Relatedly (hopefully not derailing the original intent of this thread) it seems like all the canoes I see on Craigslist are priced pretty inexpensively, and any "canoe wanted" postings usually express a desire for a super cheap option. Admittedly, most canoes on CL are not wooden (here in the midwest anyway), and if they are, they are older strippers. But the occasional wood and canvas canoe comes up periodically, and I often see the listing languish on Craigslislt for quite some time. I know I sold a used wood canvas canoe through Craigslist once and after a long time with little response, I too had to settle for less than I had originally hoped.
I realize both eBay and Craigslist probably aren't going to attract, generally, an informed buying population (informed in the sense of having an accurate perception of a crafted wooden canoe's real worth) but both sites are pretty heavily used generally, and I sometimes wonder what this does to the widespread perception of a canoe's value. In other words, would repeatedly seeing canoes (of any composition) be listed for $400 or under negatively affect the average customer's willingness to shift their reality to include a handcrafted canoe for 10 times that amount. For those of us who know and appreciate the work involved, it's a no brainer. But to the average Joe-bag-of-doughnuts (who probably does not know about that difference)?
I suppose under the same line of thinking, if you can go in to an outdoor shop (Gander Mountain or Cabella's etc) and get a brand new "plastic" of brand ______ (name your company) for sometimes as inexpensive as Craigslist prices, perhaps it does the same thing? I know those customers are probably different from those looking for wooden canoes, so perhaps this argument is flawed in that regard. But for your average fisherman/paddler/dude-off-the-street, who is somewhat strapped for cash (I know there's an awful lot of foreclosed homes around here, anyway) they're not going to buy a wooden canoe for what it's really worth. They're going to go with a cheaper option.
Or maybe I'm crazy. There have probably always been some variation of more inexpensive options (and are for many other products as well). Perhaps the issue, as always, is effectively educating your buying public as to why those particular products (in this case wooden canoes) are worth what they are. And, as many have always said, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it,yes?