Good deals at boatshows?

[BambooSailor]

I recently attended a boatshow in hope of getting some good deals (shopping for ICOM 802). I stopped by ICOM boot - they do not sell directly and just pointed me to two dealers. I asked for their special boatshow prices and both were about $200 above what I can get anytime on the web. (Plus I would need to add additional 9% sales tax.) Is it what one is to expects at boatshows as good deals?

[BadFish]

I know in my area, the boat show is the first time all winter that marinas, dealers, and sellers get any demand for their product. After a long winter of no sales, they see the boat show as an opportunity to pull in some cash. I know for a fact that dealerships and brokers increase prices a week or two before the show. Simple economics really, these sellers know that there is going to be a sudden increase in demand for their product, so prices go up.

IMHO, you will not find the best deals at the shows.

Cheers

Bill

[Pblais]

For Icom I think you do better on the Internet especially on an 802. Some products are different.

Not everything possible is a deal at a boat show. It depends on the show. Not all boat shows rate the biggest and best deals. If you compare them I think you'll see that to be the case. Paying sales tax adds up too. You can contact dealers before the show and ask what the deal will be and offer to pay now and pick it up at the show and thus avoid sales tax.

[cabo_sailor]

Sometimes, just sometime, you can get two or more vendors playing against each other. "Well so and so just offered me this rig for $$$ and you want $$$$"

Aside from some little stuff, I use the net. In fact I had some things on my shopping list when I went to the St Pete boat show but not only were the prices higher, the vendors did not seem to want to deal. OK, I got to look at the goodies and then went home to order off the net.

It seems that the vendors haven't quite figured this out. I didn't want a huge discount but they should be aware of what the competition is doing. They lost the sale and still had to pay for the booth. Maybe that's why the boat shows seem to be going downhill?

Rich

[SurfNRG]

The Miami Boat Show is full of great deals. I saved a lot of $$$ last couple times I went from Raymarine e80 to Waeco Adler Barbour fridge. Should be a great show coming up in a few days.

[David M]

Boat shows are like shopping anywhere else. Some prices are good and some are not.

[Pblais]

It seems that the vendors haven't quite figured this out. I didn't want a huge discount but they should be aware of what the competition is doing. They lost the sale and still had to pay for the booth.

Why didn't you buy a competing product? If you are going to just buy an Icom 802 then I think they do get it. Vendors go to the shows because it works. FWIW, the St Pete show isn't one of the big shows. Miami is this month.

[twisty]

So far boat shows for me have been like every other show, whether it is motorcycles, homebuilders etc. They are a good place to see things up close but a terrible place to buy anything. I use them to compare products then go find the best deal online. In one instance I bought something the same day as the show from the same company online for a better price, go figure.

With that said is anyone attending the Carolina Power & Sail show in Raleigh this month?

[waverider]

What I found has worked in the past is to print of the best price you can find onlin. Then go to the vender and ask for thier price. If they are higher then offer them the price online plus shiping charges.

e.g. I found my first tender in the states for $400 USD plus $45 for shipping. So it would have cost me $ 534.00 CAD to get the tender. I went to vender at the Toronto Boat Show and asked him his price, it was $ 1100.00. When I showed him what I could buy it for in Buffalo, he made a call to his supplier and agreed to sell it to me for $ 550 CAD plus tax.

I later spent over $ 700.00 at that vender due to his good business practice as the year went by. He worked for my business and he got it.


Cheers

Todd

[marty9876]

I don't know why but I always look at the shows with great suspicion. I always think it's one big scam. Nice for recon, iffy for deals. Naturally going into any deal you should be aware of the market price for a given item and be able to judge if it is a good deal.

Edit: One of the boats was 163k online and 165k at the show. Made me scratch my head.

[Amgine]

Went to the show last weekend pretty much for one thing only - to set my partner down in the Lagoon 440 Flybridge and see what she thought of it. ("Too big!") But then we hit a half-dozen other boats, and decided to join the BWCA. We talked to a couple of marinas and discovered slip prices are ever-so-slightly lower than they were, and one or two actually had slips available in our length.

As far as gear... everything which wasn't for motorboaters or kayakers was clearly higher in price than at the stores. (I have no idea how much the motorboater/kayaker gear was running.)

I didn't price check the new boats, but we were both really surprised by the extremely poor quality finish of two of the boats: Junneau and Beneteau. The latter, especially, was poorly put together with trim pieces as much as 1" apart. The cabin sole of the former flexed and squeaked at every step. (I've been aboard boats by both in the past I would have purchased in a minute; it's not the brand but these specific boats.) In the past I've been impressed with how the new boats "showed" at the show, and assumed the dealers tweaked them to put their best foot forward there.