The Price Of Toys……

Having a few thousand dollars of cash on hand isn’t a bad idea.

During a power outage debit cards don’t work. Or if for some reason your accounts are frozen…..(tin foil-I know, but still)

Duluth businesses are already very nervous. Tourisim is life blood up here and 4 conventions at the Amsoil have already been cancelled with 6 more pending. There is some major hand wringing going on in the mayors office right now about Gramma’s marathon I’m sure.

Heck they lost one day of the Sno Cross last Thanksgiving weekend due to a snow storm. Yes a snow storm cancelled one day of a Sno Cross. Go figure. But you would have thought the entire city economy had collapsed. If they cancel Gramma’s the city will have to go dark.

B-man wrote:

Having a few thousand dollars of cash on hand isn’t a bad idea.

During a power outage debit cards don’t work. Or if for some reason your accounts are frozen…..(tin foil-I know, but still)

Agreed. However the banks in order to push credit card debt have convinced the government that people with cash are either drug dealers or terrorists. While it’s easy to spend a few bucks in cash at a time it’s very hard to spend larger amounts of cash on one purchase. All them government forms they want summited you know.

haleysgold wrote:

I was in the market for a new UTV and had pricing down for the model I wanted.
I’m not sure if prices will fall but the dealers have a butt load of new inventory sitting around.

I decided to just hold off for now anyhow. If they don’t fall, they for sure aren’t going up.
I also have some funds available that might be better put in the market when it hits bottom.

Was the UTV a Kawasaki Pro FX/FXT/FXR? There is a reason the dealers have a lot of them, recall in the works

Was the UTV a Kawasaki Pro FX/FXT/FXR? There is a reason the dealers have a lot of them, recall in the works

Nope but I was looking at those last fall and never pulled the trigger. Sounds like I made the right decision not buying it!

I looked at few recently but spending 17 to 20k right now just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. That thinking probably hurts the economy right now but so be it. The machines will still be on the lots in a couple weeks when all this unfolds a little more. A lot of things prolly going down or up…TBD at this point.

Ice Cap wrote:

Duluth businesses are already very nervous. Tourisim is life blood up here and 4 conventions at the Amsoil have already been cancelled with 6 more pending. There is some major hand wringing going on in the mayors office right now about Gramma’s marathon I’m sure.

Heck they lost one day of the Sno Cross last Thanksgiving weekend due to a snow storm. Yes a snow storm cancelled one day of a Sno Cross. Go figure. But you would have thought the entire city economy had collapsed. If they cancel Gramma’s the city will have to go dark.

Our big annual SWAT conference in Duluth was just cancelled. Was scheduled for mid April.
DT

haleysgold wrote:

Was the UTV a Kawasaki Pro FX/FXT/FXR? There is a reason the dealers have a lot of them, recall in the works

Nope but I was looking at those last fall and never pulled the trigger. Sounds like I made the right decision not buying it!

I looked at few recently but spending 17 to 20k right now just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. That thinking probably hurts the economy right now but so be it. The machines will still be on the lots in a couple weeks when all this unfolds a little more. A lot of things prolly going down or up…TBD at this point.

My father has the Pro FX and it rides like a Cadillac but you do need to ride them for a while when it is really cold out so they warm up good otherwise a breather hose on the engine freezes and causes the oil to get over pressurized and it will blow some seals in the upper engine and oil goes everywhere. The dealership mechanic said a lot of UTVs have similar issues and you have to run them long enough to get up to operating temp and get the condensation out of the motor oil

Well I got to take a look at the boat on Saturday. It was in rougher condition than I was hoping so I ended up passing on it. The trailer needs an alignment at minimum, the top cap a deep buff/polish job, the cuddy had/has a small leak around the rub rail, the downriggers are old, etc

If it had a hard top on it I would have made him a reasonable offer though.

Realistically his price wasn’t too bad, but with the uncertainty ahead of us I think it was the best decision.

Here’s a link to it. It would be a sweet Great Lakes boat, especially if a guy added a Fish On captain’s pack radar arch.

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/boa/d/shafer-key-west-boat-with-150-yamaha/7086613266.html

Had to circle back to this. THe FW finally green-lighted a “new” boat this summer, but from what I am seeing, inventory is low, and prices are really high. Kinda bummed right now.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Had to circle back to this. THe FW finally green-lighted a “new” boat this summer, but from what I am seeing, inventory is low, and prices are really high. Kinda bummed right now.

Pretty much same here, except this fall/winter and at this point I’m thinking we may need to buy new. On the used market all the 18-19 foot windshield boats I’m interested in show little to no depreciation after 5-10 years of abuse. I’d rather pay an extra 10-15k and get exactly what I want brand new.

Ice Cap wrote:

If they cancel Gramma’s the city will have to go dark.

Go dark? Lol. Reminds me of the “last one out, turn the lights off” billboard from the 80s

Buddy that works at Morrie’s told me that a lot of brands are about to run out of the surplus they used up when factories were shut down. There will be a gap where new cars are hard to find. I would imagine it will be similar for “toys”

I picked a hella year to look for a new lake cabin…

Don’t worryaboutit wrote:

Buddy that works at Morrie’s told me that a lot of brands are about to run out of the surplus they used up when factories were shut down. There will be a gap where new cars are hard to find. I would imagine it will be similar for “toys”

Really? Dealerships are reporting that new stock is being replenished and the 2021 year models are due to release very soon

When you go North of $50,000 on a boat, the payments are quit different. Plot a $50,000 used vs a $70,000 new. Of course the closer the gap the closer the payments become.

Find a guy with a four stroke with 100 to 200 hours and they think they have a high hour motor. Where in reality it’s barely broken in.

Boats are out there but you really have to look and be ready to pounce on a deal.

Not exactly a “boat” but we took advantage of slashed prices and added a tritoon to the fleet. Just as I predicted in a post earlier on this thread, we found something that was used a few weekends a year and sat by someone’s house as a social piece more than on the water. It’s a 2016 tritoon with a 150 that had 59 hours on it. We offered the seller $5400 less than asking price and settled at $4900 less. The seller openly admitted that they didn’t want to make payments on a toy with the uncertainty of the times, hence the sale.

I bought the new boat but spending all the money on accessories now seems to hurt a little more. I guess it is the slow bleeding feeling. Lol!

I have talked to a handful of dealers, boat and RV, and they all pretty much say that sales are at an all time high. Seems people are buying locally used toys, RV’s, Boats, UTV’s, etc…, instead of going on big vacations.

I have been in the market for a cabin/lake home for a few years now, waiting on the perfect fit. Working with several realtors, and they ALL said, this is the year to buy, because of COVID. ALL now say, prices are way inflated, do not buy now. Their opinion, people sitting on money are now buying, and a new investment strategy, investment groups, are investing in lake cabins to put out on VRBO and AirBNB, so buying up everything they can.

I know a guy that ran into some financial issues, studied the market and came up with a price for what he thought his lake cabin could be sold for. After talking to an agent, he eventually listed for $50k over what he thought. He received 10 offers the first day, and accepted an offer for $30k more than list. So, he made $80k more than he thought it was worth. And this was a mid-priced cabin, not million $ one, so high percentage price difference.

It is definitely a sellers market right now for anything considered a local recreation. Completely opposite of what most people thought.

I wonder with all the record sales of stuff if there will be a huge dump at some point and the market will flip. A lot of people forget you have to store a boat, camper, pontoon, and toys all winter while making payments on it. Just a thought but everything has been the opposite so far.

I stopped by Highway 61 Marine & Sports that’s located between Cottage Grove and Hastings this morning to pick up some gear oil. I asked how sales have been. The guy told me they’ve sold 650 pontoons this year. 650 is not a typo. Hard to believe but that’s what he said.

anything that allows you to enjoy the outdoors is pure gold right now, I guess the vaccine timing/effectiveness will determine if that trend continues into next spring/summer as well…New inventory has been sold out for months and production lines are running slower and some shutdown for long periods of time so the used market has seen a huge increase in value. At some point the market will get flooded with toys people no longer have time to use, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I think the next rush will be for winter storage as folks who made spur of the moment decisions to buy toys don’t have the garage space to store them when the snow starts to fly.

“Polaris Inc. announced it has made the strategic decision to focus its marine investments and growth efforts on its flagship boating brands. As a result, Polaris will stop producing Rinker, Striper and Larson FX boat brands at its Syracuse, Indiana plant in June.”

Mistake, HUGE mistake. Bet there are people at Polaris taking huge back steps now trying to justify this decision. If for no other reason, to clear out inventory.