I've run across a few of those Mariner motors locally over the past few years. They seem to pop up in two flavors.
either black with the silver cover, basically just a Mercury built by Tohatsu with a Mariner cover and a different set of numbers, or all gray with Mariner decals but with a Yamaha power head. Those tend to be marked made in Belgium and are using a Mercury built mid and lower but with a Yamaha power head. the year range on those seems to run from the mid 80's to the mid 00's. I have two of those myself, both came to the states by way of Australia.
(There was a company doing oil spill cleanup about 15 years ago, the had about a dozen 14ft Starcraft boats and a dozen 9.9hp motors drop shipped ahead of the start of the operation, I was told they were based in Perth, when the job was done, the boats and motors were abandoned at a local boat yard. I ended up with several of them but getting titles for them was a hassle. Numbered differently than US sold boats their numbers would not work at the DMV and although I was able to get Australian papers for a few of them, those papers were not worth anything here. They each eventually had to get a state assigned HIN and thus a title. They are the older Smokercraft Alaskan Hull and different in a few ways from the US sold models of the same period.
The outboards, all Mariner models, are second generation Yamaha power heads on Belgian built mid and lowers. They're about 10lbs heavier than the Tohatsu counterparts but seem to be a bit more stout than the Mercury/Tohatsu models.
I emailed the seller and the ad went down right after. his only reply was that the motor is in the UK and would have to be shipped. I suggested having someone pick it up and pay cash at his address if they were nearby and he seemed to be okay with that and gave me a London address. What got me is that its not listed there on CL, but not much is, CL doesn't seem to be a thing there
The motor is listed on Gumtree though with an address which matched the one he gave me off CL.
https://www.gumtree.com/p/boats/mariner-9.9hp-outboard-motor-/1483179804
I have no interest in the motor but figured I'd see what it was all about. The seller won't take less and will only take cash and is fine with a local pickup there so I don't really sense a scam. Although I've got contacts not far from there who would grab it for me, and likely be able to get it here for next to nothing if I'm not in a hurry, I have no use for it.
Price wise, those sell for about $2,100 to $2,300 USD there so his asking £1,499 for it isn't that far off and the seller may not understand the exchange rate. A new motor is listed there at £1,799. Shipping to the US would likely be around £300 over the counter but if someone had a commercial account that could be cut down quite bit. I regularly get large packages from the the UK, (Belfast), via DHL cheaper than one would imagine. cheaper than I could ship the same size package across town via USPS.
Either way, the hassle of buying something that way is not likely worth the headache here, or the wait.
