So NJ is a hotspot for cheap outboards. That is interesting, but not the greatest news for the OP.
I see nice motors in NJ on Marketplace, but the prices are so low that it seems suspicious. I want to upgrade the current 150 Evinrude on my 22' Offshore (which runs great,) to a 4-stroke, but they are asking ~$9-10K for anything with less than 1,000 hours around here. I would rather buy new for $14k with warranty than pay that much for a 10-year-old motor with a thousand hours on it.
Then I see the same motors in NJ for $5k.
I'll be honest. It's a bit scary driving 5 hours away with a pocket full of cash, to what appears to be a higher-crime area for a deal that seems too good to be true. I don't want to get ripped off or worse.
But I digress. Back to the original topic, if the OP, Freeisforme wants to bring a trailer full of good motors to VA, I would sell them all, and I'm confident I would get him a minimum of $500 each for anything over 9.9 HP, and I would still make enough to be worth my time. I sell every good motor I post, with no exceptions, usually for my asking price.
Serious offer. I only have 5-6 good ones ready for spring, so it would work out just fine.
The problem here is that freshwater doesn't allow gas motors. Gas engines can only be run in tidal waters and about four lakes throughout the state. Two are in south Jersey. One is contaminated and fish can't be eaten from there, although there's a fairly decent population of bass and catfish in that lake.
This means that most of our small motors are being run in brackish or saltwater and unless you find one from someone who was fanatic about flushing it out after ever use, most are pretty corroded up. For me, I always launch well up stream and make the ride to where I fish, that means the motor gets flushed out on the ride home up river a ways. If I launch in the salt, I'll make a point of stopping at one of the freshwater lakes and dunking the boat for a quick ride and back out to wash off any salt. I can't run the motor, or at least your not supposed to but a quick blast and shut down never hurt anyone and my boat has a trolling motor on each end so I can easily power in the sweetwater legally, although slowly.
My main motor is from 1978, my smaller motor from 1995, both are spotless as far as corrosion but I'm a strong believer in products like Salt X and similar to neutralize the salt, even on the inside of the hull and fittings. The biggest issue I tend to deal with is cedar water staining at the water line.
Price wise, a good motor, to the right buyer in the spring should sell for top dollar here, especially once they see the cost of a new motor. Those motors though are usually short lived because those who pay those top dollar prices are generally those who have no boating experience and they end up running them without oil or not doing any winter maintenance and they kill the motor in short order.
When you need to find a good used motor, you would be lucky to find one in even fair condition for under $800 or so, more for larger motors. An $800 motors is generally a decent looking motor with good compression, you would expect to have to replace the water pump and go through the carb at the very least. It'll have a prop, but its not likely going to match your boat.
The problem is thought that fewer and fewer are boating or fishing these days, they've made it difficult to register a boat by closing down most of the local DMV offices, and most boats and trailers need to be done at a regional office, over an hour away.
It leads to either fewer boaters or a ton of unregistered boats. This action put a lot of boats into storage back in 2020 and most never came back out. Little by little those are turning up on CL and FB.
Two strokes are still king, while most people would want a four stroke, they're still too expensive, with used motors bringing as much as $200 more than a two stroke, and many older boats, (which most are), can't handle the same horse power in a four stroke motor due to weight. My Starcraft SF14 is a good example, its rated for 40hp in 1993 on the plate, If I hung a 40hp four stroke on it it would sink. Yet a 40hp 2 stroke is no problem. (I tried a 30hp two stroke on it, a tiller steer 3cyl Suzuki, but I had less than a 1/2" of freeboard at the top of the transom with me at the tiller handle. with no battery or fuel in the boat.
Yet the 35hp two stroke I run on it is perfect.
I hoard 25-35hp OMC motors, I've saved myself about 15 of them so far.
I sell anything smaller. (I keep one 4hp and one 9.5hp for kicker motors), but the rest get sold.
I just picked up three minty clean early 15hp Johnson motors way out in PA off CL, the guy had one listed but when I got there he had three. I made a package deal for all three, two short shaft tiller motors and one long shaft remote with tiller handle. All three fired right up even in the cold the other day in the garage. All three idled fine, and pumped water. They'll be for sale as soon as the weather breaks. Right now they won't bring $10 here, but when people get spring fever, the prices go sky high.
