I was trying to sell my level 3 sotl but this is the message that appeared on the sell ship tab.

You will be reimbursed 100% the gold coins you spent to create and upgrade this ship. You will also receive the amount for any cannons currently installed. If there is cargo loaded, you will need to manually sell it to receive the cargo value.
You will earn -25,500 gold coins with the sale of this ship.
Click here to sell it

hahaha! Bad deal! Don't sell to that guy, he's ripping you off!

Captain dungeness wrote:hahaha! Bad deal! Don't sell to that guy, he's ripping you off!

or maybe he knows it was built like garbage and is full of holes xD

Even so its wood should be worth SOMETHING, right? I think we need Captain Jack to take a look at it and tell us what it's really worth.

We are aware of these ships. I was even wondering yesterday when a player will come with such an issue in forums.
I don't have the answer on what we should do yet but I know how this issue is created.

If you are a Marquess or higher, you get 10% cheaper upgrades. This amount is removed from the ship value to prevent infinite loop cheating. Then ships may lose levels . Slowly but steady - as you keep upgrading the ship - the ship level gets lower and lower and even below zero.

In my opinion, this is a nice course of events. I also think we should not remove the minus sale value.

Hahaha! It be a cursed ship, mate. You better give it to some unsuspecting pirate before it's too late!

From now on, shipwright owner minimum buy-back price for any ship will be 1 gold coin.

Hahaha, 1 gold coin, I would like to see a level 10 sotl worth 1 gold coin

I lost 1 gold coin once to a treasure hunter. I was distraught for a week.

Hahaha, a sotl worth one gold coin. I'll buy it from you if you need the money juicy hahaha