Where do most people go to sell a used aluminum boat these days?

[lightflyer1]

If gas motors can't be used everywhere I can understand the low price and not selling there. That kind of regulation would kill most small engine sales. Not saying it is good or bad, just not good for small gas engine sales if you can't use them for the most part.

 

[oilsmoke]

Gas motors are restricted here but the rivers and about five larger lakes allow gas motors with a couple lakes having a 10hp limit. Only one of them is anywhere near me.
The contamination warnings are a bigger deterrent to fresh water fishing than anything else here.

Common practice is to buy a 9.9hp and convert it to a 15hp, it then allows you to have a boat that will be able to move well enough to use in the limited lakes and one that can actually get away with some backwater and river use on a smaller boat. The river has no HP limit but the rivers are as contaminated as the lakes, if not more so.
Most rivers have fecal bacteria or chemical issues. Many small ponds are affected by serious algae growth problems stemming from fertilizer runoff, septic system leakage, or road runoff.

The lack of boaters on the rivers and lakes is a new thing, and this year has been worse than any years prior but its been slowly declining over the past 3 years with the last peak being around 2000 or so. After 9/11 things slowed down, then there was a huge decrease in boat registrations and boat traffic around 2008, it started to return to normal, or at least increase by 2019, then when everything was shut down in 2020, it never really recovered and although it got a little better at first, its been dying out ever since.

I read somewhere that the number of boat registrations overall is way down in the state, but its not just NJ.
The first big drop was when they required everyone to take a coast guard course for $110 to keep your boat license, about 1/4 of boaters just quit bothering. Another big hit to the totals was when the saltwater registry started and the threat of a saltwater license began, and now with the high cost of everything its eliminated even more.
Personally I quit fishing freshwater because of the cost of the license, and the fact that the fish aren't really anything I'd want to eat. I'm not paying $30/yr to fish for something I can't eat. The saltwater registry is free but saltwater is a 40 minute ride from where I'm at and the best fishing is in the ocean, not the rivers and I refuse to pay to park or launch my boat to access the back bays or inland boat ramps. I do most of my fishing these days from bridges and piers and my boat gets used mostly for crabbing.

The lack of interest in small outboards is not a lack of interest here, its a lack of money. There's plenty of folks who want them, but none who want them have money to buy them. Those who can afford them, buy new and don't care about the money issues. The few boats I do see out are generally all brand new or close to it. Older boats and motors have disappeared from the water lately.

 

[MrGiggles]

Gas motors are restricted here but the rivers and about five larger lakes allow gas motors with a couple lakes having a 10hp limit. Only one of them is anywhere near me.
The contamination warnings are a bigger deterrent to fresh water fishing than anything else here.

Common practice is to buy a 9.9hp and convert it to a 15hp, it then allows you to have a boat that will be able to move well enough to use in the limited lakes and one that can actually get away with some backwater and river use on a smaller boat. The river has no HP limit but the rivers are as contaminated as the lakes, if not more so.
Most rivers have fecal bacteria or chemical issues. Many small ponds are affected by serious algae growth problems stemming from fertilizer runoff, septic system leakage, or road runoff.

The lack of boaters on the rivers and lakes is a new thing, and this year has been worse than any years prior but its been slowly declining over the past 3 years with the last peak being around 2000 or so. After 9/11 things slowed down, then there was a huge decrease in boat registrations and boat traffic around 2008, it started to return to normal, or at least increase by 2019, then when everything was shut down in 2020, it never really recovered and although it got a little better at first, its been dying out ever since.

I read somewhere that the number of boat registrations overall is way down in the state, but its not just NJ.
The first big drop was when they required everyone to take a coast guard course for $110 to keep your boat license, about 1/4 of boaters just quit bothering. Another big hit to the totals was when the saltwater registry started and the threat of a saltwater license began, and now with the high cost of everything its eliminated even more.
Personally I quit fishing freshwater because of the cost of the license, and the fact that the fish aren't really anything I'd want to eat. I'm not paying $30/yr to fish for something I can't eat. The saltwater registry is free but saltwater is a 40 minute ride from where I'm at and the best fishing is in the ocean, not the rivers and I refuse to pay to park or launch my boat to access the back bays or inland boat ramps. I do most of my fishing these days from bridges and piers and my boat gets used mostly for crabbing.

The lack of interest in small outboards is not a lack of interest here, its a lack of money. There's plenty of folks who want them, but none who want them have money to buy them. Those who can afford them, buy new and don't care about the money issues. The few boats I do see out are generally all brand new or close to it. Older boats and motors have disappeared from the water lately.

Boating exploded here during Covid. I've never seen traffic like spring and summer of 2020. Prior to that you would only ever see the ramp parking lots overflow on the occasional holiday weekend. During peak Covid they were full every weekend. It has calmed down some now, but still not like before.

In stark contrast, I posted before about the bad floods we had in 2019, when that lake was 20ft high, there was nobody out there. It was awesome! Launching from the parking lot was a little tricky, but man, the fishing was great.

 

[Canoe]

Boating exploded here during Covid. I've never seen traffic like spring and summer of 2020. Prior to that you would only ever see the ramp parking lots overflow on the occasional holiday weekend. During peak Covid they were full every weekend. It has calmed down some now, but still not like before.

In stark contrast, I posted before about the bad floods we had in 2019, when that lake was 20ft high, there was nobody out there. It was awesome! Launching from the parking lot was a little tricky, but man, the fishing was great.

We had the exact opposite in my area and it ended in marina closures. They are still closed and there are only a couple of ramps to access the water now but unfortunately, whenever I'm down there I don't see anyone loading or unloading.

 

[seahorse]

We had the same thing here, they closed all the parks, game preserves, boat ramps, and parks. That happened around the end of March in 2020, just about the time most people had just paid to renew the registration on their boats and bought fishing licenses.

The only people from then on who had access to the water were those who lived on the water. If you didn't know someone with a boat you couldn't get on the water unless you had a boat small enough to toss over the guard rail somewhere and most weren't sure if that was even legal. The DMV closed at the same time, so it was impossible to renew registrations.

They waved the renewals on cars and trucks but not boats. Now if you skipped 2020, and likely 2021, you can't register online because access to the online system relies on the PIN number you receive with your annual renewal notice. Without the renewal and pin you now have to go to a regional DMV to renew your boat or trailer, and at that point they want you pay all the 'missed' years of registration fees. Now in 2024, if you didn't renew since 2020, regardless of whether or not your boat has been used, you know owe $117.50 to renew it, plus the cost of the day off work and the drive to a regional DMV.

Since 2020, they made the DMV by appointment only, and the many offices now specialize. Not all offices do renewals, and once you renew online, you have to continue to renew online and can no longer use the local DMV office to do so.

Lots of people also took advantage of the fact that they announced that they wouldn't be ticketing folks for not having up to date registration or paperwork due to the pandemic, and that ended after 2021, but many still failed to renew because they refuse to pay the missed years or travel to a regional office. For me the regional office is over an hour away.

Boating and fishing hasn't recovered since the closures, it was sort of recovered for a bit before they stopped waving enforcement but its dwindled to near nothing now. In the past the weekends were standing room only at the ramp with long lines, we've not seen that here in over 5 years. Even before that it was dying, and had been since around 2008 or so. It was starting to improve a bit after 2016 or so but 2020 seems to have killed it.

Before 2020, even weekdays were fairly busy with a good many retirees and fisherman on the water all week long but now I don't even see that here anymore. Guys I know who boated and fished all their lives haven't touched their boats in years. There's 12 boats on my street, not a one has moved since 2019.

I complete understand why most are likely just saying screw it now, I for one won't pay registration fees for years I didn't or couldn't use my boat or trailer, or will I drive half way across the state to renew it either. It was cheaper to register it out of state.

 

[LDUBS]

We had the same thing here, they closed all the parks, game preserves, boat ramps, and parks. That happened around the end of March in 2020, just about the time most people had just paid to renew the registration on their boats and bought fishing licenses.

The only people from then on who had access to the water were those who lived on the water. If you didn't know someone with a boat you couldn't get on the water unless you had a boat small enough to toss over the guard rail somewhere and most weren't sure if that was even legal. The DMV closed at the same time, so it was impossible to renew registrations.

They waved the renewals on cars and trucks but not boats. Now if you skipped 2020, and likely 2021, you can't register online because access to the online system relies on the PIN number you receive with your annual renewal notice. Without the renewal and pin you now have to go to a regional DMV to renew your boat or trailer, and at that point they want you pay all the 'missed' years of registration fees. Now in 2024, if you didn't renew since 2020, regardless of whether or not your boat has been used, you know owe $117.50 to renew it, plus the cost of the day off work and the drive to a regional DMV.

Since 2020, they made the DMV by appointment only, and the many offices now specialize. Not all offices do renewals, and once you renew online, you have to continue to renew online and can no longer use the local DMV office to do so.

Lots of people also took advantage of the fact that they announced that they wouldn't be ticketing folks for not having up to date registration or paperwork due to the pandemic, and that ended after 2021, but many still failed to renew because they refuse to pay the missed years or travel to a regional office. For me the regional office is over an hour away.

Boating and fishing hasn't recovered since the closures, it was sort of recovered for a bit before they stopped waving enforcement but its dwindled to near nothing now. In the past the weekends were standing room only at the ramp with long lines, we've not seen that here in over 5 years. Even before that it was dying, and had been since around 2008 or so. It was starting to improve a bit after 2016 or so but 2020 seems to have killed it.

Before 2020, even weekdays were fairly busy with a good many retirees and fisherman on the water all week long but now I don't even see that here anymore. Guys I know who boated and fished all their lives haven't touched their boats in years. There's 12 boats on my street, not a one has moved since 2019.

I complete understand why most are likely just saying screw it now, I for one won't pay registration fees for years I didn't or couldn't use my boat or trailer, or will I drive half way across the state to renew it either. It was cheaper to register it out of state.

I've read similar posts about all the hoops they expect you to jump through to register a boat in NJ. Your state has some crazy boat registration policies. Suspending registration during the pandemic then making it a difficult as possible to register afterwards is insane. But then again, it is a gov't agency.

 

[seahorse]

What I can't figure out is what they have to gain by making things so difficult all of a sudden.
They built a brand new DMV office here about 8 years ago or so then they turned around and made
it a license only center. You can register a new car or one you just bought but you can't renew a vehicle that's missed a year, or one that should have been able to renew online.
If you miss the renewal deadline for online renewal, which nearly everyone did in 2020, they expect you to go during business hours to a regional office far away. They have to be loosing money simply in all the folks who just said screw it and gave up on the idea.
I have zero desire to drive an hour just to renew a boat or trailer. It would be one thing if I could walk into the local office as we did for the last 50 years but there's no way I'm driving that far just o pay them the $28.50 and to have to argue about not paying for the last five years its not been registered.
I've talked to a few others who feel the same way, and most say they'll register their boats when they open the local DMV back up for registrations and renewals as before.
Worse yet, they appear to have made online renewals mandatory, I know of a half dozen guys who have never owned a computer or cell phone, when they saw that they just threw the renewal away and either sold their boats or just kept running without renewing it.

I'm not sure what they screwed up there but even my truck renewal came in two months late. I renewed it in June and didn't get the new card till last week. I would think that for $226.50 for registration they'd make sure it got out on time.

 

[barnfinds]

When I posted this I didn't think it would still be going over a hundred posts later!

Back in mid August I had a friend who lives on a main highway take the boat and put it out for sale, I told him I wanted to see $1,500 out of it, and if he got any more, it was his. He came and got it, picked it up on his trailer and has since had it out for sale daily, I think he's asking $1,850 for it. He's also got about five other larger boats and one 12ft aluminum for sale as well, plus a slightly beat up 16ft aluminum boat there as well with a giant $500 sign on it. He's sold nothing all summer, he said he only had two calls, and not a one turned into a sale besides one glass 19ft runabout that was gutted down to the stringers with no paperwork that he sold for $300.

He also had or may still have it on CL and had it on FB until it expired and got zero replies.
The one boat he's got there is a fairly new fiberglass skiff, I believe its either a Southern Skimmer or a Carolina Skiff, in 16ft with a Honda 50hp on it, its a later model, after 2000 or so with a $2,500 sign on it and that too just sits. (We used that boat a few times this summer and it ran like new.

Now that cooler weather is setting in he packing them away in the barn outback, and I suppose he'll be dropping my 14ft off here. I don't expect him to store it for me but said I can borrow the trailer for the winter if I want.
(He heads to FL for the winter, usually taking a trailer load of motors down with him to sell as well.
He said he sold four motors all year, and both were smaller, one 50's model 3hp Johnson, and three 70's model 6hp motors. He's got a dozen 10hp four strokes that he said never got so much as an email on line and he said not a single 9.9/15hp 'Johnnyrude' as he calls them, sold this year. He's retired but works from home doing wood work and furniture repairs and goes to FL from Nov. to Mar. to fish.

It seems everyone I talk to said they sold no boats, no motors, no fishing tackle, no water related anything.
Another buddy has a model train shop in his garage and another buys and sells vintage bicycles and both have said they sold basically nothing all year, both rely on CL and FB for sales.
I never thought I'd see the day when a good aluminum boat didn't bring any interest whatsoever.
10 years ago any boat under $3k was gone in hours.
I guess people don't boat or fish here these days. Being in a neighborhood where everyone has a boat, I've not seen any of them get uncovered or taken to the lake or river all year, or the last 5 years either for that matter.

 

[Stand Up]

When I posted this I didn't think it would still be going over a hundred posts later!

Back in mid August I had a friend who lives on a main highway take the boat and put it out for sale, I told him I wanted to see $1,500 out of it, and if he got any more, it was his. He came and got it, picked it up on his trailer and has since had it out for sale daily, I think he's asking $1,850 for it. He's also got about five other larger boats and one 12ft aluminum for sale as well, plus a slightly beat up 16ft aluminum boat there as well with a giant $500 sign on it. He's sold nothing all summer, he said he only had two calls, and not a one turned into a sale besides one glass 19ft runabout that was gutted down to the stringers with no paperwork that he sold for $300.

He also had or may still have it on CL and had it on FB until it expired and got zero replies.
The one boat he's got there is a fairly new fiberglass skiff, I believe its either a Southern Skimmer or a Carolina Skiff, in 16ft with a Honda 50hp on it, its a later model, after 2000 or so with a $2,500 sign on it and that too just sits. (We used that boat a few times this summer and it ran like new.

Now that cooler weather is setting in he packing them away in the barn outback, and I suppose he'll be dropping my 14ft off here. I don't expect him to store it for me but said I can borrow the trailer for the winter if I want.
(He heads to FL for the winter, usually taking a trailer load of motors down with him to sell as well.
He said he sold four motors all year, and both were smaller, one 50's model 3hp Johnson, and three 70's model 6hp motors. He's got a dozen 10hp four strokes that he said never got so much as an email on line and he said not a single 9.9/15hp 'Johnnyrude' as he calls them, sold this year. He's retired but works from home doing wood work and furniture repairs and goes to FL from Nov. to Mar. to fish.

It seems everyone I talk to said they sold no boats, no motors, no fishing tackle, no water related anything.
Another buddy has a model train shop in his garage and another buys and sells vintage bicycles and both have said they sold basically nothing all year, both rely on CL and FB for sales.
I never thought I'd see the day when a good aluminum boat didn't bring any interest whatsoever.
10 years ago any boat under $3k was gone in hours.
I guess people don't boat or fish here these days. Being in a neighborhood where everyone has a boat, I've not seen any of them get uncovered or taken to the lake or river all year, or the last 5 years either for that matter.

Money is tight for everyone except the wealthy. In this day and age, you're lucky to get a good paying job only to find it hard to make the bills at the end of the month. Boating isn't appreciated by most people and most don't partake in spending on our hobby.
The wrong people run our countries and that is the real problem with not only boats but many other hobbies and interests. The cost of most consumer goods has risen to all new heights leaving little left for fun money.
We may never see boating and fishing interests like we once knew. Enjoy it while you can.

 

[thill]

It's definitely regionally dependent. Here, in DC/MD/VA area, it's still where any decent boat for less than $3k is gone immediately. I was trying to get a 16' Alumacraft that was in pieces with a Johnson 25. The husband had died and it was his project, but the wife was asking $2,800! I offered her $1,800, but she said it was worth more. She dropped the price down $100 at a time, and she sold it when it hit $2,400. Good for her!

I see really nice boats in NJ for half of that! The economy can be a fickle thing