAT WILL SELL!

Yacht Brokers / Marine Dealers

First things first. I have nothing against yacht brokers or boat dealers, but you must understand one simple truth. They are in business to make money.

Now there is nothing wrong with that, however, our purpose is to help you to sell your own boat, keeping most, if not ALL of the profit. They accomplish their simple goal by buying low and selling as high as the market will allow.

Consignment sales always come secondary to their own 'bought-and-paid-for' inventory and they must make a profit when selling an item for you. This profit can be a percentage of the sale or a commission / flat fee. Either way, you will take home far less than you had originally hoped for.

Many Yacht Brokers or Marine Dealers will take your listing non-exclusively (meaning that you can advertise it with other people and in other ways) and you pay them their commission if THEY sell your boat for you. Don't waste your time with anyone who wants exclusivity. The odds are against a fast sale for the price you want when you advertise in only one place.

Trading In

This is no different than the used car market. One of two things are going to happen:

1. You will get what you think your boat is worth in a trade-in allowance and the dealer will not discount their boat to cover their loss on your trade = you think you are happy but you are paying too much for the next boat

OR

2. You will take less than you wanted or maybe entitled to on your trade in and probably still not get the best deal on the next boat

Do you see the theme here? You lose. You will ALWAYS get a better deal by negotiating a price WITHOUT a trade. They really don't want your used boat because they don't want to offend you with how little they are really willing to pay for it. Yes, they will sell it for big profit but you will not get any of that. Unless you have a really highly-desired boat to trade and don't want much money for it, you lose all your bargaining power. Sell it first... yourself or anyway you can. Get rid of it BEFORE you try to buy another boat.

Print Ads

Placing a printed ad can be effective at reaching and targetting potential buyers and prior to the internet, this was pretty much the only option other than using a dealer, yacht broker or simply hanging a sign on your bow.

While there is still a place for print ads, your reach will be limited and since many of these publications are not free anymore, you will be missing the people who refuse to pay for a static ad medium where they actually have to look at each and every page to see what is for sale.

The online versions offered by some publishers of printed ads often come at an additional expense and not all ads appear in both places. The other major issue is that printed ads cost much more money and run in limited distribution areas for a short period of time. The return on investment is far less now than before the internet took off.

Printed ad resources include:

• Newspapers
• Local Buy & Sell Publications
• Boat Trader Type Magazines (several distribution areas available)
• Boating Magazines (national distribution)

Internet Advertising

I won't bother telling you how many people turn to their web browser to find products and services online. I know I would be preaching to the choir.

Suffice to say, that posting ads (yes I said ads... plural) online is likely the most efficient use of your advertising time and money. A well-crafted online ad will be exposed across the world, but more importantly, will be found by shoppers looking for a boat in YOUR area. There is no cost to having all that exposure. Any good quality ad, complete with the right information and on a site that is frequented not only by people but search engines, will increase your exposure exponentially overnight.

By well crafted, I mean that it contains all the details that a prospective buyer would want to see before considering a visit or a conditional offer to purchase. Furthermore, the site must be made search-engine friendly and be accessible to people on dial-up internet connections using an old internet browser.

The content of your ad should contain all the details that you would want to know when shopping for a used boat. There should be at least one flattering photo of your boat to peak curiosity and excite the imagination.

There are hundreds of websites online that have used boat ads. Of those sites, only a few hundred are actually of sufficient quality to attract both buyers and search engines. Of those hundreds, only a handful are dedicated to the Canadian marketplace. Of those handful in Canada only a few offer a quality ad that meets my standards for layout, content and ease-of-use.

If you are trying to sell a used boat in Canada, you need to advertise on a Canadian website. The American used boat market is hundreds of times larger than ours and, as such, the pricing is lower, the availability and selection is higher and there are more used boat websites.

If your boat is in Canada, you are far more likely to sell it to a Canadian, somewhere in your Province than anyone else. While cross-border deals certainly do happen, there are more local deals closed simply because of the tax savings, paperwork and import hassles and transportation costs. Buying a US boat is a whole different topic that I cover in another article.

To find Canadian sites on which to advertise your boat, you can simply Google a term like: "used boats canada".

I have picked one particular site that I like that meets all my criteria.

This site features used power boats, sailboats, dinghies, outboard motors, boat trailers and marine appliances for sale by owner. There are some ads by dealers and brokers, but most of the ads are from private vendors. Most of the ads are Canadian but it seems as though some Americans have found success in advertising on this site since there are US boats online too.

I found good placement in search engines (top 3 positions on he first page of results, which is as good as it gets) and the whole site is self-service. It has detailed ads with lots of photos and some good privacy features to help combat spam and scam e-mails. I like this site and recommend it highly.

This classifieds site allows free advertising with up to four images. You should advertise here too. The ads are very plain without much detail, but you can include a link to a more detailed ad on another site.

For example: Let's say you created a snazzy free ad on Canada Boat Shopper.com complete with all your options, photos and details. You would copy and paste your description from your Canada Boat Shopper ad to the Craigslist ad and simply include a link back to your ad on Canada Boat Shopper telling interested people to go there for more details and to contact you. This is easy and keeps you from re-creating the wheel. Click HERE for an example that will drive people to your complete ad AND leverage the power of Craigslist!


No matter what shape your boat is in, you can always count on this one fact... [Read More]

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