A few questions for you

Has anyone bought a boat online before like ebay, iboats, or boat trader?

I have been looking but am leery buying if I have never seen the boat in person.

And I always wanted a fiberglass bass boat but I am scared that the upkeep may be more than I bargain for, can you guys give me some insight please? Is there a lot more up keep than with an aluminum? What kind of added expense am I looking at?

I found this boat listed on ebay in the expired listings.  I sent an email to the guy to see if He still had it available.  He did, we were able to get together on price and delivery, so far it has turned out to be a great boat.  One thing I did not do, is drive the boat prior to delivery.  Looking back, that was probably not too smart(never been accused of that).  I'm just thankful the lord looks out for idiots like me.

Part of our purchase agreement, was that if anything wasn't as described, I did not have to complete the deal.  We were each driving about 500 miles to make the transaction, so if he was willing to come that far, I figured he was on the level.  I did have to send him $500 deposit.  I think I got a pretty fair deal.

Logger,

my apologies,  I couldn't find the pic of my boat so I posted the pic of the only one I had.

Here is the one I got from texas, from an expired ebay listing.

I've purchased 2 boats from distant sellers. The first was my last boat.  Saw it in an ad in the paper but the boat was 180 miles away. The guy was desperate to sell and the price reflected it.  He had a couple people coming down to look at it.  I had bank financing in place before I left the house and bought the thing without a test drive as well. Drove down, looked at the boat, said yes, drove back home, picked up a check from the bank and then drove back down the same day and picked it up in the evening.  It had a few problems but I found those on initial inspection.  

My current boat was found on an obscure fishing forum in the classifieds.  21 year old kid had a nice Champion 18 1/2 footer that needed some cleaning. He'd blown the motor up so that wasn't even an issue.  He sent me pictures via email.  I got him to drop the price a few hundred.  I drove down the next day cash in hand and bought it.  No surprises,  just as advertised.  I felt sorry for the kid, only had the boat a year and had to get rid of it because of the engine and the fact he was getting married. Nice kid and his parents were equally nice.

Thanks guys. Glad to hear some people have had good experiences. I think I just need to do my homework and be careful who I deal with

Logger,  I too have recently purchased my bass boat on ebay.  I my experience with it has been nothing but A+!  Drove 16hrs round trip in one day to go and get it.  I had e-mailed the seller a lot before bidding to make sure everything was as decribed and nothing was left out.  Worked out great for me and a very easy was to shop for a new boat!

I guess I have to realize there are some honest guys like us trying to sell their boats.  I guess after having my identity stolen I am very leery making deals online, and with the price of gas I don't want to drive 6 hours one way and find out the boat is junk. It helps to know you guys have had good experiences.

I am still curious on the aluminum/ fiberglass choice. Is the upkeep on a fiberglass going to cost me a lot more time and money than with an aluminum?