dana asked in the capacity thread where the Crestliner came from, so here. short version, i didn't bid. i hit Buy Now.
2021 Crestliner 1850 Sportfish, Mercury 115 Pro XS, 140 hours, factory trailer, bow mount on it. the lender had it parked in Saginaw, Michigan, and i found it on the m&a listing page in early may. the sealed bid close was 11 days out. it also had a Buy Now price, 31,900. nothing similar at the dealers on Peach Street was under 36 with fewer hours.
why i paid it instead of bidding. the walleye were going out of Walnut Creek and my boys got out of school in a couple weeks. wait 11 days for the close, maybe lose, start over, and it's july. so i clicked it, wired it the next morning, and it came 12 days later on a flatbed strapped down better than i strap my own stuff. Saginaw to Erie is around 340 miles, so delivery didn't cost anything.
what i'd want to know if i was looking at that lot. any idea where it would have gone on the sealed side? did the listing show a starting number? sounds like the Buy Now is the price of not waiting, and i'd want to know how big that price was.
starting number was 24,500. where it would have closed, i'll never know, the bids are blind and nobody sees anybody's number. two guys at my club who've bid on these figured high 20s. so call it 2 to 4 grand for not waiting. in may i'd do it again. in september i'd bid and wait.
one thing wrong when it got here: the rod locker latch was snapped and the lid flapped open at speed the first run. 22 bucks for a new latch from a Crestliner dealer and two screws. the listing photos showed the lid shut so there was no way to see it.
Saginaw Bay boats, i'll say what i always say. those get launched at ice-out with chunks still floating, so look at the bow and the keel for dings, run the bilge dry and check it after a long day. the 1850 Sportfish is a welded hull so you're not chasing weeping rivets like on older riveted boats, which helps. look at the trolling motor shaft too, the early season guys find stumps with them.
also curious, did the m&a people give you anything on the warranty side, or is it just what's on their website?
bilge dry after a full saturday out of Walnut Creek in 2 to 3 footers. couple of ramp scrapes on the keel, nothing deep. trolling motor shaft is straight.
warranty's in the sale paperwork from M and A. six months on a boat, the 10,000 mile part is for vehicles. haven't needed it.
the slow part was Pennsylvania. Fish and Boat took about three and a half weeks to mail the registration and the new title after i sent in the michigan title with the lien release and the bill of sale. they give you a temporary to run on so we were fishing, but my wife stuck the paperwork on the fridge and asked about it every day.
erie, thank you for writing out the Pennsylvania part, that's the kind of thing nobody puts in a listing. i'm going to start a thread tonight just on titles and out of state registration so i quit hijacking people's boat threads. did the michigan title need anything notarized on your end?
between you and the Targa guy i'm half talked into a fish and ski. would you hit Buy Now on an m&a lot again if it was a bigger number, say a 45 grand boat? three grand to skip a week and a half feels different when the boat costs more.
