- Image via Wikipedia
Harbour Exchange’s ‘Top 9 Websites to Buy or Sell a Boat’ includes a little-known and not-yet-well-used ‘New Entrant’ in the guise of our friendly little Goblin named ‘Hex’. As it is free to register and list an item for sale on BoatGoblin.com, if you are going to use one of the other sites to list a boat, can we please ask you to consider placing the same item for sale with our little green friend?
Here are our Top 8 (plus 1):
- BoatShed.com (Broker) – Easy to work with, lots and lots of photos (up to 70) with an excellent on-line presence. In fact the broker personally photographs every boat in minute detail so they can vouch for the state of the boat before anyone comes to view it. They are the new breed of brokers that are growing because of a great reputation and service. Because their online presence is so good, many boats are sold to overseas buyers on the strength of the details and photos alone. If they were not being so honest and open this would not be possible and the fact that they are continuing to grow shows the level of trust people have with this organisation. I have met the team behind BoatShed and they are an impressive bunch. In fact I very nearly bought a franchise from them back in 2008. (www.boatshed.com)
- BoatBid.com (Auction) – BoatBid.com is part of BoatShed.com and enables people to have their boats auctioned rather than advertised at a set price. The model is not the same as the ebay type auction most are familiar with, as potential bidders need to be registered (£4.95 one-off) and the process is managed by the BoatBid team. This could be an excellent way to maximise the sale price of your boat if you are selling, or to pick up a real bargain if you are buying. You bid and if you are the winning bidder, you pay 10% deposit within 5 days. Then you have 21 days to complete a survey and the transaction in full. (www.boatbid.com)
- Boats and Outboards (Classified) – They regularly boast more than 13,000 adverts everyday from both private advertisers and brokers. Many of the brokers also list their ‘stock’ on Boats and Outboards so you get the best of the brokers’ and private sellers’ offerings. For a private seller to place an advert it is free for any item and they can then pay to have lots of photos or to be featured. I’ve used this site to advertise a business and to sell a boat. The response to the ‘boat for sale’ was pretty good. The listing process is easy and does not require any registration, and the only problem I had was that it took rather too many attempts to upload the photo. (www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk)
- Ebay (Classified, Auction and Buy it Now) - At the time of writing there are over 50,000 items on ebay.co.uk under the search category of ‘Boats’. Of course not all are Yachts or Dinghies, but this shows that it is a very active market place for all things boating. You can place auctions, classifieds or items as a ‘Buy it Now’. With ebay being the biggest on-line marketplace you get the benefit of lots of people getting exposure to your listing but there are some downsides too – like the expense. I recently sold an old Laser Dinghy on ebay for £765 and paid almost £45 in fees which I think is pretty expensive. The more expensive the item though, the lower the percentage cost (as final fees are capped at £40). For lower priced items, bank on losing 10% plus insertion/photo fees. Now if you are a buyer, using ebay can be excellent, but you need to be careful and make sure you know the seller’s ratings, and that you get all questions answered before the final bid. I know of a couple of young guys who buy cheap boats and accessories, tidy them up and the re-sell them on ebay again for a profit, so if you’re buying, you can bag yourself a bargain if you are careful and thorough. (www.ebay.co.uk)
- YBW Boats for Sale (Classified) – YBW.com 0r Yachting and Boating World is owned by IPC Media which also owns many other magazine titles, including ‘Practical Boat Owner’ (PBO), ‘Yaching Monthly’ and ‘Motor Boat Monthly’ to name just a few. In addition to a great deal of high quality news, info, reviews, etc on their site, there is a section devoted to boats for sale. There are 2 sides to this section, ‘Brokerage Boats’ and ‘Private Boats’. As you would expect from the largest marine publisher in the UK, there are all sorts of packages for the private seller, ranging from web only to web plus all magazines, and these vary in cost depending on what type of advert you want, in how many publications and for how long. As well as large and expensive boats, they also have a special section on Boats for Under £10,000. (www.ybw-boatsforsale.com)
- BoatShop24 (Classified) – More than 102,000 adverts from over 15 Countries from both the Trade (Brokers) and private sellers. This is also a free site to advertise your boat for sale. The site also includes links to tests of boats from BoatTest.com which is a nice touch. Where there is one posted, and where it is relevant to the boat you are interested in this can be really useful. (www.boatshop24.com)
- Apollo Duck (Classified) – Thousands of adverts on the UK part of the site from fishing boats to yachts and everything in between. To place a basic advert is free but for £39.95 the advert can be upgraded to have multiple photos, videos and lots of other information besides. Apollo Duck is an international site with listings from virtually every country of the World. (www.apolloduck.co.uk)
- Boats.com (Classified) – Boats.com is a US based site that has been over in the UK for quite a while at http://uk.boats.com as well as France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and Australia. They have over 150,000 boats listed from Brokerage to Private sale. For private sellers, this is a huge marketplace that has been established for a long time so is a good choice, though they haven’t yet woken to the idea of free basic adverts. A basic advert will cost £11 for a 2 week period with just 1 photo. This seems like a lot to me. Their upgrade packages provide unlimited photos for 6 weeks at £31, and a premium 12 week version for £49. If they sell your boat you won’t mind paying this but with many other free sites you might think twice before placing an advert here. (http://uk.boats.com)
- BoatGoblin.com (Classified, Auction and Buy it Now) – This is a little bit of self-promotion as our little friend ‘Hex’ the friendly Boat Goblin has only been out and about in his little motor boat for a little while. BoatGoblin.com is a Harbour Exchange venture and the site enables people to list items as either auction or classified free of charge for a basic listing. It’s not yet in the same league as the big boys above which have been established for many many years, but our little Goblin is already making waves as you’ll be able to see from the site logo. Free to join, free to list, free to use. (www.boatgoblin.com)
