you'd be surprised about ebay. I see 2 cyl loopers (newer 1989-up w. trim/tilt) and 3 cyl 56ci OMC motors sell for $3500-$4800 if they are willing to ship! they all looked nice but werent even rebuilt. just supposedly "serviced" with the usual cam roller outer sleeves rotted away and no mention of even a carb service but some parts of the country these must be really popular. trouble is buyers can claim they dont run well and now the seller is SOL.
This is why there's no way I'd sell a whole motor or any thing that subjective on eBay. Parts are another story and although its not a set it stone rule, if your ad lists USED, AS IS No Returns For Parts or Repair only and your not a problem seller eBay will generally side with the seller, especially if the buyer has a history of claiming the item was not as described.
I don't do my own listing and have someone who does a lot of selling there and on other sites but I'll write any description for items I give her and there has been no issues. The biggest problem so far has been a few that bid and were banned before they paid long before the item shipped, eBay canceled the ad and ended the listing but re-instated the listing automatically.
I was at a fishing fleamarket the other day and one dealer had brought about 50 small used motors, they had 70's and 80's OMC 6 and 7 1/2hp motors and mid 90's Mercury motors, all two strokes. They had $750 on the OMC's and $450 on the Mercs. They had several 74-85 or so OMC 9.9 and 15hp motors all marked between $900 and $1,450, all sold as is,
They had a few 25-35hp motors that were covered in stick on camo, all in the late 70's to about '85 or so marked $750 each, and a dozen or so Tohatsu Mercury 9,9hp motors for $500 each, all looked pretty clean but all were as is. Plus a table full of shotguns, bows, rods and reels. I was there early and bought a few reels for way too cheap while guys swarmed the trailer and rows of used motors. By 10am all they had left were a dozen or so four stroke Mercs and a dozen Honda 9,9hp motors that looked pretty clean overall. Most were likely 2000's models. We left and went to a farm market for a bit and stopped by after about 2pm. No more of the motors had sold and they had marked the Honda motors down to $350 each or MAKE OFfER. The shotguns were down to only single shot models for $100 each and the rods and reels were mostly unsold. I made a pile of larger saltwater sized Penn reels and went home with 31 reels for $50 and two older surf poles for $10.
The woman at the table there said the 2 stroke motors were all gone by 9am. They had one larger newer 50hp Mercury four stroke there that looked new but was marked $1,500 but it was still on the stand when I left. I think the sign said 2015 on it. Big motors don't sell there, I lived up that way for 23 years and most guys had 14ft t0 16ft aluminum boats and a 5 to 20hp motor.
When I moved from there in 2005 I left my 16ft Grumman and 15hp Gale motor that ran 100% for the new owner who begged me to include it with the sale. I miss it but a boat like that would do me no good here and I had stopped using it because me and motor weight on the back would make it take on water if I wasn't super careful.
In the late 80's work moved me to PA, and FL back in the 90's and both then were hotbeds for boats and fishing, When I moved to NJ boats were hard to find here and used motors nearly impossible to find that weren't salt eaten or completely trashed and even so a 30 year old motor would run you $1,500. An ad on CL would get you 50 emails. Now it gets no emails at all. The same with FB. On FB all I ever got was emails wanting a number they can text or they want to pay by bitcoin or something other than cash.
I had a guy last night looking at a near new condition 2007 9.9hp Mercury 4 stroke that I told him $1200 for. I highly doubt if its ever seen water. He got mad when I refused his $250 offer. He had heard by word of mouth I had a bunch of motors for sale and thought he'd steal one cheap, I can get $300 for ta well used lower unit on eBay why would I ever sell a whole motor that cheap, let alone one that still has its hang tags
This morning I loaded all the four strokes up and sent them to a buddy to sell in FL, His son was passing through here with an empty truck so the timing is perfect. He guarranteed me $600 each for any small motor that's not seized. For now I just sent him the Mercs under 20hp. About two dozen motors to start with. I also found several more Force 9.9hp motors but I think those are keepers.
) Then I realised he was sending these emails from his work PC so in the end I reported him to the local cops . Dunno what happened but I never heard from him again and I sold the parts .