Did It Sell?

 Why, yes it did!  Eventually...

I posted the boat on The TugNuts, which is the Ranger Tug Owners forum. I received 1 good lead and another that said he was ready to buy, but just put me off. How frustrating. Kim said to just wait for the Seattle Boat Show time frame, kinda my plan too, to list on Boat Trader and Craigslist. 

The end of January rolled around, went to Clam Camp in Grayland, no clams for us because we rode out the gale in the campground. The youngsters went with Barry and Becky to Copalis and braved the winds and came back with clams. We went to the beach and got a hyperextended driver's door! That's another story...

Anyway, worked up a posting for CL and BT. One was free and other not and I chose the longterm plan on BT and paid out good money for not good results. How was I to know?

Received good feedback on the CL ad almost immediately. They came via email and I responded with a phone call back. My preference.  I like to talk to someone who is interested instead of communicate with text or email. It just gives me a better sense of who the person is.  As for BT, I received several offers from boat brokers and resellers  to have me list with them so they could bolster their business and get my boat sold for a fee. Yeah right, No Thanks!

The real entertaining ones on BT were those guys that said, "I will send you cashiers check in USPS. When you receive it, deposit in bank and let me know where and when to come pick up the boat." Sounds  too good to be true, it is. I never could get them to call me and their last name would change, but first name the same and they would offer the same great plan.

About the third day of the listing, an email came in from a guy named Norm in Idaho. Upon reaching him by phone I knew he was a real person with real interest in the boat. We had a good conversation with him asking the right questions along with him relating things in his life that led him to looking for that "right" Ranger Tug.  He asked me what I would sell the boat for. Whoa this getting serious. I threw out my bottom number and he agreed it was a good number. Then I said, well let me talk to my wife.  Hung up the phone and talked to her and she related that I should have left it open and thrown the question back to him and I should have. He just seemed so darn authentic. Called him back and there was no getting the price back up, which turned out to be just fine.

After a week we had a meet up date, the weather in his neck of the woods was a little iffy, but it cleared just in time.