E-Man Auctions plans LI Recreation Auction for late June

Boats come out of dry dock this time of year and head for the water, but now some also are heading for the auction block.

Citing automobile auctions as a paradigm, E-Man Auctions this weekend plans to bring the gavel down on an auction for at least 100 boats and recreational vehicles.

The Deer Park-based company, founded last year, is presenting the Long Island Recreation Auction on June 21 and 22 at The Vanderbilt event center.

The auction will include new and used motor boats, fishing boats, jet boats, speed boats and sail boats $2,000 to $100,000 and RVs with roughly the same price range, according to organizers. Admission is $5 per person.

Sellers pay a $250 fee for vehicles under $10,000 and $350 for more expensive vehicles. Buyers pay a 10 percent auction premium on the sale price.

Experts said auctions could prove to be an effective way to market vehicles during a down economy.

"It's taking a proven model of autos and transferring it to the recreational side," said Scott Croft, director of publications for the Boat Owners Association for the United States, in Alexandria, VA. "I hope it does well. That gets more people boating and in RVs."

Boat auctions are routinely conducted online at E-bay and in regions such as Florida and by insurers to unload battered boats after a storm.

But sources in the boat industry said the approach is new to Long Island, where boats are sold by dealers, through ads in publications and "for sale" signs.

Organizers of the Long Island Recreation Auction said a bricks- and-mortar auction offers speed and the ability to examine product in a way the Web can't.

"You can buy online and never see what you're getting," said Bill Jackson, president of E-Man. "You can look at something on the Internet. It may look good by picture. But (at a live auction), it's in front of you. You're buying something you see."

While the boat industry says sales have been robust as some people turn from travel to boating, average prices have been slipping, Croft said. The big question, he added, may be whether an auction can find both enough sellers and buyers.

"This is a tight economy," he said. "They're going to have to keep a steady flow of product."

Jackson, a former boat manufacturer's rep and salesman, said he hopes more auctions would follow. Firms providing financing and other services also will be at the auction, he said.