Here is perhaps a different take on the buy/sell issue. In my estimation, right now is the perfect time to be buying AND selling. Let's look at the facts... For a buyer, there are many, many boats for sale. Prices drifted lower beginning with the wildness of the fuel situation last year and prices have continued to be pressured this year due to the economy. But, based on what seems to be happening in my business (electronics), the bottom of the cycle may be upon us. Now is the time. There are a number of great boats waiting for new owners. Get a great broker (yes, there are some out there, and they are worth their weight in gold) and work with them to uncover the gems. There are a good number of buyers that have been waiting on the sidelines for the "bottom". These folks are getting much more active in looking. They are your competition. If you have had your eye on a specific boat, now is the time to get the deal done. For sellers, now is the perfect time to make the deal and move on. Turning that unwanted asset into cash right now will allow you to take advantage of remarkable investment opportunities that are unique to this point in time. Are you going to be getting less for the boat than you could have gotten a couple of years ago? Sure. But if you had sold then and invested the proceeds at that time, chances are you would be facing dramatic losses in those investments, too. Buyers are looking right now. By making the deal now, you can stay ahead of the curve, get the boat sold and then be able to use the money in a number of other profitable ways. I maintain that in the long run, by selling the boat now and investing that money, you will come out way, way ahead than if you wait. This, of course, may not apply to those who are "upside down" in their boat loans. As odd as it may seem, right now the interests of both buyers and sellers will be served remarkably well with a transaction. These are interesting times, indeed. Don

Don may be right that now is the best time to buy a trawler, but I would suggest that your personal situation should dictate that more than the current economic situation. A few thoughts on that: There's no law out there that says that the economy can't tank a whole lot further than it has so far. Yeah, the stock market has rebounded a bit in the last few weeks, but there's clearly still a lot of uncertainty and doubt worldwide. If the economy sinks further, boats will become cheaper. Oil is trading at about $52/bbl today. When it goes back up to $120...$140...$175...$200/bbl, how many people will want a trawler that gets 2 mpg or less? At least trawlers do a whole lot better than most of the other powerboat fleet, so that might be a saving grace. There's economics, and there's time. We all only have so much time on this planet. And if owning a trawler is an important goal for you, then at some point economics take a back seat and you just have to swallow hard and make the plunge even though the value of your new boat could plummet and you'll be paying $8/gallon to fill it up. How much is the trawler dream worth to you? Does the experience outweigh the dollar cost? I find it interesting that just a few years ago there was a lot of speculation that with the baby boomers flooding the retirement scene there were too few trawler builders out there and the cost of trawlers was going to skyrocket. The same was being said about RV manufacturing. How the world has changed. Bob Deering Juneau, Alaska On 3/28/09 8:16 AM, "Don Dahl" <ddahl001@carolina.rr.com> wrote: > Here is perhaps a different take on the buy/sell issue. In my estimation, > right now is the perfect time to be buying AND selling.