Is there a market for second hand horsey stuff?

E

eatonbraynat

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 July 2009
Messages
400
Visit site
I am wondering how many of us regularly buy used tack and equipment? The second hand shop 'Catlips' always seems busy and people regularly talk about it. If there were other second hand shops about would people be interestedin going to them? How would you feel about using a second hand online store which offered postage for items? Many thanks
 
I think that's a really good idea, there are so many horsey items that are just as good secondhand.
 
Definitely! I'm always looking online to buy and sell stuff, and I regularly go to secondhand sales when I see them advertised.

Might be kinda hard to run a shop, but I'm sure it'd be busy if in the right area and offering the right stuff for the right price!

Do you mean postage to send items in or for them to be sent to you? I'd be happy to pay a reasonable postage price on top of the cost of buying, but if I were sending things in I'd like a quote for the item which includes postage cost.
 
I buy much of my stuff second hand, but from what I can tell, I'm in a minority. Most people these days seem to want new and shiny.

This is a general observation, but it applies to equestrian stuff too. My local tip has loads of perfectly good horsey stuff come in - used, but good quality, heading straight for land-fill, but the shops are full of synthetic crap which won't last half as long.
 
tashcat said:
Definitely! I'm always looking online to buy and sell stuff, and I regularly go to secondhand sales when I see them advertised.

Might be kinda hard to run a shop, but I'm sure it'd be busy if in the right area and offering the right stuff for the right price!

Do you mean postage to send items in or for them to be sent to you? I'd be happy to pay a reasonable postage price on top of the cost of buying, but if I were sending things in I'd like a quote for the item which includes postage cost.
Click to expand...

I was thinking postage for things people bought off me. Ie just like robinsons for example but instead of new our products would be second hand. :)
 
I'd buy 2nd hand but probably not from a shop. As theyd still need to make a profit. If I wanted something cheap I'd rather buy from the previous owner to get it cheaper and know it's history

But I do prefer to buy new
 
I would personally much rather buy lovely quality second hand tack and rugs than cheap rubbish that won't last the month and I'll have to then go and have replaced or repaired (Costing me more in the long run). I again, think I'm in the minority. A lot of my friends and the ladies who are on my yard won't consider anything secondhand. Their loss I suppose! I find hunting for second hand stuff really enjoyable - I love getting a bargain!
 
I buy second-hand and new.
biggest issue for me regarding mail-order is assessing the quality and fit of the item - my idea of 'good condition' may be very different to other people's so I much prefer handling the items before deciding to buy.
 
I certainly do I don't have the money to buy new and would rather by quality 2nd hand than cheap poor quality new stuff I just wish there were a horsey car boot or that one of the local tack shops / equestrian centres traded 2nd hand gear near me as it would be much preferred to buying and selling on flea bay especially as there fees are getting a bit much it use to be ok when it first started but nowhere near as good now. Plus always nice to be able to view the goods when buying 2nd hand. I am considering doing some research in local area to see if worth setting up a local tack trading club as soo many yards / private owners and tack shops in area
 
The problem i've found particularly when selling my good quality second hand stuff is that no one wants it, they want the cheap and tacky new stuff. I've been trying to sell some of my good quality stuff for months now (shockhemohle, stubben, keiffer, eskardron, passier, lemiuex, kingsland, equiport etc), i've reduced the prices hugely so I'm selling everything at a huge loss and i think i've finally worked out why. The market is currently flooded (particularly on fb where I am trying to sell) with these 'new' tackshops that only sell gallop/rhinegold/unbranded for as cheap as possible, therefore people are wanting to buy a cheap £20 turnout instead of spending £40 on a used rambo turnout. People seem to want new and cheap nowadays not second hand good quality.

It's a bit of a no win situation at the moment. I have sent an awful lot of quality usable stuff to the tip when I sold my bigger horses and moved yards to somewhere with less storage because even after a year of tirelessly advertising it on fb/preloved/ebay/BD classifieds I was barely selling anything. My house isn't huge and neither my garage so I couldn't keep it all any longer. I find now the only way to shift it is to sell at a huge loss or bin it which is a bit sad really :(
 
I'd much rather go for quality second hand BUT don't have the time to trawl eBay, preloved, FB groups etc. If it was sourced by someone then all advertised together on one website I'd definitely be interested!
 
I've both bought and sold equestrian items on e-bay and Preloved.

Locally we have two very good used/secondhand tack shops plus an occasional car boot sale for equestrian items. I bought a L&R saddle at the car boot for fifty quid using a saddle template I'd made up from a cardboard box - brought it home, and it fitted!! Just needs a few tweaks which a saddler is doing right now. I would not have bought a saddle unseen though as my boy is notoriously hard to fit and the advantage was that I could see the saddle and try out the template on it, so was prepared to take a punt.

But I wouldn't buy a treed saddle without actually seeing it first: was badly stung when I bought a Wintec with CAIR on E-bay and I didn't realise until much later that the CAIR was totally defunct, when it was far too late to be able to do anything about it.

Having said that, I have bought several treeless saddles on-line, but only because I was buying a branded make like Barefoot and so knew exactly what I'd be getting.
 
I frequently look for second hand things, my long boots were second hand, best bargain out there! Leather goods especially.

However I do find some people want more than it's worth. I've recently been looking at boots to turn out my accident prone horse in, and ended up buying new Premier Equine ones because it worked out the same price with their sale. I saw a lot of seriously tatty dirty ripped up boots that I certainly wouldn't pay £20 for.
 
Yes definitely. Am currently selling 3 saddles but people seem to want cr*p for peanuts. Like Polos already discounted to silly amounts but FB peeps seem to want everything for nothing and can't believe some of the cheeky offers! Next stop is Ebay but having had a couple of really bad experiences which to be fair I think are down to thieving couriers I am reticent.

Second hand tack shop in the area closed down ages ago and was always my go to place especially when kidult was young.
 
There is a shop close to me which sells secondhand equestrian items, it seems pretty busy, she advertises on facebook also which I think helps. It's the clothes horse (in Washington, Tyne & Wear)
 
I struggle to sell my good quality used horse things eg rugs even though the prices are low. I have tried eBay, Preloved and an equine car boot sale. I'm thinking of passing them to a business to sell on commission.
 
There are loads of Facebook groups where people will advertise second hand stuff and it almost always seems to get attention - with the exception of rugs. People are always looking and people are always selling but it's like no one has the right size horse...

The thing is these are normal local groups so even though the people don't know each other, they can realistically go and pick the stuff up. Posting seems unpopular.

Saying that, absolutely tonnes of second hand equestrian goods on ebay... So why not just use that?!
 
I wonder if it might be worth having an HHO 2nd hand selling fb page?

It sounds like loads of us have really good stuff to sell but can't be bothered with dealing with idiots on fb or the extortionate fees on eBay.

Thoughts?
 
Polos said:
The problem i've found particularly when selling my good quality second hand stuff is that no one wants it, they want the cheap and tacky new stuff. I've been trying to sell some of my good quality stuff for months now (shockhemohle, stubben, keiffer, eskardron, passier, lemiuex, kingsland, equiport etc), i've reduced the prices hugely so I'm selling everything at a huge loss and i think i've finally worked out why. The market is currently flooded (particularly on fb where I am trying to sell) with these 'new' tackshops that only sell gallop/rhinegold/unbranded for as cheap as possible, therefore people are wanting to buy a cheap £20 turnout instead of spending £40 on a used rambo turnout. People seem to want new and cheap nowadays not second hand good quality.

It's a bit of a no win situation at the moment. I have sent an awful lot of quality usable stuff to the tip when I sold my bigger horses and moved yards to somewhere with less storage because even after a year of tirelessly advertising it on fb/preloved/ebay/BD classifieds I was barely selling anything. My house isn't huge and neither my garage so I couldn't keep it all any longer. I find now the only way to shift it is to sell at a huge loss or bin it which is a bit sad really :(
Click to expand...

I find this too, I am advertising nice things nearly new but people don't seem to see that its a £100 rug for £50 all they see is a £50 rug when they can buy a new one for £25. The timewasters are just epic

In saying that I did a about six weeks of buying at auction to sell on and that worked very well and funded about 80% the purchase of my (very cheap) 3.5t horsebox. As it was bought at auction prices I was more easily able to sell it on. there are certain things that sell well and things that dont and when I learned this I batched the poor sellers up and sold those as job lots
 
eatonbraynat said:
I am wondering how many of us regularly buy used tack and equipment? The second hand shop 'Catlips' always seems busy and people regularly talk about it. If there were other second hand shops about would people be interestedin going to them? How would you feel about using a second hand online store which offered postage for items? Many thanks
Click to expand...
Why don't you do a horsey car boot. We just did one and raise £160 for Prince Fluffy Kareem - loads cars there and loads of people donated things at end of the sale to us to resell next time. People are so generous giving so many things including a leather saddle to resell loads leather girths etc we had my huge trailer overflowing almost so we came back with more than we started + raised money for charity
http://www.horseycarboot.co.uk/
 
Last edited:
minkymoo said:
I wonder if it might be worth having an HHO 2nd hand selling fb page?

It sounds like loads of us have really good stuff to sell but can't be bothered with dealing with idiots on fb or the extortionate fees on eBay.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Fantastic idea!
 
I am torn between second hand and new. In the past I have always bought second hand or in a sale and sold things on when no longer needed. I am changing though. The only things I have found which sell now are immaculate turnout rugs for aprox 20 saddles for 50-100 regardleds of brand and job lots of tack and rugs. With the time and hassle selling a bridle for a tenner I wished I binned it instead. I advertise cash on collection or give a price which includes postage to reduce timewasters, I put all details in the ad and do not answer queries unless it is when to come collect it.

To buy I am changing to new and this is partly due to the problems selling on when I no longer need it. If looked after I find cheap stuff does last a fair while and I do not feel so precious about it getting dirty damaged borrowed or stolen. I find people are becomming less honest sellers. Almost all rugs I have bought second hand have turned out to be badly repaired and rip with one use, have damaged buckles or be poorly cleaned. Saddles I have had some bargains but also broken trees, very uneven flocking, 15" sold as 17". I have had bits measured wrong too. In one case a bridle made of pieces that did not match with 3/4" headpiece forced into 5/8" cheekpiece buckles. It has all put me off. People put any old tatty or broken rubbish up for sale and say it is good condition. When I can go to Robinsons or similar and kit a new horse out with tack and rugs for about 250 why bother with the hassle of trawling websites like eBay and hoping the goods are correctly described. Ok the new stuff will not last forever but it gives the buzz of buying something shiney and new, is quick and hassle free to buy, will last a few years and if I want to sell it on the price I get for it is fair not the huge loss it would be with quality branded stuff.

Having said that if there was a second hand tack shop where I could see the goods I would always be in there browsing and would buy anything I thought looked useful or a bargain. I cannot believe people are throwing good stuff on the tip, that is so sad and wasteful but I understand why it happens.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top