For Sale: POP Yacht Sales

[redcobra]

Anyone have any experience with using these people?
POP Yachts: Boat Yacht Sales Brokerage - Sell My Boat Quickly

Thanks

[skipmac]

Have never heard of them but their website and hype looks very similar to some internet boat selling sites I've seen in the past.

The big question, do they charge you money up front to sell your boat? If yes, then forget it. Why? Try this test. Look at one of the featured boats for sale on their home page. Then go to google and type in that model for sale and see if you find their web site.

[wristwister]

When I was searching for a boat a couple summers ago there were a couple attractive Pop Yachts boats I inquired about. Very frustrating, the broker (or whatever he was) wouldn't return my calls without significant pestering, then was unable to arrange for me to see the boats, or even tell me where they were. I gave up. I was baffled. Here I was, a serious buyer, cash in hand, ready to buy now, and they couldn't even help me see the boats. Maybe this was just a weird anomaly, but I felt bad for the poor suckers who were attempting to sell those boats through POP Yachts.

[redcobra]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Have never heard of them but their website and hype looks very similar to some internet boat selling sites I've seen in the past.

The big question, do they charge you money up front to sell your boat? If yes, then forget it. Why? Try this test. Look at one of the featured boats for sale on their home page. Then go to google and type in that model for sale and see if you find their web site.

Free service. commission on sale after settlement.

[skipmac]

If free listing then I can't think of any serious down side. I wouldn't give them a central (exclusive) listing but would consider and open listing. Open listing allows you to also give an open listing to another broker or to sell it privately, as long as you don't sell it to any customer introduced first by the broker.

[Island Time O25]

If you google any boat name for sale usually yachtworld and sailbotlistings come up. YW is always overpriced and anything featured there can be easily purchased elsewhere for about 2/3 or even 1/2 price. Sailboatlistings is more realistic pricewise and has direct sellers info but often not updated by sellers so that could be frustrating. On the other hand it is straightforward and a basic ad is free, includes a dozen or so pictures. I never listed there before recently but bought one of my boats off of that site.

Before I got my 1st boat and knew very little about the sites etc I came up with a listing of Erisson 32 which was initially for sale on YW for $19K. Then it dropped to $10K, then the broker must have delisted it and I saw it on c-list for $10K. By the time I went to see her the owner was willing to take $5K but I hesitated as he was pressing for immediate decision and supposedly was leaving overseas for a few months. I contacted him months later to see it he still had her and found out that he donated her to a non profit after returning from his overseas trip. But it was on YW for $19K for about 2 years. That's still my impression of YW.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

If you google any boat name for sale usually yachtworld and sailbotlistings come up.

The great majority of the time that's the case. The big websites get the most hits and know how to manipulate the search results. However, go down a page and you will find the rest of the listings. Even there I didn't see Pop.

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

YW is always overpriced and anything featured there can be easily purchased elsewhere for about 2/3 or even 1/2 price.

No more true than saying all Irish are drunks and all lawyers are liars. Sure many of the listed prices may be high but I saw plenty of prices on YW that were quite realistic. You got to know the market. It's a fantasy to say everything on the web site can be purchased for 25-33% less than the list.

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by skipmac

The great majority of the time that's the case. The big websites get the most hits and know how to manipulate the search results. However, go down a page and you will find the rest of the listings. Even there I didn't see Pop.




No more true than saying all Irish are drunks and all lawyers are liars. Sure many of the listed prices may be high but I saw plenty of prices on YW that were quite realistic. You got to know the market. It's a fantasy to say everything on the web site can be purchased for 25-33% less than the list.

No more of a fantasy than some of the asking prices there for 30-40 year old junk yard candidates.

Well I did not mean it literally but as a general guide. And yes in the past 12 or so years I've seen enough similar boats advertise outside of YW for the discounts I mentioned. One of the reason are the borkers who always price their commission, haggle room, knock-offs due to so-so surveys, etc into their prices. 2nd reason is that there are a lot of sellers who are not very motivated and will sell only "if the price is right" or want some sort of a break on the dock fees so they list with a broker just for that never intending to accept a reasonable offer. So they play that game. I have O'day 25 which I listed on c-list and sailboatlistings for $3k and if I decide to list it on YW it would have to be around $5K to include his commission as it may even be more than the normal 10% due to the low end price to begin with. But I am amazed how many boats on YW (or elswhere) similar to the one I'm selling are priced in $6-10K range. Now that's a pure fantasy IMO even though BUC and NADA both say $6-9K.

PS For me asking price is not reasonable if with easy access everyday to the boat it is not sold within a year.

[skipmac]

Not saying there are no overpriced listings on YW. Also not saying that you can't find bargains elsewhere. Just saying you can't make a blanket statement that all listings on YW are too high, you can buy all of the for 1/2 price or you can always find them cheaper elsewhere.

I used to sell sailboats for a living and very frequently (no not always) found for sale by owner the highest prices.

Why?

- They didn't really want to sell (frequently the wife told them to sell the boat so they listed it for too much to make peace)
- They wanted to much and the brokers wouldn't advertise the boat because they knew it was overpriced.
- They were too emotionally attached to the boat.
- OR, they had kept track of every piece of gear and repair they had put into the boat and wanted to get their money back out of it.

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

No more of a fantasy than some of the asking prices there for 30-40 year old junk yard candidates.

Well I did not mean it literally but as a general guide. And yes in the past 12 or so years I've seen enough similar boats advertise outside of YW for the discounts I mentioned. One of the reason are the borkers who always price their commission, haggle room, knock-offs due to so-so surveys, etc into their prices. 2nd reason is that there are a lot of sellers who are not very motivated and will sell only "if the price is right" or want some sort of a break on the dock fees so they list with a broker just for that never intending to accept a reasonable offer. So they play that game. I have O'day 25 which I listed on c-list and sailboatlistings for $3k and if I decide to list it on YW it would have to be around $5K to include his commission as it may even be more than the normal 10% due to the low end price to begin with. But I am amazed how many boats on YW (or elswhere) similar to the one I'm selling are priced in $6-10K range. Now that's a pure fantasy IMO even though BUC and NADA both say $6-9K.

PS For me asking price is not reasonable if with easy access everyday to the boat it is not sold within a year.

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Not saying there are no overpriced listings on YW. Also not saying that you can't find bargains elsewhere. Just saying you can't make a blanket statement that all listings on YW are too high, you can buy all of the for 1/2 price or you can always find them cheaper elsewhere.

I used to sell sailboats for a living and very frequently (no not always) found for sale by owner the highest prices.

Why?

- They didn't really want to sell (frequently the wife told them to sell the boat so they listed it for too much to make peace)
- They wanted to much and the brokers wouldn't advertise the boat because they knew it was overpriced.
- They were too emotionally attached to the boat.
- OR, they had kept track of every piece of gear and repair they had put into the boat and wanted to get their money back out of it.

That is true. re: sometimes listgings by owner are more expensive. I used to sell RE so I'm familiar with that phenomena. But you'd have to agree that a boat listed at a certain price (either via broker or by owner) and shown consistently for say a year or more if it has not sold in that time is certainly not priced according to the market. Any other item advertised for sale would be called "mis-priced" of it had not sold within a year. Yet boats are somehow supposed to be different? Well they are, only on the point that there are very few buyers out there who can afford them. My old economic textbook says in such a case the price should be adjusted accordingly and the buyer or buyers will materialize as if by magic.

PS Who's fault it is that most owners when buying new overpay about 30-50% of boat's value and than expect to recoup their costs upon sale?

PPS If you ask me how I know it's a long story but to make it short about 5 years ago we were hired by a perspective boatbuilding enterprise to do a full production cost analysis for them. Their goal was to build in US in the 16-20ft range entry level affordable power boats to sell for under $20K. Our total production cost, including everything and amortizing the cost of initial mold and plug came out to $5,000-7,000 per boat assuming we sell at least 100, less if we could do 200+. I bet you you will not find such a boat brand new for less than $20-30K anywhere in US. And one can extrapolate these numbers to any size boat, provided of course they're built in sufficient number to amortize the plug and mold. I was very suprised myself at the mark up and still laugh at the prices I see at the boat shows.

[Florida]

I just bought a Hunter 380 through them. Great buying experience. The POP stands for paid on performance. If a broker doesn't perform well, IE; return emails and phone calls in a timely manner, they are given there walking papers. If you are selling, I believe they charge 10% commission.

[truckster]

When I advertised on boatsfsbo.com for $26,000 Pop Yachts called and said they could sell it for 35,000. I had had the boat on craigslist and boattrader all summer for 26,000 with no calls so I was very skeptical. I did some research and it seems like they use the old real estate trick of telling you they can get way more than they actually can to get the listing then bring you low offers in hopes you will take it and they get 10 percent and you get less than you would have if you had just sold it yourself. POP Yachts 7 Customer Reviews - Complaints List is one of the sites I read. Keep in mind that anyone can say anything on the net whether it is true or not and you can probably find bad things about any company. I did not use them so they may be great. I do not know. I sold the boat on ABLBoats Boats for sale online www.BOATSFSBO.com for $24,300 kept it all and both the buyer and myself were very happy.

[Dinomontana63]

I am currently looking for a boat through them. They have been attentive and honest so far. What do you have for sale?

[poesch6]

I have been dealing with Pop Yachts for some time now. I too was ready with cash in hand and was actively looking. I had several conversations with them about particular boats. At first the boats were just not right so I passed on them. Then, work changed and I needed to wait awhile until I had time to deal with everything that goes with purchasing a boat. Throughout all of the conversations, Pop Yachts they have been nothing but professional and personable. When I told them I was on hold for awhile, they understood. no phone calls just "think of us when your ready". I don't know anything else I could ask for. To me, they have been nothing less than a class act.


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[captsam54]

I have used them before and they were attentive and had some good listings... I bought one thru them and have had friends that buy and sell with them.. Depends on their location and individual Broker for the type of response you may be getting.. Down here in SW. Fla.. no problems.