Free Marine Electronics
Sound impossible? Here are 5 ways to get to the best price of all.
October 19, 2010
They say nothing in life is free, but what if you could get new marine electronics without paying a dime? I’d bet dollars to doughnuts you’d be scrambling to sign on the dotted line. But hold on a sec, you say—you can’t get free marine electronics! Or, can you? Use these techniques, and make the dream come true.
Electronics can be had for free, by following a few simple rules.
1. When Buying a New Boat, Get the Electronics Included
Buying a new boat involves a lot of give and take between the dealer and the buyer, but as the buyer, you mostly want to take—and give as little as possible. Electronics are one item that’s traditionally been impossible to fold into the deal as a “gimmie,” because they almost never came with the boat. But times have changed, and many manufacturers and dealers now pre-rig with electronics. Usually, these are low-end fishfinders that are binnacle-mounted at the helms of center consoles and walkarounds, dash-mounted GPS units in cruisers, and marine stereos, in all types of boats.
Will the dealer want to give them to you without charge? Heck no. But he also won’t want to take the time to remove them, and patch the screw holes they’ve left in the boat. So when you’re ready to ink the deal, look through the contract and find the charge for that fishfinder. Then give him the choice of eliminating the cost, or removing the offensive unit from your new boat. It’s a gamble, but most of the time the dealer will figure that removing it will cost him more than leaving well enough alone.
2. Trade Old Gear in for New
Trading in this type of gear may seem strange, but if you have old electronics that’s in good shape, you might be able to turn it into new gear without taking a dime out of your pocket. An old DeLorme Earthmate PN-20, for example, is worth $47 to Wall Mart. A Garmin GPSmap 60CSx can add $80 to your cost-free electronics budget. And a Magellan Meridian can be swapped for $34. Wall Mart’s not the only game in town, either. Radio Shack says a Lowrance H2Oc brings up to $30, and web sites like eztradin.com and wireflytradeins.com exist just for this purpose. Your unit isn’t on their wanted list? Donate it to Goodwill, and take the tax deduction.
3. Use Those Rewards
Rewarding yourself with new electronics that come cost-free isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds, if you’re using the right credit card. Marine electronics aren’t cheap, so it will take you a while to earn enough “points” to get what you’d like—but in three years, I built up enough to get a new GPS. True, most of the units offered by the credit card reward companies are land-based street navigators. But you’ll also find some cross-overs and handhelds on the list. Just remember: if you don’t pay off the monthly balance on your card, the reward isn’t really free.
4. Shop and Sell
Buying a used boat should be an electronics-free experience. Old electronics can’t be counted on for reliability, and once a boat is old enough to be on the used boat market, chances are the electronics are out of date. Screens fade, connections corrode, and seals shrink. So when you buy a used boat you should always plan to replace the electronics, right from the start. And you should make this fact clear to the seller. Again, eliminate all cost calculations regarding electronics from the deal. You can even use the fact that you’ll have to rig with new electronics as an argument against buying the boat, when negotiating with the seller and balancing your budget against the “bottom line” sale price.
Regardless of the outcome of your negotiations, chances are those electronics will, once again, be left on the boat when you take possession. Unfortunately, we weren’t just using the used electronics to beat up on the seller – they probably aren’t what you really want, anyway. That’s what Ebay is for. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get for that old fishfinder or GPS, and if you play your cards right, you could end up with enough cash in hand to get some or all of the electronics you really want.
5. Win a Prize
Winning marine electronics isn’t as impossible as it might seem. They’re popular prizes for web sites and magazines that are running promotions, contests, and fishing tournaments, and at any given time you can find numerous electronics give-aways. This summer, for example, Humminbird gave away eleven side-scanning fishfinders in the “Van Dam Your Boat” promotion. Total cost to register for the drawing: $0.00. GPSfortoday.com gave away a free SPOT satellite messenger with one year’s service, to draw publicity to their web site. Rocky Mountain Tracking parted with a GPS Tracking Key. And boat shows from coast to coast regularly give away electronics as a door prize; just make sure you fill out the registration slip as you enter the door. There are tons of these contests out there – you just have to go and find them, if you want to get your electronics for free.
Lenny Rudow has been a writer and editor in the marine field for over two decades and has authored five books. He runs his own web site at HookedOnFishingBoats.com and his syndicated blog appears at Boats.com in the BoaterMouth blog section.
