Ebay

[ArtyB]

Would anyone consider buying a boat on ebay?

Parts and items sure, but an actual boat.

Seems to crazy to me but I'm usually wrong on anything nautical.

Just asking

[Celestialsailor]

Only if you checked it out in person first. The donation people advertise all the time. I've never heard any negative about them. But I have also seen paper brokers like POP on there too and heard most of them do not have a clue what they are talking about.

[BlueH2Obound]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Only if you checked it out in person first. The donation people advertise all the time. I've never heard any negative about them. But I have also seen paper brokers like POP on there too and heard most of them do not have a clue what they are talking about.

If you want to see negative information about the donation people just read all their rules for purchasing . . .

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by BlueH2Obound

If you want to see negative information about the donation people just read all their rules for purchasing . . .

I will admit, they have a lot of fees and rules. Recently they had a cute little sailing dinghy 50+ miles from me for $400. Their flat fee was $300. I thought it should have been a percentage instead.

[goguygo]

I've had two eBay boat purchases, both were good transactions.
First was a private seller, Catalina 28 low reserve auction. The owner was very thorough with information and pictures. I placed the winning bid, after flying down to Redondo Beach from Oregon to check it out and take a short sail with the owner. I kept it in the same marina as a waterfront condo and day sailor when I was in the area for business and family visits.
Solid boat, good price, Fond memories.

The second is the Fiberform boat I currently have. It was purchased on a no-reserve auction from a boat donation company. The caveat to this auction was that the boat was in a locked marina so bidders weren't able to preview. It was located at Bodega Bay, about 500 miles away from me. At the time I had a 26' Fiberform, and this was a bigger version. I have a buddy who is an incredible boat repair guru, and based on the provided pics and info he gave me a number I could likely make a profit by parting it out if it wasn't worth saving.
With a winning bid of 400 bucks I used the trailer from the smaller Fiberform to pick it up. I rebuilt it and it's been a very good boat, fishing and crabbing on the Oregon Coast.

My advice on the donated boats is to be ready for some serious DIY, it's likely to be in neglected condition.

[evm1024]

I sold my Ericson 39 on eBay.

I had bought my current boat and needed to sell the old boat. Looking around and doing the math on broker fees, advertising, time to sell and so on I came up with a price that I wanted to get for it. EBay it turned out had very good sellers fees and world-wide exposure.

I was sailing the Ericson often including trips up to Canada so even though it was an older boat is was fully capable.

I got a couple of bites then one very interested person. He paid for a surveyor to take a look and ended up buying it for my price.

I picked him up from the airport when he came down to take possession after offering the fixed price. He was very pleased after he saw the boat in person. He said that he got a better boat and saved $10,000 over the other ones he was looking at. I spent a bit of time with him going over the boat.

I'm sure that there are crooks on eBay as well as some honest folks...