Why I Started an Online Boat Auction: Boats on Blocks

About two years ago I decided to start Boats on Blocks, an online boat auction marketplace. Being a car enthusiast, I loved watching sites like Bring a Trailer and remember going to all sorts of car auctions over the years. Although the boat market is much smaller than the car market, there are enough similarities to give the idea merit. Car enthusiasts have enjoyed a red hot market for a variety of cars for several years now. The boat market has been hot lately but in general, boats don’t really retail value the way some collector or desirable cars do. That said, here are a few details about Boats on Blocks, why I started it and if I should keep it going.

First off, I admit it has been really hard to get listings. We have had some really cool boats on the auction but we haven’t had a steady stream of boats that I was hoping for. Early on we turned down several listings because we were looking for more unique enthusiast boats. Now, we are looking for more listings and opening up the parameters a bit. Boats on Blocks only charges $95 to list and we only charge a 4% buyers fee, so it is a volume game to some extent.

Another reason I started Boats on Blocks is because the boat buying experience isn’t great. There are numerous boat listing sites and social media has become a massive classified section but the actual quality of the listing and buying process suck. With Boats on Blocks, the goal was to facilitate the listing with a great detailed description and a wide open bidding process to get better price transparency. Some of the amazing boats we had were a Tuff 28 with twin 300XS, my 2019 Allison Grand Sport, a Hustler PT 221 demo boat and a mint Sea Ray Pachanga 22.

One of the first Tuff 28 models ever made.

One factor in the second year is the Covid situation. Every dealer that was interested in listing boats fell off because they literally had no inventory and many private listers had a hot market to sell in. This made it difficult to find quality listings. There isn’t a big budget for marketing, so we do what we can. But, I am hopeful as people move more boats this summer, our listings will pickup. For many, the auction is a great way to find a buyer quickly and get to a price fast as well. Even if the boat doesn’t sell, thousands of potential buyers see it, so it’s a good strategy for a seller either way.

One thing I didn’t do is cross promote Boats on Blocks with Wave to Wave and I think most marketers would think that was a mistake. And, they are probably right. I didn’t want to contaminate or cross promote too much as I am very careful about any advertising on Wave to Wave, we generally have a small amount of third party ads on the site, which we may move away from all together as the advertising model is not great overall for content creators. Our ads are very limited though, as to not bombard the site, making a bad user experience. And we don’t have direct ads to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Generally, I was too careful about self promotion and should have used the large audience Wave to Wave has to help promote Boats on Blocks. I am lucky to have a large following, many subscribers and in hindsight I don’t think it would have tarnished the magazine at all.

The Sea Ray Pachanga 22 is a classic in its own right.

Going forward, I am going to keep Boats on Blocks going for now but the other issue I have is having too many projects on my plate. I simply don’t have enough time to work on all the projects I have. This is where I am planning to add some help and delegate more in the future, a skill I am slowly getting better at. The real goal is to have high quality listings with great detail, full disclosure and amazing pictures to make the online buying experience improved. I do believe an online marketplace boat auction like Boats on Blocks can work.

If you have any feedback or if you are looking for a role at Boats on Blocks, send me an email. We might be looking for someone on the sales / marketing side.