Looking for information on a canoe and it's value

[Truckee Donner Land Trust]

Hi,
My name is John and I work at a land trust in Truckee California. (Truckee Donner Land Trust). We recently acquired a property to protect the Donner Summit viewshed when viewed from Donner Lake. The property has a small house and included in the acqusiition of the house was a custom wooden canoe, built by the previous owner. After several years of storing the canoe and various ideas for what to do with it, we think our best bet is to sell it to someone that will appreciate how cool it is, and use those funds to pursue other conservation and land stewardship projects. We have zero idea what it is worth, where to sell it or how to sell it. Any insight, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance.
PS, not a wooden canoe owner but a Wenonah Royalex owner!

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome, this appears to have been home made. It will have a hull identification number (HIN) on the starboard stern just below the outside rail if it was built by a commercial builder after 1972. The information at https://www.usps.org/national/safety/HIN/HIN.pdf may help if you find a HIN. The information at the first link below should help you value it. My guess is that this is not a canoe that will be in unusually high demand. A listing in the classifieds at https://www.woodencanoe.org/classifieds will usually be the fastest way to find a good new home for a canoe like this. The second link below has the instructions to create a listing. Good luck with the sale,

Benson

Thread 'How much is my old wooden canoe worth?'

Nov 14, 2004

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...

• Benson Gray
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• 

Ad Instructions | WoodenCanoeHeritage

Instructions on how to list your wood canoe, whether new, vintage or historic, for sale on the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association site.

www.woodencanoe.org

 

[Worth Gretter]

If the lapstrake planking is plywood then the canoe could have been built from a kit like those offered by Chesapeake Light Craft. You could take some measurements and compare them to the models available from CLC and other builders. This type of construction is called stitch-and-glue because the planks are pulled together with plastic or metal ties, then epoxied, and then the ties are cut loose.
On the other hand, if the planks are not plywood, this might be a "one-off" home build instead of a kit, especially if the planks are epoxied instead of tacked together.

 

[John Sand]

It looks like a very nice plywood lapstrake canoe, I own one too.
Wooden canoe prices seem to be down right now, though in recent years I would have been content to buy one like that for around $1000. When I price something, I compare to others available on Craigslist, FB Marketplace and those recently sold on Ebay. My policy is to price mine below the nearest comp, and ignore high priced items that have been for sale forever. Good luck to you and the next owner.

 

[Worth Gretter]

those recently sold on Ebay

Sold items are kind of hidden on eBay. When you are looking at the item you want, like canoes, in the left column at the very bottom is "more filters". At the bottom of that screen is "show only". On the next screen, choosing "sold" will get what you want.
If Craiglist has a similar feature, I don't know about it. And for FM Marketplace, I have no idea.