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Thumbs Up · 01-09-2017, 11:10

I have my catamaran listed on sailboatlistings: http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/56689
I need to update the listing because I am back in Guatemala but my boat is still for sale.
My complaint is that of the many people that I replied to who have inquired about this listing, only a few of them have responded to my reply. Most of the inquiries are not even written in full sentences and are a waste of time but I reply to them all. There are a lot of dreamers looking at those ads and for most of the replies it is obvious that they are not going to buy a boat. Also a lot of them trying to see if you are interested in "giving" the boat away or will listen to lowball offers, or to see how low you will go. Most of these people don't even have any money at all.
My advice: If you expect a reply, compose your inquiry with full sentences and say something that could qualify you as someone that could can hold a conversation, might actually be in the market to buy a boat, and someone who might be "comfortable" to do business with. Sailboatlistings is a fine service for what it is. Craigslist is a pita, always getting flagged and having to repost. Why don't you start a better site Jimbo. You had your rant. If you can't find any boats that are actually for sale on that site and it bothers you so much then don't look at it. I get a lot of low quality responses through it, I get better (but fewer responses) through my Yachtworld listing (yes I have both). A few more words of advice for your inquiries: Don't say that you are from S. Florida and don't say "methinks"

mayberrybfd · 01-09-2017, 15:53

I am on the site very often ,,researching ,,,,what I need vs wants,,,So I see some boats listed for years,,,,Sailboat listing ought to be more pro active in Deletions,,,,,cuz the day will come when I want to buy and I will not be amused to find out a boat that I have been drooling over has been gone for years,,,,just saying,, I will wave my naughty bits in your general direction,,,,

smj · 01-09-2017, 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thumbs Up

I have my catamaran listed on sailboatlistings: http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/56689
I need to update the listing because I am back in Guatemala but my boat is still for sale.
My complaint is that of the many people that I replied to who have inquired about this listing, only a few of them have responded to my reply. Most of the inquiries are not even written in full sentences and are a waste of time but I reply to them all. There are a lot of dreamers looking at those ads and for most of the replies it is obvious that they are not going to buy a boat. Also a lot of them trying to see if you are interested in "giving" the boat away or will listen to lowball offers, or to see how low you will go. Most of these people don't even have any money at all.
My advice: If you expect a reply, compose your inquiry with full sentences and say something that could qualify you as someone that could can hold a conversation, might actually be in the market to buy a boat, and someone who might be "comfortable" to do business with. Sailboatlistings is a fine service for what it is. Craigslist is a pita, always getting flagged and having to repost. Why don't you start a better site Jimbo. You had your rant. If you can't find any boats that are actually for sale on that site and it bothers you so much then don't look at it. I get a lot of low quality responses through it, I get better (but fewer responses) through my Yachtworld listing (yes I have both). A few more words of advice for your inquiries: Don't say that you are from S. Florida and don't say "methinks"

Nice cat. Did you head to Florida as stated? I think your chances of selling in Florida would be much greater than Mexico. Best of luck as it looks like a good boat for a good asking price.

smj · 01-09-2017, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayberrybfd

I am on the site very often ,,researching ,,,,what I need vs wants,,,So I see some boats listed for years,,,,Sailboat listing ought to be more pro active in Deletions,,,,,cuz the day will come when I want to buy and I will not be amused to find out a boat that I have been drooling over has been gone for years,,,,just saying,, I will wave my naughty bits in your general direction,,,,

As I said before, if it's been on Sailboatlistings for years it's probably either already sold or not worth buying. Better to hedge your bets on newer listings.

sailingunity · 01-09-2017, 19:40

This topic is interesting timing. I actually identified some of these pitfalls and am working on building a new sailboat listings website - one that incorporates a advanced search functionality, expiring ads, some other neat features. Looking for a specific draft? Mast clearance? Watermaker? All searchable. I'm still in the beginning stages though.

Thumbs Up · 02-09-2017, 18:45

Quote:

Nice cat. Did you head to Florida as stated? I think your chances of selling in Florida would be much greater than Mexico. Best of luck as it looks like a good boat for a good asking price.

Thanks SMJ. I sailed back to the Rio Dulce (Guatemala) where I am safely hauled out for Hurricane season. I almost decided to sail to Florida but went the other way at the last minute.
To those people drooling over old sailboat listings ads: you can actually contact the boat owners through the site. You don't have to be ready to buy to ask questions. How are you ever going to buy a boat from a private seller if you are afraid to try to talk to them. If that is the case, stick to brokered boats. In addition to my sailboatlistings ad I also have a broker ad (which also needs to be updated to my current location):1997 Hitchhiker Catamaran Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Capn Jimbo · 04-09-2017, 09:35

Quote:

Why don't you start a better site Jimbo. You had your rant. If you can't find any boats that are actually for sale on that site and it bothers you so much then don't look at it. I get a lot of low quality responses through it, I get better (but fewer responses) through my Yachtworld listing (yes I have both). A few more words of advice for your inquiries: Don't say that you are from S. Florida and don't say "methinks"

Methinks this ranting projection does not become the poster, lol...

Not that I owe or need to dignify a personal attack, but I do run a good website (actually two and banning such personal attacks) - and - I do live in Paradise - S. Florida - of course. The fact remains - SBL fails to keep their "for sale" site up to date, with stale ads going back not months but years; ads never expire, and even those boats that sell quickly are left up to attract useless replies.

The easy solution for SBL is automatic expiration, unless renewed by the seller after 30 days. Easy peasy. Seriously ask yourself: do you really want to contact 100 sellers to get back just 6 replies? I don't, which is why I find it hard to use a site like this - it's hard enough finding a boat, what with so many seller misrepresenting their boats, only evident when you actually inspect them.

Blaming it on poor quality replies? That's pretty funny. A serious offer: I beg this poster to post what he/she considers a quality response and I'll take the time to send it to at least 50 ads and report the return. But don't hold yer breath - I've already done it, posted the very sad results here and the return was about 6%.

Hint: if you don't like the message, killing the messenger is hardly a solution. Methinks so anyway, and...

Let's all make SBL great again!

txgirllana · 04-09-2017, 09:40

What's another place to go pray tell?

Thumbs Up · 05-09-2017, 10:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capn Jimbo

Blaming it on poor quality replies? That's pretty funny. A serious offer: I beg this poster to post what he/she considers a quality response and I'll take the time to send it to at least 50 ads and report the return. But don't hold yer breath - I've already done it, posted the very sad results here and the return was about 6%.

Are you actually in the market to buy a boat? Or are you just trolling the listings to see who will respond? Have you tried sorting the listings by date added?

Here is the response that I am looking for:
Hello, I love your boat! I want to buy it. Can I come look at it soon? I have the money in my account.

Here are some of the actual responses:
please send me more infopics of the boat
would be interested in more infos and pics if possible
Please send me the stats and complete photos
Hello can you send more pictures?
is boat still for sail?
is your cat still in mexico?I am interested in her as a live aboard in florida.
You add says that this is a wood boat?

I have taken the time to respond to all of these but did not hear back from any of them nor did I expect to because they are poor quality replies

SC28 · 05-09-2017, 11:29

Can i just say if you are sending out fifty detailed emails to boats found in Florida alone then you need to seriously consider narrowing your search criteria. I've got a novel idea, how about eliminating any boat that has been listed more than six months! bam, just cut your time by two thirds. Maybe your emails sucked, maybe its you Jimbo.

You've got some weird axe to grind with a site that is basically the craigslist of boat listings. You've made up your mind, and other people telling you they had nothing but positive experiences seems to rankle you. Its a free to low cost site, not a platinum service. I would have been personally inconvenienced to have to go on there to re-list my ad every thirty days. It took 18 months to sell my sailboat. As far as deleting my ad, it took all of one minute. The "portal" you get sent to when you log on has a been green button that says "delete listing", if you can't figure that out, then you probably need not be sailing a boat to begin with.

Anyway, I've said all I need to about SBL. Works for me, sorry you wasted your time. Write better emails and spend more time deciding exactly what kind of boat you want

longjonsilver · 05-09-2017, 11:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thumbs Up

Here is the response that I am looking for:
Hello, I love your boat! I want to buy it. Can I come look at it soon? I have the money in my account.

i am a serious buyer, i have the money in my account, but i would NEVER send off an email like that to a seller. i did not get to where i am financially by telling someone that i want to buy their thing before i actually look at it. i think that most people also have better negotiating skills than that.

This is what i say to an owner or a broker, assuming that i had no questions about her condition or equipment:

Longjonsilver i am interested in boat XYZ. I would like to look at her sometime soon. Where is she located?

if i had specific questions about her, i would ask those questions before asking to come and look at her.

At least that is how i do things

jon

Island Time O25 · 05-09-2017, 13:59

SBL is free and with a little effort all of those old ads can be weeded out. Plus the fact that most listings have sellers' actual telephones and/or emails help tremendously, as opposed to YW or CL.

While YW is OK to get a general feeling of the market, for older boats it is way overpriced IMO and does not reflect the true state of the 25+ year old boat market. Which has been a buyer's market for the past 15-20 years but one would never think that from just perusing the YW ads.

CL of course suffers from too many crappy boats whose owners should be calling junk yards instead of advertising them for sale. SBL is somewhere in the happy middle, with decent boats at realistic prices most of the time or at least often enough.

Here is my very subjective opinion. For boats 20-25 years old or younger - YW. Boats 25-30 years or older - SBL. For cheap TLCs, fixeruppers, diamonds in the rough (just sold one like that as I did not have the time to make her shine), someone's broken dreams, giveaways, etc. - CL.

Island Time O25 · 05-09-2017, 14:11

Speaking of different selling platforms. This July listed my last boat on CL and here on CF. Identical ads, etc. On CL had a lot of interest, about a dozen or more inquiries, about half of them serious. Showed to 4 or 5 of those and one guy ended up buying. Here on CF the only inquiry was from that eventual buyer and only after we made contact on CL.

I found it very strange that for a site with supposedly target audience already in place my ad did not generate any interest. The boat had like new crisp sails and a very recent roller furler, like new dodger and never installed bimini top and recently installed older but well running Yanmar. All for $5K asking price. Just the sails, roller furler and dodger with bimini were worth much more than that, not to mention the Yanmar. Zilch interest from CF lurkers and wannabee beginner sailors. Go figure.

Now if these "potential" boat buyers could not find my diamond in the rough here on CF I doubt very much that they will find anything on SBL.