Value of Johnson TD-20? Like new.

[minnbobber]

Hi,
I have my father’s Johnson Seahorse TD-20. It was only used on about 5 one-week family lake vacations in the early 1950s.
I used it once on a boat rental in about 1985 and it ran fine.

How much is it worth? I have searched all over and found some poor/very poor condition TD 20s that sold for a good chunk of change. What would this be worth?

I’m going to have some pictures soon.
MinnBobber

[chris-p]

Well, its worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

There is a write up regarding this on the home page of the site. Might be worth more to your family, as someone wont pay for sentiment.

Condition and location are everything.

In reality though, and without being rude, the TDs and TNs are very common motors, and are usually given away, at our meets. Usually you cannot even give them away. Which means they sold well though, as they were a good idling, great fishing motor.

[gjonz]

They are greatly underrated outboards, but OMC must have built gobs of them.

They are indeed very common, but an original in great or near perfect condition may fetch a 100 or 200 buck on the right day.

Most have a dented tank and need some work. And don’t believe the prices on Craigslist as people think old, or antique equals $$$$. And anyone who pay for sentimentality as mentioned above is fiscally foolish. It’s still just another motor to the average buyer.

But I love these little motors. Very reliable.

Good luck!

Greg

[legendre]

If it’s truly "mint" with no missing / damaged parts and original paint & decals totally un-faded and unblemished, I’d say $200 is a very fair price. The year is also somewhat important, as the earlier decals were a bit more stylish & zoomy than the later. And this is just a ‘wonder’, but they may also have changed the green paint color over the years, and one of the greens is more attractive in my view..

It’s true that they made gobs of them, but every one I’ve ever seen has been pretty well used – and there’s a very good reason for that. Same thing with old Martin guitars.. the dang things just ran so sweet that they never got left alone..

So this may well be one of those cases where the model itself is very common (perhaps even ubiquitous) but truly mint and original examples are very hard to locate. Prime examples will always pull good money, much better than the average condition $50-75 units.

ETA: I sold one about 2-3 months ago for $120. It was very complete and orig., ran like a top, but had faded paint and some small tank dents. Decals were OK. Considering how much time & money it would take to +fake+ it back to "mint", that extra $80 seems like a cool breeze!

[1946zephyr]

It also depends on location too. Some areas fetch more for motors, than others.

Johnson put as many fishermen on the water, with the TD, as Henry Ford put people on the road with the model T. Oddly enough though, even after almost 70 years, the TD is still very common.

[kevinrude]

quote 1946Zephyr:

the TD is still very common.

Yep, the Chevy Cavalier of post-war outboards.

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