Bought unseen?

[s/v Beth]

They say 80% of any conversation is body language. I bought a boat on E-bay once too. It was the boat I eventually had to sell for parts. 700 for a Bristol? Maybe. But not more than a thousand. That much I can afford to loose to experience.
Of course the most expensive part of a boat is not how much you paid for it, it is how much you have to pay to get it back into condition.

[ArtM]

You can negotiate the price and conditions of purchase subject to inspection. I did that when I bought my last boat. I arrived a week or two later and delivered a check for $15,000 immediately after seeing the boat.
The boat was much nicer than expected, and better equipped.