What is a '99 330EC worth?

[submarine]

I'm going tomorrow to look at a '99 330EC. It has 700 hours on twin 7.4 Mercruisers. Supposedly the boat is like new, but it does need a new generator. Owner says he has an estimate to replace it for $5.5k. It has radar, autopilot, chartplotter. It also has the fishing pkg and the L shaped rear seat.

Can someone give me an idea of what the boat is worth (real world NOT NADA)? If any of you are dealers and could give me an idea of what it would be worth wholesale, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[fwebster]

I understand what you are looking for, but unfortunately it does not exist, or rather doesn't exist with enough accuracy for you to base an offer decision on.

There are several reasons.......these are not autos where every Camry is alike. What a particular model of boat sells for varies hugely due to production volumes, condition and market. I have seen 2 boats of the same year and model offered and sold for as much as a 50% difference between them just because one was perfect and like new and the other was ridden hard and showed it. Pricing data doesn't tell you that. You say like new, but 700 hours is getting "long in the tooth" for gas engines, so it isn't going to bring premium money now, and it certainly won't after you add several hundred more hours to the clock. Then, is it a saltwater boat and are the engines FWC or seawater cooled?

The market the boat is sold in also has a tremendous effect on pricing. The wide body EC's.....330EC, 370EC and the 340AJ...were never very popular inland, except for the Great Lakes region, but on the coast some of them were and still are very high demand boats. But, there is a catch.......gas EC's on the coast are not popular and most stay on the market for months and months, whereas, nice diesel powered EC's usually stay on the market only minutes. My point is that on the Great Lakes your 330EC may be worth $XXX, but in our area on the Gulf coast it may be worth only 60% of $XXX. How can you make heads or tails out of such a wide swing in the data? We can't give you any help on market information on this boat because you don't tell us where either you or the boat is located.

If you can find a helpful broker, most of them have access to the sold boat data from yachtworld.com.......it isn't available unless you have a paid subscription to the site. But, even that is loaded with accuracy issues. Not many brokers will report the real numbers and a lot of them choose to inflate what they report since it makes them look like heros and may entice listings since it may appear that they "get" more money for their clients. Timing is the other problem with sold boat data. Fuel prices are making the marine market jumpy. Sales are good in some areas and suck in others. If you do get sold boat information, request a very narrow time span......like sold in the last 60 days. What a 330EC sold for last year is useless.

Compared to other models, like the 330DA, there were relatively few EC's sold in '99. That tends to make pricing data even more inaccurate just because the pricing services interpolate and massage the data to derive prices just because the universe of 330EC is so small.

So, go ahead and gather all the data you can then massage it as you see fit. Who knows, you might find a very similar boat in your geographic location. But eventually you will come to the realization that what a used boat can be bought for is going to boil down to negotiating a sales price between a willing buyer and a willing seller. And, you will only find out how willing the seller is when you sign a contract and write a deposit check at a sales price that you think is right for you.

 

[submarine]

Frank,

Thanks for the info. I'm actually a car dealer and understand how unprecise of an art evaluating boats can be. The boat is located on the Gulf Coast and will remain there. I'm looking for a range, not an exact figure.

The overall condition of the boat is supposed to be like new, obviously with 700 hours, it will not be perfect. I appreciate the help!

 

[submarine]

By the way, the main reason I am asking is because I don't know how much I will use the boat. I'm hoping to get to fish a good bit and get the family out a good bit. However, do to several reasons, that may not happen.

So I am wanting to make sure if I buy the boat and I don't use it much, that I will not end up losing a fortune if I decide to sell it in a year or two. Thanks!

 

[fwebster]

If you are looking on the Gulf coast, I know where there is a 150 hour 2002 AJ. Check your PM's....the owner of this site gets ill when I tell folks about boats that do not have a brokerage listing with him.