Marketing Used Radar Plotter advice

Over the next month or so I plan to replace a complete Furuno NavNet-1, 1833-C Radar and GD-1700-C Plotter system with newer style broadband units. The existing Furuno gear is in great shape and includes two 2017 dated Navionics wide area cards covering New England to New York. The radar display is mounted in a NavPod housing.


My question to the Forum’s members is about the best way to market used Radar and Plotter equipment.



Have any of you had good results selling used navigational systems on EBay, or through local marine consignment shops. Also, has anyone listed their used radar/plotter systems on Trawler Forum’s CLASSIFIED marketplace and had good sales results.
Thanks for the advice.
Joe
WYC, Westerly RI

I’ve done both and both work

I sold an older Furuno radar on eBay and got what I considered a fair price. (Also have sold everything from cars to tractors on eBay with mostly good outcomes.) You can moderate seller fees by reading and understanding them carefully. I’ve also had luck selling on Craigslist, including a Martin guitar three days ago, but I’d encourage you to stay local and be prepared to ignore scammers wanting to send you a phony cashier’s check. For Craigslist, I only accept cash or PayPal and only meet prospective buyers in well-populated spots. The few consignment shops I’ve contacted wanted more of a cut than I thought was reasonable—much more than eBay (which is a fairly small percentage) or Craigslist (which is $0.00).

I have had pretty good luck with marine consignment shops, specifically the one in Oriental, NC. They can be found in every area of the country with a significant recreational boater population.

This has worked for a dinghy and sailing dink and i have bought specialized electronics from the shop at a fair price. You do have to keep on top of the shop owner because in my experience when the item sells, you never hear from them. You have to ask to get your money.

David

I've sold most (all?) of my old equipment thru eBay when doing upgrades. Works well and helps significantly to offset the upgrade cost.

The only piece that didn't work out as I hoped was selling my old radar (a 24" scanner). Packing it well resulted in a box that was just oversize for UPS and so shipping cost me almost exactly what I got for the unit. At least it didn't wind up in a landfill.

I sold a complete radar system on eBay. Got what I wanted for it.

Marine Consignment of Wickford in North Kingston ia one of the great surplus/consignment stores on the east coast. Worth consulting at least as to value. Consignment stores take a bigger cut than ebay, typically 40% (I don't know what MCW takes). Ask them if they have any problem with you listing it on ebay too. A little further from you is the one in Newport.

I'd also put it on the various buy/sell sections of boating internet forums (here, cruiser's forum, The Hull Truth, etc.

I would offer it here first then if you don’t sell then eBay. If it’s good working equipment it will sell quickly.
PS Unless you use USPS flat rate boxes to ship, you will underestimate shipping costs!!!

I'm sure you can sell it, but the market is likely to just be people looking for spares. That system is 3 generations old, so an unlikely candidate for a new install. But people are frequently looking for spares.

I would post here and ebay, and look at what the same products have sold for to get an idea of pricing. Sold prices are often very different from asking prices.

The radar is going to be the valuable element as that generation of Furuno is still an excellent machine. For someone looking to add radar to a current boat on a budget it is a great choice.

I sell a majority of the equipment I take on trade on ebay. Ebay brings the most money for your equipment but it definitely comes with the most headaches.
That said, years ago used electronics had a good resale value. Nowadays, with new electronics being so much less expensive, the used marked has decreased dramatically.
I recently listed & sold a Furuno 12" NavNet 3D display, GPS antenna & Ultra High definition radar and got less than $900 after shipping. A few years ago ,before the market was flooded with electronics, it would've brought 50% more easily.

As an update. I posted the Furuno color display, color repeater, two recent wide area chips, gps antenna and Navpod box on Craigslist and eBay. It sold for a reasonable amount on eBay and I split the cost of packing and shipping with the buyer. Dropped everything at UPS store and had them do all the packing and shipping.