it's frustrating trying to establish contact with sellers for listings online: 1. there may be no response. 2. or i'm informed "it's just been sold."

I sent an inquiry about 1 boat recently, got a short reply back by email, "call me at...", so i called, and the guy it turns out is a dealer who received 1 of my very many inquiries, but doesnt know which one, so we start from scratch, what am i looking for, etc. So yes he's got one, $119k. Well thats more than i was thinking.

Dealers dont want to 'deal' with a mere $30k boat, they're looking for the big sale. Indeed i'm wondering if some of the ads for cheap boats (which then turn out to be "just sold") are just to suck me in, bait & switch.

Maybe craigslist a better option?