Why do people post their potentially awesome deals?

For the sake of light hearted conversation I wanted to bring this up.

Why do people always share ads they've seen for boats that they are considering buying or their friend is looking at. If your unsure whether it is a good deal or not it probably isn't and if it is a great deal I wouldn't be telling anyone else about it. Maybe I'm just a selfish person but if I was to come across a bargain and really tempted to buy a particular boat the last thing I would do is share this opportunity with the entire internet. Am I the only one that would shamelessly call up the seller myself and beat them to it if it was a great deal?

Don't get me wrong as I always enjoy these threads and would gladly shoot the crap about any boat for sale and spend all day considering it's merits and the market and what else is out there. We are all sitting around work reading this forum for the very reason that we enjoy talking boats and offering our opinions because our wives certainly have no interest in hearing us talk about it. I've always just thought it was kind of funny.

I was thinking the exact same thing this morning. Then I thought well if I was in the market for a boat and there was a deal I would be curious as to if I could do better? I live in CO so not a ton of V-Drive wakeboats around here so it is and would be helpful for me to know what others are getting there used boats for. Plus it seems that when someone posts their 'potential' deal somebody else usually posts additional deals that seem pretty good or better than the original.

If you're boat shopping and you've done even an hour of homework AT ALL, you should know whether a boat is a good deal or not... And well if you haven't done your homework then i guess you come on WW and ask people who have? Seems pretty obvious to me.

I think part of it is our ego. I think we want approval of "others" before pulling the trigger on anything. Think about it. We have done this since birth, trying to gain approval of others, why is boat buying any different. I know, someone will say " I could care less what people think" yeah well maybe, but I just tend to think that people want others to approve of what they are doing in general. I know for me I do. I don't post that stuff but I can tell you I did ask on here prior to buying my 2011 Epic 23V. This place helped alot with my purchase, and guess what.... I LOVE MY BOAT. So I say post away, and feel good about buying.

I would have to agree. I did my homework and was looking for over a year before I found what I thought to be the right deal. I was worried up until I had the title in my hand that someone else was going to come in and offer more money for it. That 13 hour drive was stressful. The day before I had my uncle check it out and run it for me before I was going to make the drive and he said the owner got 3 calls on the boat while he was there. Thankfully it all worked out and I could not be happier with our purchase.

Buying a boat is a big purchase for 99% people. It's not a need, it's a want so we post potential buys with the hopes of getting insight on that particular model or other boats in the same price range, I know I did it and I think most people do. This is actually a great community and I've learned so much by reading all the great posts on buying and selling boats, I find the information invaluable.

I would encourage getting advice to help narrow down a search, but after finding that perfect deal I would personally be hesitant to let anyone know prior to the purchase.

I started a thread on here about a new leftover 09 Sanger V210 for 36k. We don't have many Sangers in this part of the country and I have no idea what they generally go for. I looked on the web, and almost every dealer that had one had "call for price" listed as the price. I just figured that I'd get a couple of straight answers on here (which I did) rather than find a dealer that had one, go there and compare. Starting that thread probably saved me a couple of hours of driving around and bs'ing that would have likely made me come to the same conclusion. I think asking questions on here isn't such a bad thing. Ofcourse, notice that I didn't put a picture or a link to the boat in my thread. The boat isn't advertised anywhere (I've checked) and I'm sure that even if it was the greatest deal on earth, nobody on here could have found it.

i found an 88 old cutlass for $1325.00. It has a set of new hubcaps on it and some sweet Ed Hardy seat covers. Baby blue with dice valve stem covers and the luggage rack on the trunk. is this a good deal?

Originally Posted by mattgettel

i found an 88 old cutlass for $1325.00. It has a set of new hubcaps on it and some sweet Ed Hardy seat covers. Baby blue with dice valve stem covers and the luggage rack on the trunk. is this a good deal?

Hell yeah, the Ed Hardy seat covers alone are worth $20. Man, I wish I found that.

Why? Probably for the same reason you asked your question........ because they want to know.

One can comparison shop all day long as a part of their "homework" and it will give them a good idea if the price is fair. But to get real details on a boat (or it's price), why not ask a large group of users for their opinions??

The trick is weeding thru the crap for the real meat & potatoes & applying it to your own situation.

Personally I wouldn't post a potentially good deal. I asked about how the boat I was looking at was as far as performance and wake, but didn't like to the ad. I picked up an '89 Saltare or what I think was a good price. Cash + my old I/O, which for me the only thing stopping me from getting an inboard was selling my I/O so I had room. I thought the price the fellow selling it and I worked to was good, and a fair bit below what he was asking. I jumped on it and after a test drive and a day of riding and only minor issues (carb adjustment, loose tach wire, packing adjustment) I'm pretty happy. I did my own research as much as I could and saw several Saltares that had previously sold for more than what our deal was and some that were asking more but had not sold. I wanted a newer inboard but realized I probably wasn't going to get anything more than tire kickers on my I/O so I pulled the trigger on the deal and I'm very happy with it.

Just me. I would have liked to post the ad and say is this a good deal or not, but didn't want someone to jump on it and I'd still have an I/O.

If you're in the market for a boat, and frequent this site, you're likely to have seen/found the boat well before anyone who would post it on here asking questions, and likely would have already contacted the seller rather than asking questions.

I doubt many on here are in the market for "just a good deal", other than that one dude that bragged about flipping boats and then didn't understand why no one was buying

Originally Posted by bbeach

If you're boat shopping and you've done even an hour of homework AT ALL, you should know whether a boat is a good deal or not... And well if you haven't done your homework then i guess you come on WW and ask people who have? Seems pretty obvious to me.

I think you are simplifying the process way too much. An hour of homework is going to get most guys confused rather than enlightened. Trying to gather info about a boat's condition and options and how it performs is very difficult. Especially when so many boats are bought without a face to face inspection due to the internet.

Many guys also get interested in a brand of boat they never would have considered, were it not for the ability to search the whole world over for a boat.

Ok, rad. Thanks for the responses and like I said I really enjoy any/all conversations about boats so I'm not complaining or poking fun at these posts but just wanted to point it out. It is cool when someone is considering a boat and some other forum member brings up 2 other options that are often better. To a degree I think we always keep an eye on what's out there and looking for our next ride.

It would probably be smartest to ask the questions without posting the ads with the contact info if you don't want someone beating you to it.

well one reason may be because sometimes deals are too good to be true and others may have already checked them out, I for one found what i thought was a great deal on a 2008 malibu wakesetter 247 with all options and the 8.1 on a trailer with ss fenders and 20" wheels and only 33 hours, the boat was on the malibucrew.com and if you look on there for you will see all the threads for it, but the boat was in Utah owned by a Matt Seamons of Matt seamons motors inc and was being sold by his brother Reed Seamons of RC Powersports. he told the the boat was perfect and shower me all kinds of pictures only showing a small nick from bumping a dock and some curb rash on the trailer wheel. and this we agreed on a price of 52k so i drove from Pittsburgh PA to Salt lake City UT to get this boat once i was there i started looking closely and found that this boat had been damaged and was repaired, actually this boat was bought by the seamon brothers completely totaled wrecked so bad that the strut had went up and cracked the oil pan on the motor and the stringers had delaminated from the hull this boat was poorly fixed and another dealer looked at and said there mas major repairs still needing to be completed and and that as the boat sat was not safe to go on the water. so if you found this boat, which by the way just sold on dealer auction in oregon for sale i would tell you the truth and to stay away, if you kept it a secret you may end up buying it and not know the damage, and i found it cause there was a flaw in the gelcoat that i was able to spot cause i have done body work on cars and gel work on boats and i barley caught it and that made me dig in and look at the stringers and engine and find the other damage.