Sailboat Listings: time for a change?

[buzzstar]

SBL = great idea + poor execution

[thomm225]

I's great for the price which used to be only $25.00/listing

[thinwater]

Maybe I could just tell from the listings which were old and ugly, but the last time I was looking I got 4 good replies out of 4 inquiries. Maybe I was just looking at high-demand boats.

I also have listed two boats and had no trouble taking the listings down. Both generated good leads, though I will admit that both boats were sold through owners groups, not Yacht World or any general listing. That is were the serious buyers seem to look, at least for multihulls.

[Capn Jimbo]

There seem to be general agreement that SBL no longer works effectively for buyers and sellers. A couple posters felt it still had value in two areas: (a) when a listing elsewhere did not have good pictures, SBL could be used to look at pics of listings of that same model, and (b) one poster found it valuable for "research". A couple actually bought or sold a boat via SBL, though they did not indicate whether those boats were also listed elsewhere.

Of course the focus of any sales site is simple: to put buyers and sellers together. Any other incidental uses are peripheral to that. While the idea of simply using SBL to look at pictures may be valid, the other sales sites do that too - and don't waste your time chasing dead listings.

Now the idea of research is novel, but seriously - how valuable is it to see what boats were listed for five years ago? Seriously. We'd never buy or sell a house on five year old prices. Much better to see what the current market is, and what that model is selling for right now. Looking at asking prices for boats that may or may not have sold years ago, and without knowing what the actual purchase price was is not terribly useful.

Far better to get a good NADA or Kelly price, or better yet have a friendly dealer give you a quick print out from "Sold Boats" - real and current selling prices and trends. Bottom line: seems SBL is a dead horse. I believe that if they don't improve their site, they may well be abandoned. That would be bad news, but I see no other alternative for them...

[smj]

Never had a problem with SBL. Sold 3 catamarans through it and look at the new cats that are listed every few days. Love the site.
NADA and KBB are worthless for Multihull's. Soldboats is ok but your relying on the brokers being honest about the selling price and they aren't always honest.

[knot smart]

Sold our boat in a week.. God bless SBL..yes.. Youre correct , theres a lot of old listings that no one pulled down.. And yes..you have to look to see when they were posted

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

SBL = great idea + poor execution

While what I said holds, this does not mean that SBL is useless or cannot be fixed. It has some research value, and fixing it is definitely possible, either by the present owners or by someone acquiring it with a goal and an improved model. Heck, for all I know, I may still produce net income for the present owners.

[SC28]

Originally Posted by Capn Jimbo

There seem to be general agreement that SBL no longer works effectively for buyers and sellers. A couple posters felt it still had value in two areas: (a) when a listing elsewhere did not have good pictures, SBL could be used to look at pics of listings of that same model, and (b) one poster found it valuable for "research". A couple actually bought or sold a boat via SBL, though they did not indicate whether those boats were also listed elsewhere.

Of course the focus of any sales site is simple: to put buyers and sellers together. Any other incidental uses are peripheral to that. While the idea of simply using SBL to look at pictures may be valid, the other sales sites do that too - and don't waste your time chasing dead listings.

Now the idea of research is novel, but seriously - how valuable is it to see what boats were listed for five years ago? Seriously. We'd never buy or sell a house on five year old prices. Much better to see what the current market is, and what that model is selling for right now. Looking at asking prices for boats that may or may not have sold years ago, and without knowing what the actual purchase price was is not terribly useful.

Far better to get a good NADA or Kelly price, or better yet have a friendly dealer give you a quick print out from "Sold Boats" - real and current selling prices and trends. Bottom line: seems SBL is a dead horse. I believe that if they don't improve their site, they may well be abandoned. That would be bad news, but I see no other alternative for them...

I disagree that there is general consensus. I'd say about half the people posting have found value in it. Secondly, Looking at current market value may be fine if you're buying a Catalina or a Hunter, but if you're in the market for a boat that is difficult to come by or perhaps has literally no other listings in the country then looking at boat prices from a few years ago is incredibly valuable. The market price on a 40-50 year old boat is not going to change much from say 2014 to now. I don't know any "friendly dealers" who would print me out information out of the goodness of their hearts, and while there is limited value in that kind of research it certainly seems to help some people. SBL is an imperfect site, but it works. Just expect that the older the listing, the less likelihood of success in acquiring that boat, pretty simple. It worked for me and seems to work for hundreds of others every day given the fact that there are well over 100 boats listed every week! ymmv

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Capn Jimbo

There seem to be general agreement that SBL no longer works effectively for buyers and sellers.

This statement is simply false.

You just have to know how to use and enjoy the site

[Umoya_Girl]

First time posting on CF. I've been lurking a while and learning a lot.

I live in South Africa and dream of buying a boat in the Med or US/Caribbean and doing some cruising when I retire in 2 years time. I'd like to buy a boat in the waters I want to cruise in rather than cross an ocean first off to get there. There are also a lot more boats for sale in other parts of the world.

The world is a global place these days with money easy to transfer and I can fly anywhere within a day or two.

SailBoatListings.com gives me the following unfriendly message:
'Sorry - this resource is not available in your area or you are not authorized to view this resource. Please navigate from the Sailboat homepage or if your area is not supported, we recommend you begin your search with google'

I can understand they only want to have boats advertised from North America, but I would love to see what's for sale.

[Sailor_Al]

Umoya_Girl
Thank you for the heads up and saving me from the the same experience

[friz]

egads man, now we are complaining about a service we receive for free! This entitlement mentality may be getting out of hand.

[cpt_757]

I had none of reply about 4 years ago. Some of those listings are still on other web sites and current. Maybe they do not want to sell.

[Capn Jimbo]

Looks like it's silly time now, with some pretty tortured defenses of a site that doesn't effectively serve their primary purpose: to bring real and current sellers together with real and current potential buyers.

The for sale listings do not. It's fair to say that 90% of the boats "for sale" are not. A recent search produced 4 pages of listings, all the way back to 2012. The listings of the last few months took up less than half a page, embarassing, and it wasn't clear if even these were still available.

That my friends, is anything but effective. But it's been my experience that there are always a few posters who like to be argumentative. They try to find shreds of "value" - more to be contradictory it seems.

Let's examine some of the sillier ones:

One advantage is that unlike yachtworld, you don't need to have a broker to list your boat.

Evades the subject, which is overwhelming numbers of dead listings, that the website could easily eliminate (remember automatic expiration with time for renewal). As far as free listings, many have found Craigslist much more effective. Free, effective and the listings automatically expire.

My personal experience was that most of the people who had a listed ad up still had the boat and wanted to talk.

Really? That's odd. I sent out over 50 emails, got 5 responses and two of those were from complaining sellers who couldn't seem to take down their listing (they tried, and SBL makes it difficult, and openly states they are in no hurry) - and I'm far from alone in this experience.

I disagree that there is general consensus. I'd say about half the people have found value in it.

This is parsing. I stated that there was consensus that SBL was ineffective in their primary function, ie to bring current buyers and current sellers together. When the overwhelming majority of listing are dead, that in no way is effective. Finding values in pretty "pictures" and for research into what sellers ancient asking prices from 2012 may have value, but not very much.

egads man, now we are complaining about a service we get for free! This entitlement mentality may be getting out of hand.

Oh my. Heck, our comments and opinions are free as well and this poster complains about them? Still, this service isn't free by a mile. The only useful, current and available ads are the paid listings - and they ARE removed when they expire. Misinformation is free too, and worth exposing. Failure to provide the intended product - an actual list of boats currently for sale - is likewise fair to criticize.

Doesn't matter whether any service is free or not, if it sucks, it sucks. Time to make SBL great again, lol...

[smj]

Originally Posted by Capn Jimbo

Looks like it's silly time now, with some pretty tortured defenses of a site that doesn't effectively serve their primary purpose: to bring real and current sellers together with real and current potential buyers.

The for sale listings do not. It's fair to say that 90% of the boats "for sale" are not. A recent search produced 4 pages of listings, all the way back to 2012. The listings of the last few months took up less than half a page, embarassing, and it wasn't clear if even these were still available.

That my friends, is anything but effective. But it's been my experience that there are always a few posters who like to be argumentative. They try to find shreds of "value" - more to be contradictory it seems.

Let's examine some of the sillier ones:



Evades the subject, which is overwhelming numbers of dead listings, that the website could easily eliminate (remember automatic expiration with time for renewal). As far as free listings, many have found Craigslist much more effective. Free, effective and the listings automatically expire.



Really? That's odd. I sent out over 50 emails, got 5 responses and two of those were from complaining sellers who couldn't seem to take down their listing (they tried, and SBL makes it difficult, and openly states they are in no hurry) - and I'm far from alone in this experience.



This is parsing. I stated that there was consensus that SBL was ineffective in their primary function, ie to bring current buyers and current sellers together. When the overwhelming majority of listing are dead, that in no way is effective. Finding values in pretty "pictures" and for research into what sellers ancient asking prices from 2012 may have value, but not very much.



Oh my. Heck, our comments and opinions are free as well and this poster complains about them? Still, this service isn't free by a mile. The only useful, current and available ads are the paid listings - and they ARE removed when they expire. Misinformation is free too, and worth exposing. Failure to provide the intended product - an actual list of boats currently for sale - is likewise fair to criticize.

Doesn't matter whether any service is free or not, if it sucks, it sucks. Time to make SBL great again, lol...

Like I said, I've had great luck with both selling and browsing their site for catamarans for sale. The fact there are much fewer catamarans for sale than monohulls may make a difference. My advice is to check the listings every couple of days so you can catch the new listings. If you find a boat you like that was listed in 2013, chances are either it has sold or is a piece of s#!t.