BWCA Team:
1. A widow in the Iowa City area needs your expertise in determining the fair market value of her late husband's 8 canoes.


Souris River Canoes (2):
2004 Quetico 18.5 Le Tigre Kevlar. Excellent condition, a few cosmetic scratches, beautiful boat. Aluminum gunnels.

2003 Quetico 18.5 green Kevlar Epoxy. Excellent, a few cosmetic scratches. Aluminum gunnels.

Bell Canoe Works (2):
2004 Merlin II, Kevlar, aluminum gunnels, cane drop seat. Minor scratches.

2004 Yellowstone Solo, Green Royalex. Stored outside! I didn't feel any soft spots in the hull. Some scratches. Cane seat and possibly thwarts need replaced.

Nova Craft Canoes (4):
2005 Prospector 16, BlueSteel (aramid/carbon fiber hybrid), listed at 48 lbs.
The ash gunnels appear new and not oiled. He may have replaced the aluminum gunnels with wood. minor scratches, beautiful boat.

2006 Bob Special 15' BlueSteel aramid/carbon fiber, red, cosmetic scratches show white thru the red color. Listed at 45 lbs. Wood gunnels need oiled but look solid. Yoke, cane seat, and thwarts are varnished and in good shape.

2005 Prospector 16 Royalex, burgundy. Stored outside! Lots of sun exposure. wood seats and thwarts have exposure damage.

2005 Prospector 17 Royalex, red. Stored outside! Sun exposure not as bad as the 16' Royalex. Don't remember what the seats/yoke/thwarts looked like.

I think all the canoes had factory skid plates. The 5 composite canoes were stored inside on ceiling racks. All 5 were top of the line boats. She took detailed pictures of all the boats, including the hull data plates. All are registered in Iowa thru 2025.

2. How could she sell a massive amount of canoe gear without camping out at the Post Office, for weeks, shipping it? She would like to hear your ideas.
Any specialized resale shops up North? Not looking for fair market value on the gear, just ideas.

We spent 5 1/2 hours pulling canoes and gear out, hosing dust off the boats, and inspecting/taking pictures of the canoes. We ran out of time to even look in all the storage bins. Some items had been lightly used, others looked brand new.


Each of the blue barrels was labelled with the gear stored inside. We only opened two, but they matched the labels. Per labels, there is a harness for each barrel and several canoe packs, etc.

Boundary Waters Journal brand canoe packs, pack liners, bear pulley set, etc.
Canoe paddles. carbon fiber bent shaft, cherry ottertail, Bell wood straight shafts, Bending Branches.
Cordage. 3 bins of various diameters. Many full spools. (not cheap paracord)
Dry Bags and dry boxes. Various sizes and brands.
Jet Boil style butane canisters. At least 12 cases.
Canoe parts. new wood gunnels 20', seats, walnut seat drops, hardware.
Collapsible sinks, solar showers, etc. many brand-new.
Original Bug Shirts - 8
Black Diamond 2-man Lighthouse tents- 3
2 Canoe trailers
SealSkin socks
Backpacks
etc., etc., etc.

All the gear was very organized, but we didn't have time to take a detailed look in most of the bins.

Thank you all for your help in valuing the canoes and ideas for selling the gear.
Downstream

Have you checked with Fin and Feather?

I have no idea how to place a value on all that gear -- but that's one garage sale I want to attend!

bhouse46: "Have you checked with Fin and Feather?"

Good idea, they used to sell Wenonah and Nova Craft canoes.

I am in Iowa City and an interested potential buyer for the Yellowstone or Merlin. I know that is not the purpose of the post, and don't have the expertise to be helpful in valuing the canoes, but if/when it comes to the point of needing to find buyers I am very interested.

I may be interested in some of the canoe gear as well.

Hello! I live in Iowa City and would be willing to come by and help provide some pricing advice on canoes and gear. If you would like me to come by in person, please feel free to reach out. I am also happy to talk over the phone if you feel more comfortable with that.

Hi I would be interested in on of the 3 seaters and perhaps some packs and paddles too. I will be in in the BWCA later in July, could you share her contact information and I would be happy to make an offer
-Egon

I'm located 1 hour away and interested in possibly a couple of the boats as well as some gear. Let me know if there is a time to come view the lot.

If selling used private party, general rule is half off list. Selling to a dealer/store will probably be a little less. A boat in super nice shape to the right person potentially a little more. Used camping gear, packs and barrels, etc seem to follow the same rule, but paddles usually sell for lower than half new, unless they are good shape all carbon fiber. That is starting point that would be pretty fair pricing for all involved and should sell fairly quick. A higher in demand boat could go for more or less. Ie, there are a couple Merlin IIs kevlar decent shape that have listed in the Midwest for like 1500, they have sat for a while but eventually sell. There have been some other bell and Northwind solos that are trying to get 70% or more of new price and they have sat.

Sell it for her for a percentage of the proceeds. She will be overwhelmed with trying to sell all of that.

I would suggest 50% list for the boats and 40% list for the gear. I would further suggest selling the gear in lots. Buy the whole designated lot for $xx.xx, no breaking it up. Heck, you may find someone to buy all the gear in one shot if she just wants to unload it. I know I would be interested in buying large swaths of what is listed.

Piragis may be interested in the whole shebang, but they prob won't be willing to pay as much as private sales. They are already set up for unloading all of their used gear at the end of every season, so they have the infrastructure in place.

The powers that be at North American Canoe Trader Facebook page have once again suspended me without explanation from participating on that page for the crime of posting this BWCA page on their site.

A brilliant demonstration of their commitment to building our community, and to their complete lack of curiosity as to what goes on in our world.

Curious, indeed.

Feel free to address those issues on their site.

On this site, let's take care of business, openly and in a positive way.

Best,

NM now MN Jim

If you end up selling I am interested in some Original Bug Shirts!

Thank you everyone for your ideas and interest. The owner is wanting to sell the canoes for local pickup. I think the next step for her on the canoes is setting prices. She said she might use an auctioneer for the gear.

I can comment on the Souris Rivers. I sold my 2002 Le Tigre for $1400 in 2020.

Since then the market has gotten tighter and canoe prices have risen considerably. I wouldn’t accept a penny less than $1400. I think you could actually get 2 grand for each of them based on the pictures, I’d have to see them in person. It might take longer but you could get that…

Those are fair prices. If you really wanted to hold out she could get more. Depends on how quickly she wants to unload them. Put them on this website for $1500 and they will be gone in a week or less :) $2 Grand/per canoe…a little longer but I am sure they would sell.

With Souris River’s going for greater than $3500 now with tax…you can make an argument for a higher cost depending on her tolerance for a longer sale or to take bids.

I wish her luck and my condolences on her husband passing.

T

Timatkn,
Thanks, this is very helpful. I was thinking $2500 for the Le Tigre, but that might be too high. When a canoe sits on this site for a couple months, and then is marked 'sold', you never know if it sold for less than listed.

DownStrm: "Timatkn,
Thanks, this is very helpful. I was thinking $2500 for the Le Tigre, but that might be too high. When a canoe sits on this site for a couple months, and then is marked 'sold', you never know if it sold for less than listed."

$2500 in this market might sell. I don't think it is unfair, but that is a higher end price in my opinion. It depends on how quickly she wants to sell. Or you could start there and take on BO.

I am by no means an expert. Just my experience. When I sold mine to a member on here for $1400 it was a fair price for both sides at the time...it was more than I was initially expecting. Now 3 years later if the member wanted to sell it back to me I'd expect to pay the same or a little more than he bought it for from me and he used it for an additional 3 years :)
The market has changed. Sometime down the road it will swing back maybe...

Anyway hope my musings help.

T

I think that 50% of list price is way too low for canoes like this in this kind of shape. I’ve bought and sold nice used canoes for closer to 75% of msrp. It always depends, but I’d start high for sure.

DownStrm: "Thank you everyone for your ideas and interest. The owner is wanting to sell the canoes for local pickup. I think the next step for her on the canoes is setting prices. She said she might use an auctioneer for the gear. "

Do you know if/how she plans to advertise the canoes locally? I would like to take a look when she is ready with prices, I am in Iowa City. Can provide my contact information as well if that helps.

Email sent with general thoughts.

mrballast: "Email sent with general thoughts."

MrBallast,
I apologize. I just realized I changed emails a couple of years ago and never updated my BWCA.com profile. It is now updated. Thank you for your help.
Jeff

Thank you to everyone for your advice and thoughts on pricing.
Barb, the owner has been reading this thread, and is grateful for each one of you.
She joined BWCA.com, today, and has listed the 2004 Le Tigre for sale in another thread.

Wow, what a collection!
I hope she keeps you around to help her with the sale. Wouldn’t want her to get cheated on the stuff, it all seems very nice

Mocha,
Thank you for the kind words, but I don't think anyone is going to be pulling the wool over Barb's eyes. She's very savvy. I talked with her on Wednesday. She had been checking prices online, including this site. She even found a price from the Canadian company that had made the wood gunnels.

Jeff

Email, resent. Lol.

I'm interested in the gunnels for a project we have going at church--building three Kevlar canoes for a start-up of an adventure ministry. Thanks for your e-mail.

Thank you to everyone for your advice and interest.
The 2004 Quetico 18.5 Le Tigre sold on this site.

Barb was looking at having a big sale day, but decided there was just too much gear to manage. She has decided to sell via an on-line auction in late August or early September. She is going to use the same auction firm that is selling her farm equipment. Barb will post when she knows the dates.

Before we lock this, I will just go on record to support Barb. When she posts the auction site eventually, those in the area should check it out. I picked up the LeTigre this week, and the descriptions were more than fair. I saw the other items while there, and they were all in very good condition. Respect her wishes and hold inquiries for now, but keep eyes open for the new post in Aug/Sept.