I know in the car business the end of the month is the best time to buy a new car because the salesman had to make his or her quota and you’ll get a better deal. What is the best time to buy a kayak off season on in the Spring. FishHawk
End of the season
Many dealers have sales on left over boats in September. Places that rent boats often have end of season sales on their rental fleets. You pay no sales tax on boats in Rhode Island.
end of season
and when someone’s going through a divorce
Before getting on the water
wouuld be the best time. Pre-season demo days allow one to paddle the current model during the season instead of storing a year-old model over the winter. Price doesn’t vary that much from pre-season demo days to post season sales.
If you are buying direct from the
manufacturer, (such as QCC), the prices will be the same through out the year.
If you are buying from a local dealer, the best time is at the end of the season.
If you keep your eyes open at the beginning of the season for “demo days”, you can possibly pick up a new one that has been demoed that day at the end of the day when they are packing up with a few bucks off.
Jack L
snow zone garage cleanout time
Up here in the snow zone, I’ve found the best time for finding good deals on used boats is in the Fall when people start cleaning out the garage to make room for the car.
And small outfitters and kayak shops tend to dump bulky inventory this time of year. I recently picked up a sweet little P & H boat from my local shop’s demo fleet for 30% off at their end-of-season sale.
I’ve worked in both the automotive and outdoor outfitter businesses. The reason car dealers have that monthly price cycling is due to the way they have to maintain cost balances with their suppliers on their large and costly inventories – it doesn’t work that way for sporting goods, though there is a seasonal component in temperate climates. My local outfitters shop needs to make room (and raise capital) for their XC ski stock.
Sales
Since buying my first two QCC boats I find they regularly put models on sale, the fall being one of those times that they usually do so.
or unemployment
When the wife is out of town …
QCC prices
QCC does have more or less permanent sales. I ordered a boat in mid-March of this year because prices were the lowest then. In addition to the percentage off (20%, I think), the rudder was free. They also added a front bulkhead to a Q400S at my request, and made cool custom invisible drain ports out of the front deck fittings, both in lieu of the standard p-net discount. I assume this was to keep the shop active over the winter months.
Do you think Steve would be PO’d
at me if I let the cat out of the bag that you can get that sales price year round !!!
Jack L
autumn
Best time is autumn but this isn’t a car, don’t expect the kind of discounts car dealers give. There isn’t the mark up in a kayak/canoe that there is in a car.
Bill H.
Good one Dart!
But I have to admit that on my last two boat purchases my wife actually said, “You better buy it now before they have a price increase.” I love that woman…
assumption
I’m going to make the assumption that you’ve already paddled a bunch of boats, figured out exactly what you want, and what you can live with (in other words, what you’d get if you custom ordered vs. what colors/options wouldn’t be deal-killers for you).
If that is the case, probably the fall is the most likely time to get a deal. If that’s not the case, the money you stand to lose by selling something that’s not what you want won’t make up for the discount from buying on sale, so a better “deal” would be to hold off.
used
just after Christmas. New toys were purchased and the CC bills are coming in. The other thing is many don’t paddle in the colder months and if they didn’t much the summer before, they will release easier and for less
just an opinion
Another
option: hit Sierra Trading Post on their 50% off email only sales. They sell blems/seconds and on my 3 purchases and friend’s Tempest, the imperfections were very small/slight color swirl in 1-2 places. They ship UPS freight direct to you and no sales tax. They stand behind their sale as a member of our fishing group received his that carrier (not UPS) damaged and not visable until he completely unwrapped it. They sent replacement out same day and following day, the carrier picked up damaged one. Good company.
Any time!
It’s always a good time to buy a kayak!!!
Signed
Mr. I-never-pay-retail
now
best time is in the mid to late fall—a lot of shops want to clear up their inventory and a lot of paddlers are thinking about selling their current boat and buying a new one
right now and be flexible
received an email from Mountainman Outdoors earlier in the week. Usually their kayak/canoe sales are 30% off max, but this sale was different. the % off increased with the age of the boat, so the 2010 models were 30% off, the 2009 were 40% off and the 2008 were 50% off MSRP. My husband and I just returned home from Mountainman in Old Forge NY with 2009 and 2008 Impex. We had been looking to buy used, but ended up paying same/less for “new” boats. Sure it was 300 miles round trip and there was snow on the ground and there wasn’t much choice in colors or layup. But there weren’t many cars on the road or customers in the store and staff at Mountainman allowed us more demo time than they would have been able to in season and they were able to devote more time to answering our questions.
www.MountainmanOutdoors.com
Right now, if you buy mine!