How it works
Marine gear with work still in it, sold between people who know what it is.
The short version
You list your gear for nothing. A buyer pays, and the money is held until they have the item in their hands. Then it goes to you. That's the whole arrangement.
Castoffs is a UK marketplace for secondhand and clearance marine gear — the replacement cleat, the missing sixteen inches of exhaust, the half-set of fenders, the ex-demo outboard. Sellers are private boat owners and marine trade. Buyers are the people who need that exact part and can't find it locally.
It costs nothing to list and nothing to browse. We charge the buyer a transaction fee when a sale actually happens, and that is the only fee on a standard sale.
Buying
Step 1: Find it
Browse or search by category without an account. When you find the thing, the listing shows the condition, the seller, their reviews, and exactly which delivery options they offer with the postage cost already worked out.
Step 2: Ask, if you need to
Message the seller through the site before you commit. Ask the age, the spec, whether it fits your boat. Nobody has to hand over a phone number or email address to have that conversation.
Step 3: Pay — held until you confirm
You need an account to buy, because the money is held until you confirm and that means we need to know who you are. At checkout you pick from the delivery options that seller offers. The seller isn't paid until you confirm.
Step 4: Get the gear, then release the money
The seller posts it with tracking, or you collect it in person. When it arrives and it's what you expected, you confirm — and the seller gets paid. If you say nothing, the money releases on its own after the window closes, so a busy seller isn't left waiting forever.
Step 5: Leave a review
Both sides review each other. Neither review appears until you've both written one or seven days have passed, so nobody is writing a reply rather than an opinion.
Selling
Step 1: List it — free, always
Photos, an honest description, a price, a category. Say what's wrong with it as well as what's right; this audience can tell, and the review system remembers. There is no listing fee, no relisting fee, and no fee for it sitting there unsold.
Step 2: Choose how it can travel
You tick the carriers you're actually willing to use and give the parcel size. We price each option at the carrier's own published rate, so you're not guessing and the buyer isn't being stung. Anything big or awkward — outboards, anchors, spars — goes as collection only.
Step 3: Sell it and send it
You'll see the sale on your dashboard with the buyer's address ready to copy. Post it and enter the tracking number — that's required, because tracking is what proves the thing moved. For collection sales, message the buyer and sort out a time.
Step 4: Get paid
Money lands in your bank account once the buyer confirms receipt, or automatically after the backstop window. Payouts run through Stripe, so you'll do a short identity and bank setup the first time — that's a legal requirement for anyone taking payments, not a Castoffs invention.
Selling as a business
Chandleries, riggers and brokers can take a Pro account at £39 a month: a storefront page carrying all your stock, trade-facing tools, and no per-listing cost. Pro is for registered marine businesses — we can ask for evidence and withdraw it. More about Pro.
Getting it to you
Marine gear runs from a 50-gram shackle to a 40-kilo outboard, so there is no single sensible way to move it. The seller decides which carriers they'll work with; you pick from that list at checkout.
- Royal Mail (tracked), Evri, InPost lockers, DPD, Yodel— priced at the carrier's published rate for the parcel size, added at checkout.
- Collection in person— free, and often the only realistic option for anything heavy. Your payment is still held exactly as it would be for a posted item; you confirm once you've seen the gear and taken it away.
Postage goes to the seller, who buys the label. We take no cut of it and add no margin to it.
The money
Listing is free.It always is. We don't charge you to put something up, to leave it up, or to put it up again.
The buyer pays a transaction fee of 5% + £0.75 on the item price, added at checkout. It is not deducted from the seller, and it is not charged on the postage. For a £40 pump that is £2.75.
That fee is what it costs us to run a sale— holding the money until the gear arrives, sorting it out with both of you if it doesn't, and covering the card processing.
Pro accounts are £39 a month for marine businesses who want a storefront and trade tools. Optional, and nothing to do with standard selling.
If something goes wrong
Start by messaging the other person. Most problems are a misunderstanding about spec, timing, or what “good condition” meant, and they get sorted in two messages.
If that doesn't work, raise a claim while the money is still held. We look at the evidence from both sides and aim to decide within five working days of having a fully evidenced claim. Because the funds haven't moved, we can refund the buyer directly rather than trying to chase money back afterwards — which is the entire point of doing it this way.
What belongs here
Castoffs is deliberately not a marine version of the big general platforms. Listings have to be secondhand, chandlery clearance, ex-demo or off-cut, or genuinely one-off stock. Bulk drop-shipped commodity goods are prohibited, and while we're this small a person reads every listing that goes up.
Whole vessels aren't sold here — anything with a cabin or accommodation belongs somewhere else. Dinghies and tenders under five metres are fine. Flares, pyrotechnics, banned antifouling and damaged batteries are never allowed, for reasons that need no explaining to anyone who's handled them.
The full detail is in the terms. The short version is that we would rather have a smaller marketplace that's worth trusting.