How much is my old canoe worth?
One of the most common questions that gets sent to the WCHA webmasters is "how much is my old canoe worth?" Tim Hewitt's responses over the years have included the following comments:
Any wooden or wood/canvas canoe in usable condition is worth $1000 - $1500. A canoe that is documentable will go on the high end, one that is particularly rare will bring more, up to $3000 for a wood canvas canoe, and as high as $5000 for an all-wood canoe. These high end canoes must be in showroom condition and you must have evidence or documentation of their age and pedigree. You also need to find the right buyer of course, and this can often take many months. Run-of-the-mill canoes or old canoes that cannot be verified of age or heritage needing restoration, typically sell from $50 (or free) to $500, depending on how serious you are at getting rid of them.
A professional restoration will run from $400 for a simple canvas job, to $3000 for a full "make it like new" restoration with a smattering of new ribs, planking, decks, seats and of course canvas, filler and paint. Many restoration tasks can be done by a competent woodworker or handyman at a fraction of what you would pay for a professional restoration, however without shop equipment and a good place to work, serious restorations can be more trouble than they are worth.
New canoes can be had for $1200 to $10,000 ranging from serviceable canoes to works of floating art.
Using this guide, how much do you think your canoe is worth? As in any sale into a niche market, it's going to worth what someone will pay, and that will be weighed by how long you are willing to wait. I have held $500 canoes for up to two years, and sold $2000 canoes in one day, but the opposite is also true. I can tell you that if selling quickly is your goal, price it low. Wooden canoe "collectors" are not willing to pay $1000 for a speculation on future worth. If your goal is to make money on a canoe, go into another hobby, you'll not likely make any here
. If you enjoy working on old canoes and eventually need to sell them to make space for new projects, this is a great hobby.
The problem with selling old canoes is an interesting one. Name recognition can mean everything. I've seen run-of-the-mill Old Town canoes in the Midwest bring $2000, while a pristine Gerrish brings $500 because no one knows the name.
Selling a canoe into the antique market is also very different from selling a canoe into the wooden canoe users market. The WCHA membership tends to use these old canoes, as well as care for them. The canoe is a wonderful machine, and most are still very capable of performing the tasks they were designed for after 60-100 years of use. One of my favorite personal paddling canoes was built in the 1880s. It paddles as well today as the day it was first put in the water. I would no sooner hang it on the wall as an antique as I would park a brand new car in the garage and leave it for fear of getting something dinged or dirty.
The other issue of course is who is buying it and for what purpose. A businessman from Japan came to Maine a couple of years ago and paid $10,000 for an old canoe to hang in his store in Tokyo. He didn't even shop for it, he simply bought the first wood/canvas canoe he found in an antique shop. The owner would have sold the canoe for $1500 - the unposted asking price - but the fellow from Japan opened himself up for price gouging with his unbridled enthusiasm, and was happy with the purchase.
I went to survey a canoe for insurance purposes a few weeks ago. The owner is an acquaintance of mine, and so for the cost of a lunch, I gave him a surveyors report, similar to what you would get when buying a large power or sail boat. The report detailed everything that was wrong with the boat, and my estimation of it's fair market value, along with it's insured value. These two numbers were very different. When his insurance company representative called me a week later and asked me to explain the difference between the fair market value of his canoe $1800, and the insured value $3800, I said simply that the builder of this canoe was dead and the forms had been gone for 50 years. If he knew a cheaper method to have the canoe reproduced by a professional builder in the case of it's loss, I would love to know what that is.
The canoe is insured for $3800. He could never sell it for that in an informed market.
The Classifieds Ads on this website are a good place to sell an old canoe. I find some boats will sell in days, others not in months, for no apparent reason. WCHA members place ads free, for non-members the cost is $35.
The local papers might work out well depending on where you are. "Little Nickel" type want-ads seem to be a fairly good place to sell canoes in the spring and summer. Probably not too hot a place in the winter - though you never know.
Good luck, and let me know if we can be of any further help.
Best regards,
-Tim
One of the most common questions that gets sent to the WCHA webmasters is "how much is my old canoe worth?" Tim Hewitt's responses over the years have included the following comments:
Any wooden or wood/canvas canoe in usable condition is worth $1000 - $1500. A canoe that is documentable will go on the high end, one that is particularly rare will bring more, up to $3000 for a wood canvas canoe, and as high as $5000 for an all-wood canoe. These high end canoes must be in showroom condition and you must have evidence or documentation of their age and pedigree. You also need to find the right buyer of course, and this can often take many months. Run-of-the-mill canoes or old canoes that cannot be verified of age or heritage needing restoration, typically sell from $50 (or free) to $500, depending on how serious you are at getting rid of them.
A professional restoration will run from $400 for a simple canvas job, to $3000 for a full "make it like new" restoration with a smattering of new ribs, planking, decks, seats and of course canvas, filler and paint. Many restoration tasks can be done by a competent woodworker or handyman at a fraction of what you would pay for a professional restoration, however without shop equipment and a good place to work, serious restorations can be more trouble than they are worth.
New canoes can be had for $1200 to $10,000 ranging from serviceable canoes to works of floating art.
Using this guide, how much do you think your canoe is worth? As in any sale into a niche market, it's going to worth what someone will pay, and that will be weighed by how long you are willing to wait. I have held $500 canoes for up to two years, and sold $2000 canoes in one day, but the opposite is also true. I can tell you that if selling quickly is your goal, price it low. Wooden canoe "collectors" are not willing to pay $1000 for a speculation on future worth. If your goal is to make money on a canoe, go into another hobby, you'll not likely make any here
. If you enjoy working on old canoes and eventually need to sell them to make space for new projects, this is a great hobby.The problem with selling old canoes is an interesting one. Name recognition can mean everything. I've seen run-of-the-mill Old Town canoes in the Midwest bring $2000, while a pristine Gerrish brings $500 because no one knows the name.
Selling a canoe into the antique market is also very different from selling a canoe into the wooden canoe users market. The WCHA membership tends to use these old canoes, as well as care for them. The canoe is a wonderful machine, and most are still very capable of performing the tasks they were designed for after 60-100 years of use. One of my favorite personal paddling canoes was built in the 1880s. It paddles as well today as the day it was first put in the water. I would no sooner hang it on the wall as an antique as I would park a brand new car in the garage and leave it for fear of getting something dinged or dirty.
The other issue of course is who is buying it and for what purpose. A businessman from Japan came to Maine a couple of years ago and paid $10,000 for an old canoe to hang in his store in Tokyo. He didn't even shop for it, he simply bought the first wood/canvas canoe he found in an antique shop. The owner would have sold the canoe for $1500 - the unposted asking price - but the fellow from Japan opened himself up for price gouging with his unbridled enthusiasm, and was happy with the purchase.
I went to survey a canoe for insurance purposes a few weeks ago. The owner is an acquaintance of mine, and so for the cost of a lunch, I gave him a surveyors report, similar to what you would get when buying a large power or sail boat. The report detailed everything that was wrong with the boat, and my estimation of it's fair market value, along with it's insured value. These two numbers were very different. When his insurance company representative called me a week later and asked me to explain the difference between the fair market value of his canoe $1800, and the insured value $3800, I said simply that the builder of this canoe was dead and the forms had been gone for 50 years. If he knew a cheaper method to have the canoe reproduced by a professional builder in the case of it's loss, I would love to know what that is.
The canoe is insured for $3800. He could never sell it for that in an informed market.
The Classifieds Ads on this website are a good place to sell an old canoe. I find some boats will sell in days, others not in months, for no apparent reason. WCHA members place ads free, for non-members the cost is $35.
The local papers might work out well depending on where you are. "Little Nickel" type want-ads seem to be a fairly good place to sell canoes in the spring and summer. Probably not too hot a place in the winter - though you never know.
Good luck, and let me know if we can be of any further help.
Best regards,
-Tim
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