I was contacted by a person (a widow selling her husbands canoes) who wanted to know if I was interested in 3 canoes for sale. They hadn't been used in over 12 years, but they where stored inside. When I got there today, the seller was there along with a canoe "expert" (well, she did know alot about canoes, just not much about resales)
#1-An old Mad River Explorer royalex, wood trim. The gunnels looked dry rotted but are solid to the touch. The hull was hanging in the rafters of a garage so I couldn't see the bottom and there is a 6 inch crack from gunnel down, near the center thwart. I just repaired a similar crack with G-Flex and it worked well, but it's a visible repair so it won't sell for much. No one knew how the crack got there. They kept reminding me that they don't make Royalex anymore, I kept reminding them that a cracked royalex hull is not worth much. I asked for a step ladder but that seemed to be a problem so I never got to see the bottom of this canoe or the next canoe.
#2- It looks like a 15-16' tandem White fiberglass, but the expert thought it was kevlar. I stuck with fiberglass. It's a clean old canoe with wood trim, same as the Explorer, dry gunnels but solid. It looks like a nice canoe and should sell when cleaned up.
#3- Old Town Pack canoe, very light, nice condition hull except for the bird poops and trashed seat. I would rip off the factory alum (?) trim and fugly decks and replace them with wood with a nice webbed seat. It looked like it would be a decent resale.
So I made an offer, $200 each, but they must sell all three for $200 each. I don't think it was well received. On the way home I actually thought my offer was too high.
If they call and accept I want to see the first 2 canoes up close first. If she says she'll pass on my offer, I'm ok with that too.
BTW, her house is up for sale at 1.4 mil., nothing wrong with that, "just sayin"
#1-An old Mad River Explorer royalex, wood trim. The gunnels looked dry rotted but are solid to the touch. The hull was hanging in the rafters of a garage so I couldn't see the bottom and there is a 6 inch crack from gunnel down, near the center thwart. I just repaired a similar crack with G-Flex and it worked well, but it's a visible repair so it won't sell for much. No one knew how the crack got there. They kept reminding me that they don't make Royalex anymore, I kept reminding them that a cracked royalex hull is not worth much. I asked for a step ladder but that seemed to be a problem so I never got to see the bottom of this canoe or the next canoe.
#2- It looks like a 15-16' tandem White fiberglass, but the expert thought it was kevlar. I stuck with fiberglass. It's a clean old canoe with wood trim, same as the Explorer, dry gunnels but solid. It looks like a nice canoe and should sell when cleaned up.
#3- Old Town Pack canoe, very light, nice condition hull except for the bird poops and trashed seat. I would rip off the factory alum (?) trim and fugly decks and replace them with wood with a nice webbed seat. It looked like it would be a decent resale.
So I made an offer, $200 each, but they must sell all three for $200 each. I don't think it was well received. On the way home I actually thought my offer was too high.
If they call and accept I want to see the first 2 canoes up close first. If she says she'll pass on my offer, I'm ok with that too.
BTW, her house is up for sale at 1.4 mil., nothing wrong with that, "just sayin"