I check used canoe listings on FB Marketplace and Craigslist several times a week. This summer, it seems like boats are sitting longer, and prices are lower.
It’s hard to tell, because I don’t know the sale details, but for example, I’ve seen multiple Old Town Packs, in good shape, for well under $1,000, and the ads stay up for a week or sometimes longer. Seems like last year they would have been snagged immediately.
Has anybody else noticed the same thing?
Yup. People have been squeezed for years. With the cost of gas and groceries…and everything else…going up and up, all discretionary spending is under more scrutiny. Fewer people eating out, buying cars, boats, etc. etc.
Perhaps people are getting lazier. Over a span of about 20 years, I notice how there are far fewer kayakers, and kayak trends seem to have made a transition from sleak sea kayaks to stubby sit on top recreation kayaks. Another trend is the proliferation of fishing kayak over all other kayaks. Most of the fishing kayaks are equipped with high end electronic and electronic motors. It’s ironic that I can catch and pass them with a paddle, but it take far more work on my part.
The most popular option seems to be groups on paddle boards. That’s hard work. So you have both ends of the spectrum - powered kayaks and stand up paddle boarders on the water for a work-out.
See that here too with kayaks…(BC Canada) Not prices going down, but listed for weeks on end… people asking too much? for the year…
ie used kayak 3 years old $1200. Now seeing 5 years old and $1200 same brand model. AND not selling.
I agree that aluminum, plastic rec and straight fiberglass canoes are not holding their value, but high-end composites are selling strongly at higher prices in the mid-Atlantic.
Prices for boats were really high during Covid. Since then they have been sliding downward. Now the market seems soft
Yes, and those Old Town pack canoes weigh about twice as much as a Hornbeck or similar composite boat, so the price drop is not surprising.
I’ve been looking at multiple items in cl/fb for the last year plus and people have been sitting on their money–or not having a lot of extra money to spend on non essential items. Over the years, I’ve found ‘tools’ to be a good guage of the economy in an area and that market has been soft for a long time.
This has been a pretty bad year for new canoe sales for most brands, so it makes sense that used boats are also going unloved. Some years, people just aren’t into canoes, I guess.
Keep them.
When I moved from California I could not give a 16.5 foot aluminum canoe away, nobody wanted it except for the metal. Here in Utah it’s the same story. You can buy a $150 plastic “kayak” at the large grocery store I use. I have not been out a lot this summer because of an injury, but have seen one nice canoe and one nice seakayak on my local paddling spot ( beautiful lake, 21 miles long and 7 miles wide). tends to get windy after about 11:00 AM so all the rec kayaks and pool toys stay within about 200 yards of their vehicles.
There is certainly a market for good quality used boats here in the Northeast - especially composites. Good solo canoes get snatched up real quick, and I don’t think those prices have come down a lot - there aren’t enough used solos to meet the demand. There are a lot more tandems for sale, but good ones like Explorers and Penobscots seem to hold their price.
Personally I have all the boats that I need, so I don’t look at boat prices on a regular basis. If I stumble on something that I want I’ll grab it, because it won’t be around long. I just bought a 10-year old Millbrook Outrage. Price was less than a new boat, but I wouldn’t call it cheap. If I didn’t grab it there were two other people who would have.
I’ll bet the same is true for good quality composite sea kayaks - a lot less than a new boat, but they are not giving them away, and they go quick.
I now have an extra boat that I really should part with - an old Dagger Encore.
Old-school royalex whitewater solo boats like this are not expensive but do go quick. With the bags I’d probably ask $500 - bags are expensive. Maybe $300 without the bags, which is what I paid for it 15-years ago. I’ve had a lot of good times in that boat, so if I can bring myself to part with it I’d be more concerned that it go to someone who will use it rather than the price. It has a lot of good years left in it.
I just joined that new fangle social media site, Facebook, this year. I was shocked at how many high end sea kayaks were listed in Facebook marketplace for less than “fair” prices. Makes me think the Boomers are entering the “slow go” to “no go” phases of life.
-sing
With kayaks maybe supply exceeds demand, but we are not there with canoes yet - at least nice ones.
Welcome to Facebook - better late than never. 
That price would be a heck of a deal for someone. Wish I were closer. I picked up two WW boats earlier this year and I sold one of them (an Impulse) that was in slightly worse shape for $500 without the bags, and that Encore is a better boat. Plus we don’t have the market for WW boats here. Yours will go quick at that price and will definitely make someone’s day. I have been looking at prices continuously for the last 6 months across most of the country and generally figure a decent quality royalex WW canoe, in good shape, would go for around $600-700 (with or without bags depending on how desirable the design is, I.e. less desirable = with bags, more desirable = without). If it were a pristine Caption, Outrage, Outrage X, Viper, etc. maybe up to $900+. But I’ve never seen one go for higher than $1200.
Nothing wrong with selling it for less though. I got a steal on my Caption and it made getting into WW canoeing more accessible to me so I was supremely grateful. Helping new folks into the sport has value of its own, and I’d certainly like to pay that forward someday if I’m able.
Buy a boat for the utility value, use it, then sell it. If you research it, test it and it serves your purpose, you hopefully got your money worth of value.
If it gets trashed and totaled from harsh use, it’ll have zero value anyway, yet that doesn’t stop many adventurous paddlers from surfing, exploring rock gardens, or White Water.
I haven’t ever sold a boat, and I paid far more for the four used ones that I bought than they were worth. At least they cost less than new. If I do sell any, the used ones will probably recover most of the original investment.
I paid $800 for my Royalex Outrage - pristine at the time with new gunwales and outfitting. It was a bargain. After a couple of years of use it is not so pristine anymore…
Thanks for the feedback on the Encore. It is a fun boat for a bigger paddler and it is in great shape considering it it 33-years old. I know a couple of guys that I might offer it to. We’ll see.
That’s good to know (that the Northeast market for solos is still strong). I’m at the point in my creeping geezerhood where I am trying to be more realistic about maintaining such a large fleet of watercraft, especially since I have very few local friends who I can persuade to join me in local outings. While I may take it out a few more times before making a decision to sell it, I really have not used the lovely little 1982 Curtis Lady Bug I acquired 6 years ago as much as I thought I would so it’s on the divestiture “maybe” list for now.
Though having a 33 pound boat that is so easy to load, launch and climb into would probably be a better option as I continue to age so I’m conflicted about keeping or selling it. I did pick up a Feathercraft Java 2 years ago – about the same weight but a frame/inflatable hybrid sit on top folding kayak that can be set up solo or tandem (and has both a skeg and a removable full rudder). That has many merits as a “dotage boat” too.
I might be more apt to favor the Lady Bug had I been able to get some coaching on my paddling technique from my Canadian friend, Dennis, one of my early sea kayaking gurus who has shifted to solo canoes in his own dotage and become quite the expert with them. But the border closures during the epidemic and the current dicey-ness about US customs and immigration encounters has kept us from getting together. I had a particular trauma 50 years ago reentering the US from Ontario when the pre-ICE customs agents erroneously detained me, my two companions )and our canoe) for 4 hours on “suspicion” of drug smuggling. In retrospect it was a farce (for which we eventually got an apology from a supervisor) but it has made me wary of US border entries ever since. But with the USA being an international pariah these days (and justifiably so) I’m not sure I would even want to present myself at the Canadian border.
I did get some tips at the Western PA Solo Canoe Rendezvous, including from Dave Curtis himself, who was pleased to see one of his earlier canoes show up at the event. But I still struggle to feel comfortable with the solo blade and tend to revert to a vintage 230 Bending Branches narrow blade wood kayak paddle, which of course only works if I’m seated and not kneeling.
If I do decide to sell the Bug I will probably cross list it in SW PA (home turf) and upstate NY since I visit my brother in Saratoga Springs, NY, a couple of times a year and could easily deliver the canoe anywhere between the two points. And, of course, post it on the P.com classifieds.
I did notice that a western PA seller has already reduced a one year old pristine Esquif Adirondack to half price ($875) 2 weeks after no offers at $950. There’s also a guy north of me selling five 14 pound Hemlock Nesmuk packs for less than half new ($1000 to $1450) – solos have tended to languish for sale in this area. A few years ago I delivered a fellow western PA paddler’s own Lady Bug to a buyer in West Michigan when he couldn’t find a buyer hereabouts in PA – I was driving up there anyway to visit cousins who lived less than half an hour from the canoe buyer. And have also delivered a solo Wenonah Advantage to a buyer in western Ohio as a favor for a Pittsburgh friend who could not find a buyer here.
Weird that PA has supposedly more miles of rivers and streams than any US state except Alaska yet there are so few canoeists. And increasingly fewer kayakers each year since a surge that started 20 years ago.
