Kelly Blue Book Boat Values

Kelley Blue Book Boat Values include listings for powerboats, outboard motors, boat trailers, sailboats, and all types of personal watercrafts….

KBB actually calls their boat section personal watercraft through which users can check for current valuations for trade or retail purposes.

The Kelley Blue Book for personal watercrafts is a spinoff from the original KBB for autos which was founded back in 1926 by Leslie Kelley.

It was Kelley’s  and his brother’s idea to establish a standard for people to determine the value of cars.

Today, the KBB section for boat values has a range of boats listed for both either their trade-off or retail values.

Kelley Blue Book boat values include listings for powerboats, outboard motors, boat trailers, sailboats, and all types of personal watercrafts. As can be expected, the book is not as comprehensive as their auto and motorcycle sections which have a far longer history of being listed; however KBB does have information for some popular makes of watercraft.

How Kelly Blue Book Boat Values are assessed?

        The boat values are separated by Trade-in Value and Retail Value. The Trade-In Value is based on the reasonable price that consumers should expect to receive when they take in their boat to a dealer. Typically this is less than actual value because of the additional costs which the dealer has to incur for reconditioning the boat, having inspections done and other costs associated with bringing it back on the market.

The Kelley Blue Book Retail Value is the suggested price that the boat owner can expect to ask when selling his watercraft and can be used as the value to start price negotiations with. Unlike the Trade-In Value, the Retail Value assumes that the boat owner has already reconditioned the watercraft and that it is ready to sell. This is why the retail price is higher to reflect market prices for the boat.

Another assumption that is part of the retail value is that the boat or watercraft has a clean title history with nothing that could bring its price down. It includes an accounting for the dealers’ profits, sales commissions and advertising costs. This means that the final price is not so much indicative of the boat’s popularity or actual condition but rather a composition of multiple factors. This also means that the boat owner can cut costs and get more money for their watercraft by selling directly to the end consumer as opposed to a dealership.

The key thing to remember when using KBB Boat Values is that they are not conclusive because other factors such as local market conditions can change the value at which the boat actually gets sold or traded in at. Factors such as any additional time or equipment that will be needed to recondition the boat may significantly change its trade-in value. Similarly, if there is no huge demand for the make or model of your watercraft, the costs for the dealer to advertise and sell it off increase which means that the boat owner’s retail value decreases.

KBB Boat Values has listings for boats from many makes, models and years. For both the retail value and the trade-in value listings, the oldest boat year is 1994 and the most recent is 2014. Examples of makers include Kawasaki, Sea-doo and Yamaha boats, with each having several models listed. The listings themselves are concise and limited to the main characteristics of the boat such as 4 Cylinder and 4 strokes then the suggested price.

Boats owners can rely on KBB Boat values as an unbiased standard for the market. However, at the end of the day, they must also realize that the standard is a suggested price and that their own market conditions plus negotiation skills will determine the final price.

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