Used boat values

[rjcaudle]

I am newbie trying to understand online listed used boats. Is there a good guide to blue book type values? I have tried nada guidelines and even with adding all listed accesories, the prices are much higher than the blue book value.

Is there a better guide? Should I expect to pay more than the nada guidelines come up with?

Thanks for any help.

helpless newbie

[oceanscapt]

There are a lot of opinions but I tend to go by prevailing market prices. I've found out that prices vary by location and I don't think nada breaks out prices by area.

I'm looking and spend a fair amount of time researching boats for sale on the net, grab marine mags/newspapers with sailboat listings, sailboat specific for sale mags, and walk yards and marinas.

With the current data, I get a fairly realistic price as to what my dream boat's going for. A search for reviews, owners associations, and cruising sites tell me what to look out for and what problems may cost.

[aferlazzo]

For me, the guides to boat values published by BUC and NADA are pretty useless. I have far more faith in my own assessments, but unlike you I have been looking at used boats for a long time.

Best advice I can give you is to try to identify kind of boat you have an interest in and then do some research to figure out the boats of that type that are most available on the market.

Try talking about what kind of boat you are interested in, and maybe you will get some guidance form folks here.

The good news is, this is a buyers market, maybe the best buyers market in a long, long time. There are a lot of great values available, particularly if you look at ebay and craigslist.