So, Who got it?

[Mark Adams]

Hi All,

Did anyone from here end up with the sweet courting canoe that was on eBay? I had the first bid, kept it low as I already have 2 courting canoes coming. I probably would have gone higher had I not gotten the news that I need cataract surgery as well as corneal scar revision. (uncovered by insurance, OF COURSE!) I hope it went to "one of the bretheren".

Mark

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Sorry about your need for eye surgery, but you obviously have great vision when it comes to spotting an interesting canoe! We were watching that one, too, but right now our money has to go into building the shop. I don't see the listing in our "watching" anymore and wonder what it ended up selling for. Did you calculate how long that bow deck was? The ad said the boat was a 16 footer but the s/n had it at 15 feet and it appeared that about 9 feet of that was deck!

Kathy

 

[Ed Moses]

Courting Canoe _ Orleans

Here's my notice of ourbid from Ebay.


We're sorry you didn't win this time around. While this one got away, there's other stuff to find. Don't give up.

Antique vintage canoe 1910 era Charles River, Boston
Sale price: $2,550.00
Your maximum bid: $2,300.00
Search for similar items | Win next time with Countdown

Bidding was fast and furious in the last 5 minutes. I did something with the refresh that caused me a delay in the last minute and I lost out. I had travelled to look at it and sure wanted to have it for the wife and I. Oh well.
Interesting that Mark's bid stayed until the last 15 minutes when someone bid 2,000. Then all hell broke lose. Must have been several refreshing their computers and poised ready to bid. (Like I was).

Ed

 

[Ed Moses]

Here's he bidding history, meant to include it in my last post.

Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time

latg( 396) US $2,550.00 Jul-24-08 14:12:38 PDT



2***r( 109) US $2,500.00 Jul-24-08 14:12:00 PDT



w***5( 122) US $2,300.00 Jul-24-08 14:11:38 PDT



2***r( 109) US $2,250.00 Jul-24-08 14:10:50 PDT



w***5( 122) US $2,200.00 Jul-24-08 14:10:01 PDT



2***r( 109) US $2,105.00 Jul-24-08 14:08:03 PDT



w***5( 122) US $2,085.00 Jul-24-08 14:09:32 PDT



w***5( 122) US $2,026.00 Jul-24-08 14:07:32 PDT



2***r( 109) US $2,000.00 Jul-24-08 14:01:22 PDT



o****( 253) US $1,999.01 Jul-17-08 18:57:13 PDT


Starting Price US $1,800.00 Jul-14-08 14:12:51 PDT


I'm w***5 (122) so you'll see how it went for me

Kathyrn, I did not have a tape measure with me to get an exact length on the bow deck but it was at least 4 feet. I did take several good pics of the canoe with some good shots of the under decks I thought it odd that there were no thwarts but the open area of the canoe was only 70 inches and the decks probably provided adaquate support. It was not misshapen at all.

Ed

 

[Denis M. Kallery]

ah-ha!

I believe "latg" is Ken Kelly...

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Hi Ed-- Re the lack of thwarts: you probably hit it on the nose-- the long decks and overall shape of the canoe provide enough support. The current version of Old Town's Molitor-- the model with torpedo ends and longer decks-- has no thwarts.

I was discussing this with Ferdy Goode last fall, because these torpedo ended canoes are shaped like the Ojibwe ricing canoes. He told me the structure permitted the central area of the canoe to be open, so that a blanket could be placed on the floor of the canoe for the rice to fall into, and the blanket could be gathered up without having to work it around any thwarts. This principle works for the courting canoes too: a larger open area for the pillows and phonograph and the reclining lady.

Please share your pictures... there weren't enough in that eBay ad.

Kathy

 

[Michael Grace]

I'm sure there were thwarts in this canoe originally... probably removed by a previous owner. Even though there are long decks, these may not provide sufficient ability to prevent the canoe from changing shape. The thin mahogany decking lies on top of a deck substructure, but all of this doesn't have a great deal of strength to resist lateral forces on the hull. I've seen similar courting canoes that have spread because of the deck framework becoming broken or the attaching hardware working loose. The deck framework is usually of unfinished softwood which can readily break under stress. There are many photos from past days showing people sitting on the decks of these canoes- a nightmare!

The Old Town Molitor from the 60s forward is a very different beast. Its massive outwales provide far more strenght at the sheer that do the thin, highly flexible caps of the closed gunwale courting canoe. The decks are also solid.

Surely this courting canoe would have had thwarts. I'll bet there are two pairs of bolts at each end, or at least their holes.

 

[Robert P. Ross]

Right on

Yes it did have two sets of rusty bolts that once held thwarts and 53" decks. I asked but the thwarts were not to be found. My neck wasn't long enough to see way down to the Serial number. I suspect the 15 may be an error. This was no Old Town but a sleek graceful craft worthy of a proper restoration.

It has one protruding rib, coming damage, king plank, missing the thwarts, one end is a little tender, and it needs at least one outside stem. The decks are pretty nice and the hull is straight and fair. The canvas is beyond repair.

Robert P. Ross
Ross Bros.
PO Box 60277
Florence, MA 01062
413.320.2306

 

[Dan Lindberg]

That looks like a nice canoe, hope the buyer restores it and posts some pics someday.

As for e-bay bidding, the real bidding doesn't start until about the last 2 minutes, and sometimes, the last 30 seconds.

I once lost an item to a snipper who likely used one of those programs to place a last second bid, I was even watching it and placing quick bids, but even the delay in refresh time, maybe < 10 sec(?), was too much. Even though the browser showed time left, and I pushed the button at the 5-10sec range, the auction was already over.

Dan

 

[Canerodz]

Sniping

Yep. If you really want it bidding through an on-line sniping service is a good idea. You can get trial subscriptions for free for the one I have used (but don't remember the name of.)

 

[Wadena]

Very true.

The way to bid on e-Bay is to figure out what you are willing to pay, and then bid that amount in the last five seconds.

If you don't have hi-speed internet, of course, you can't do this unless you subscribe to a sniping service.

The reason you have to make your move in the last five seconds is that if you bid early you'll just drive the price up (at least much of the time).

If you have hi-speed, you can open up two e-Bay windows and use one to monitor the time remaining and have the other one set up to make your bid with one click.

That's the way to do it.

Sometimes you'll see the bidding move past your maximum as you watch.......that's life.

 

[Greg Nolan]

sniping

The other very big advantage of using a sniping program is that you do not have to be sitting at your computer at the time when bidding ends -- and bidding often ends at an inconvenient time.

Put your maximum bid into the snipe program, and either your maximum will be higher than the last other bid (in which case you win for the next minimum increment), or you haven't because you did not bid high enough. Over the weekend, I won a bid in an auction that closed while I was on the roof repairing some leaky flashing. I paid $1 more than the higher of the two other bidders who bid within seconds of the closing -- and $10 less than my maximum, and I got my roof fixed before the thunderstorm later in the afternoon.

 

[Dan Lindberg]

I don't know if Gil was responding to me or not, but I didn't bid on the canoe, and while I don't like sniping, I don't think I was trying to complain, but rather to just let folks know it happens, and to bid accordingly.

With that said, if I really want something, I do play as Wadena describes, with 2 windows open.

The trouble with saying the high bid wins is that there is usually some wiggle room in the limit, and most folks would up their bid a $1 or 2 over there max if they knew that would win it. Having a time limit on the auction takes that option away.

I also play in the on line auctions that the live auction houses are running now, and I much prefer that closing process, ie, the auction doesn't close until a certain amount of time, usually 2-3 minutes, elapses without a bid. That way it's just 2 bidders and their money and technology is out of it.

Dan

btw, my ebay feedback number is over 300, so I've won my share of auctions, much to the wife's displeasure.