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Used Sportfish Market Values

Discussion in 'General Sportfish Discussion' started by RoryG, Jun 3, 2016.

  1. RoryG

    RoryG New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2016
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    Location:
    Forked River, NJ
    My wife and I are exploring the idea of purchasing a late 80's, early 90's sportfish yacht in the 40-50' range. I've been searching Yachtworld, and find there's really no rhyme or reason to the asking prices for these boats. Newer/larger boats listed for less than older/smaller ones, same make/model/year boats in similar conditional and with similar equipment listed for drastically different prices, and re-powered boats asking less than MOH/original power boats, for example. To add to the confusion, there are few resources,available to the public, to determine a fair value for this class of boat. There's NADA, but their prices are consistently $40k below most asking prices. I can't imagine too many sellers entertaining an offer that much below their asking price.
    Is there anyway to determine a fair offer price, w/o consulting our own broker? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
  2. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Answer...No. Your broker can pull on their experience and from sold boats.

    You say you "find there's really no rhyme or reason," but there is most of the time. You just don't or can't know what it is. Most of the time when you go to the "too good to be true" boat, you find a mess.
  3. RER

    RER Senior Member

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    Newport Beach CA
    Find a broker you can communicate with. Talk to as many as you have to before you settle on one, and once you do, stick with him.

    NADA and BUC are useless. There are too many variables in 25-30 year old boats. One could be worthless, a project boat needing more money invested in it than it's worth. Another one may have had a $500K refit in the last five years and can be bought today for $200K.

    There are as many reasons for the asking prices as there are sellers. Some start out trying to recoup certain expenses and are unrealistic about the market value.

    That said there are some great buys to be had on late 80's to early 90's sportfishers.

    As a boat gets older it really becomes more about who owns it, how knowledgeable they are and how they have maintained it. Besides the obvious of how it looks. Speak to the seller. Listen to what he has to say. Does he speak intelligently about his boat or does he hardly seem to know what he's talking about?

    Boats are personal and seller's can be emotional. If they don't necessarily need the money, which is sometimes the case, it can be difficult to negotiate with them. But, eventually, the market will decide what the boat is worth.

    Continue to educate yourself, and use a trusted broker.
  4. Mark I

    Mark I Member

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    Sep 5, 2006
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    Location:
    Long Island/Pompano Beach
    As stated, consult a broker who has access to the YW soldboats database. Those are actual selling prices listed.

    I agree with everything RER said.

    Use a broker on the buy side. Most listings on YW are not exclusive and the selling broker will need to share the commission with the buying broker. No additional cost to you.
  5. RT46

    RT46 Senior Member

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    Location:
    Long Island, NY

    100% agree

    1. Education
    2. Trusted broker
  6. RoryG

    RoryG New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2016
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    4
    Location:
    Forked River, NJ
    Thanks for everyone's replies, they're greatly appreciated. We have a while to go before we're ready to pull the trigger, but in the mean time I'll continue to educate myself about the complexities of larger boats. I've already picked up a couple books on marine deisel engines, and Caldwell's marine electric systems book. I'm also planning to get Pascoe's book about mid-size power boats, to weed out the bad boats before shelling out big money for surveys. When the time comes, we'll definitely use a buyers broker. Thanks again.
  7. JWY

    JWY Senior Member

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    Most qualified brokers, present company included, have experience in selling sportfishers and can research the sold boat prices as well as offering personal insights. Notwithstanding, YF has one of the most knowledgable brokers onboard for anything related to fish raising vessels: Loren Schweizer. Loren and I worked at Bertram together many moons ago but he was on the intellectual side of production, I was in sales. Try sending Loren a PM through YF.

    Judy
  8. RER

    RER Senior Member

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    Location:
    Newport Beach CA
    I thought of you when I posted above ...I was going to edit for gender neutrality but to be honest, with the PC overload on gender issues these days I decided to just let it fly.