What do you think they are going to say. That they have dozens and dozens of boats on the secondary market? They took more than 20 to 25 boats from Passport Marine alone from all their different locations. Not to mention all the privately owned Formulas that were sold during the housing boom in Aventura on stated income, and with straw deals that the buyers just abandoned. There are dozens of repo Formulas around, and more to come.

I heard closer to 50 from Passport. Not directly, but from a good source.

Your source was correct

i have some pretty good sources ;)

Yeah, you have to watch out for all the BS. The son of the owner of my marina said they've been crazy busy all summer. I asked one of the hired help the same question and he said it's been totally dead. One Friday they only had one boat come in for gas the entire day.

I think the repo's have just begun. Still waiting for the OSO classifieds to catch up to reality, though . . .

One of a few reasons I closed the brokerage. I would not take listings at above market selling prices, and market selling prices dropped below many owners bank note. Some owners tried to B.S. how much they owed or that they could afford the diffinciency payoff and when the boat sold could not afford the payoff or comission, needless to say "Sorry I guess I will just come pick up my boat" doesnt fly with a broker at that point. Bad situation all around and time to shut the doors. The last consignment boat out the door of my brokerage left behind a repo truck!
I started buying repoed boats and reselling them, but all it was doing was destroying the relationships with longtime buyers and sellers that had become friends. With the repo rate so high, fuel prices skyrocketing and banks hanging onto there wallets when it comes to boat loans the depiction of doom and gloom for a highline toy broker is not a myth. Not to mention all of the power and drive pulls before repo and boats mysteriously missing. Its been a very sad year!

Here's my question. How does the industry recover from this? How did it do it after the 1990-ish collapse? I sold my boat in October 1989 for what I owed and never looked back as the market went into a free fall (as did I financially at the time).

Fortunately, I have no boat loans to worry about this time, but it's hard to see these boats gaining in value with gas never likely to go down and the cost of new boats inevitably rising. Most of these repo'd boats are not going to be getting the upkeep they need.

Personally, I plan to continue to maintain my boats beyond their resale value and plan for the gas expenditure it will take to use them, not because I am wealthy, but because it's one of the important things in my life. It does get hard to look at 4 and 5 figure repair and upgrade bills and not compare that to what can be bought in this market for cheap.

What will happen is the market will adjust itself. Its been riding a bubble for a while now due to all the shifty creditors out there looking to take advantage of people. Whats happened is that bubble burst. The housing, credit and lending market will readjust to where it should have been all along, without the artificial inflation. This will readjust the price of houses, boats, etc.. I would not be surprised if you see the cost of a new boat come down from where it is now. Why buy new when you can buy a 1 or 2 year old boat for half or less the cost.

yep you bought to soon:p:D

Raw materials are through the roof. We're poised for high inflation. If the cost of new boats comes down, it'll have to be through lower labor rates, which ain't happening. Remember stagflation?