Classic Boat Ad Fails!
As we approach the time of year where everyone starts selling and buying a new boat for the summer, we start to see many new exciting available boats, and some not. Today we focus on two ad fails. One on ebay, the other at a broker. But first, please, if you are considering selling your boat, call one of our sponsors. Really! A simple call or email could save you thousands, and actually sell your boat! Remember, they are not just sponsors because they support Woody Boater, they are good folks to do business with. They get it, they know the market and how people want to buy a classic boat in an honest informed way. With that said, here are the two fails as an example.
Here is a Chris Craft 26 Continental? For $38K?
First rule of selling. Know what you are selling. It also helps to focus your photo. Oh and price it right.
There is this thing called the internet, even the Amish are on it! All you have to do is look at your boat and Google others like it. Google by the way is a search tool. You may have heard of them, they are bigger than GM! Also, just a suggestion, if you are selling a boat, try focusing your camera. People like to actually see what they may be buying. An impressionistic painting wont do the trick. For the record, this appears to be a Sea Skiff. Please, this is not geeky insider information. Its like trying to sell a Corvair as a Corvette.. You can visit the ad HERE, not sure why, but there it is.
On the surface this appears to be a great boat. But read the details.
Nice Ten year old photo!
Here is the detail. “Hull does not leak.Vessel has been docked for 2 years, with full canvas cover over entire vessel, then double covered by tarps. One engine has been stripped down, and viability of second engine is unknown. Pictures are eight to ten years old and do not represent the current condition of the vessel.”
Well, at least the seller is telling us the truth. But if you are going to sell your boat online, you should have current photos. This one is not as bad as the others, but current photos are a huge step in actually selling a boat. I will also add that the price does reflect the weakness of the ad!
Also, lessons I learned from the Super Bowl. Yes to working boobs and puppies into your photos. No to dead children and dancing sharks.
Hahahahaha! Now add some sharks into the top ad and its a winner!
Well, good if the Sharks were wearing fanny packs and bikinis.
Chris-Craft didn’t offer a 42′ Constellation in 1959. Again, know what you’re trying to sell. She may be a 40′ but K for Klose, I suppose, what’s a couple of feet plus or minus???
Al, it may have left the factory at 40 feet, but perhaps if you count the thickness of all the canvas covers and tarps plus that bulge where the tansome buckled, it could be closer to 42 feet today.
What is amazing is there are at least four people bidding which suggests they might actually be willing to give the seller money for it.
Marketing 101, you might want to use a higher quality camera instead of your flip phone. You know, the one with greasy McDonalds french fry finger prints on that high quality plastic lens. It never ceases to amaze me. People, throw a $100 to a local photo student to take several shots in the proper light, with the proper background, accentuating the best features of your boat. Head on shots of a 17′ boat with a telephoto lens is going to make your already short boat look even shorter and out of proportion, fyi.
Three years ago, I went to Lanier Marine Liquidators in GA to look at a Chris Craft Deluxe Enclosed cruiser which looked good in the photos. When I got there, it was a pile of wet and rotten wood that had long ago collapsed under it’s own weight…and they wanted $2,500 for it !!!! I didn’t dare climb up on it. Check out this CURRENT ad for the SAME BOAT with the SAME PHOTOS!
http://boats.iboats.com/1950-chris-craft-dawsonville-ga/1300684.html
Judging by what I found, the photo I saw had to be AT LEAST 10 YEARS OLD! I should have taken a photo of it the way I found it…and that was three years ago! Imagine what it looks like now. No one…and I mean no one…can restore that boat without a 99% replacement of ALL the wood.
for the sea skiff/continental boat. Even the broker does not know what they are selling yet they state in the paragraph that they provide full disclosure and examples of the boat they are selling also the broker say this is a new listing but in the description at the top of the page it says this ad was posted 5 mo. ago maybe the sharks are the guys selling this boat