bad sale pic

dvx216

dvx216

Well-Known Member
GOLD Sponsor
Feb 1, 2012
2,696
Catawaba Island/Orrville,Oh.
Boat Info
340 Sundancer 2001
Engines
8.1s 370 v drv.
I'm planning on buying a 290 Da next season and have been window shopping on the internet. I've notice that some of the big name boat brokers that use the internet take the worst boat pictures. Those tight close in picture they use to show a boat makes me think they're trying to hide some thing. You would think that if you were taking pictures to sell something you would at least get the correct camera / lens to take good pictures.Worse yet to try to sell a boat with picture that are out of focus or poorly light or better yet pictures taken under a blue shrink wrap.
 
funny you should mention that. i was thinking the same thing last night. we were probably looking at the same pics....lol
 
You can take good pics even with an iPhone these days. So there's no excuse for poorly lit, blurry or close-in photos (unless you are focusing on a specific area that you also show from farther away). Real estate is the same way. I'm surprised these "professionals" don't understand that "perception is reality" and "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". And probably several other cliches. Seriously, what the hell else does a broker have to do at 8 or 9am? Surely he can take decent pics and post them in a sensible manner. Or hire a social media marketing major intern from the local college and let him or her do it. If a broker can't even be professional enough to properly market a boat, why would I expect them to handle to more complex parts of prepping the boat and closing the sale professionally? And where's the seller in all this? If he's happy with that presentation of his boat, Lord knows what care he took (or didn't take) in maintaining his boat.

I don't get angry about it. Instead, I thank them for saving me the time wasted to look at that boat. Because you're right. They may be hiding something. With this attitude, might I miss out on a really great boat and the occasional great deal? Unlikely. Besides, there's ALWAYS another boat to go consider.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk...
 
there are also those listed on eBay with the title listed as 'boat'. well what kind? i'm not going to click on it to figure it out
 
i like when you are browsing through boat ads and you see peoples CRAP everywhere. if im thinking of spending 250-300 thousand dollars on anything, i expect it clean and neat. i dont expect that everything is out of the boat but clutter and 6,379 throw pillows does not scream "inviting" to me or 400 knick knacks laying about the boat tells me its a dock queen and isnt actually being used.
 
or the pics with a bunch of tools laying on the floor. ummmm....so what was broke that you just fixed
 
I travel a lot for work. All over the country - sometimes the same area - sometimes and area I have never been or not there much.

Booking hotels (I choose my own), surfing through the options - I come upon the hotel which has a distant picture of the outside, then you click on it. It has photos of flower arrangements in the lobby. The room photos show a close of up the television. You never really see anything inside the hotel.

Run Forrest Run.

and that's all I have to say,

Mark
 
Pictures mean everything. Here's a for instance...I was selling my 1966 AC Cobra. I took pretty good pictures all around with my cell phone. I was getting calls, but nothing great. I found a site online and he told me he wouldn't sell the car unless I had a certain camera and they were proofed by him before he posted them. I went out and bought a $300 camera, took the pictures in the light, angle , settings ect as he had detailed in his format out and sent them to him. He then edited them by sharpening the picture and cropping certain things. The car now looked like it came out of a magazine, the way it looks in person. Within a week it was sold for top dollar. I made that $300 back real quick..
 
Bad pics sometimes mean a bad boat. I've been shopping for about 8 months now, and I've found that people who intentionally post bad pictures with the ad are usually hiding a flaw.
Same thing with brokers who post a mixture of actual and brochure photos. Most often the exterior shots will be actual, but the interior shots will be copied from the boat's original sales brochure because the actual interior is a mess. I don't even call about those anymore, never mind wasting the time to go see them. Been there, done that too many times.
 
I hear you I seen a broker had one listed last week with 3 pictures of the exterior and and a couple stock pics. I emailed him and ask if he could send me more pics. His reply ? All pics are on line on the listing. Really, I feel sorry for the seller. I put a contract on another last week.
 
As a former professional photographer, who is currently window shopping boats, I am amazed at the complete lack of effort being made to show boats that are listed at $150k and up. I can understand it with a boat at the $5k-$10k price point, but at some point investing a couple hundred bucks to get some great photos would more than pay for itself, I'd think.

There's one 400DB on the internet market that has photos that are head and shoulders above all the other listings. The boat may not actually be what the photos represent, but if I were looking for a 400DB they'd get a call for information before most of the others.

I like the broker videos also. Some are decent, with running commentary from the broker during the video walk-through, but most are shaky and way too fast panning around.
 
irrelevant said:
As a former professional photographer, who is currently window shopping boats, I am amazed at the complete lack of effort being made to show boats that are listed at $150k and up. I can understand it with a boat at the $5k-$10k price point, but at some point investing a couple hundred bucks to get some great photos would more than pay for itself, I'd think.

There's one 400DB on the internet market that has photos that are head and shoulders above all the other listings. The boat may not actually be what the photos represent, but if I were looking for a 400DB they'd get a call for information before most of the others.

I like the broker videos also. Some are decent, with running commentary from the broker during the video walk-through, but most are shaky and way too fast panning around.
Click to expand...
Even if your where selling a boat for 8,000 dollars with todays technology you would think a person would spend a little money for a digital camera and takes some good picture if they wanted to sell the boat.
 
dvx216 said:
Even if your where selling a boat for 8,000 dollars with todays technology you would think a person would spend a little money for a digital camera and takes some good picture if they wanted to sell the boat.
Click to expand...

I agree, but it takes much more than a new digital camera to get really good interior photos in a relatively low-light environment inside the cabin of a boat. I can hand most people $10k worth of camera/lense/lighting/etc. and they'll still produce a bad photo.
 
irrelevant said:
As a former professional photographer, who is currently window shopping boats, I am amazed at the complete lack of effort being made to show boats that are listed at $150k and up. I can understand it with a boat at the $5k-$10k price point, but at some point investing a couple hundred bucks to get some great photos would more than pay for itself, I'd think.

There's one 400DB on the internet market that has photos that are head and shoulders above all the other listings. The boat may not actually be what the photos represent, but if I were looking for a 400DB they'd get a call for information before most of the others.

I like the broker videos also. Some are decent, with running commentary from the broker during the video walk-through, but most are shaky and way too fast panning around.
Click to expand...

I agree that good pictures are a must. You should represent the boat favorably, including all areas inside and out, but it's also important to do so honestly so you don't waste a potential buyer's time or your own.
 
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