When is a buyers market just taking the P*ss??

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bespoke

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I have been 'lurking' on here for some time and enjoy reading the posts but today I have decided to post for the first time as I am a tad annoyed (understatement) !!

I am about to put my horse up for sale, due to personal circumstances not through any fault of his own.
I don't want to be 'accused' of advertising on here but have to give you a bit of an idea of what he's like. 16.2, 9 years, done a bit of everything, good to hack, load, clip, bath, shoe, catch, 110%in stable, fab conformation, always placed showing in fact a genuine all rounder, same home last 5 years.

So with all that in mind, one of the girls at the yard called me yesterday to say she knew someone who may be interested in him and what was I asking? I told her and she said oh that's far too much they are only looking to pay £3,500 !!
Now I am not asking a fortune but that's less than I paid for him as a done nothing 4 year old! Apart from being offended, what would you call a buyers market and taking the P?

I am willing to take a sensible offer if needs be, I have a figure in mind and he comes with good quality tack and all rugs, for gods sake that's worth £1000 in itself! Aaaarrrgggghhh!!

Then again am I just not in touch with the current climate, I keep reading on here how it's a buyers market and horses are just not selling??

Your opinions most gratefully received!!
 
He sounds like a really nice horse, but bearing in mind the fact that people are losing their jobs and houses etc. £3500 at the moment seems like a very good price.

Horses are only worth what people are prepared to pay for them and many people now can't or won't pay out huge sums of money for horses.

When you bought him as a 4 year old the economy was probably booming and people had more disposable income. Things in the UK are bad now but will surely get a whole lot worse in the months/years to come.
 
I have to agree with Rueysmum - £3.5 seems a good price atm. There will be a lot of horses out there priced more highly but I think a lot of them are testing the water. We were looking at the end of last year and there were silly high prices about then but we managed to find something reasonably priced. If you want to ask more remember to factor in the costs of keeping your horse for the extra months whilst waiting for that buyer.

Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear.
 
Whilst I do sympathise with your situation, I do think that the person who rung you was probably perfectly within their rights to make cheeky offer - the only thing that can happen is you say no!

I am not saying that your horse is worth the figure she said necessarily, but as a seller, I think that it must be remembered that a horse is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I guess that you can keep advertising him and see, but if there is no interest then you will have to thing about weather the sum you are asking is a accurate reflection of your horse in the current times.
 
I agree... seems like about the market rate. Unless you can get a 'ride' somewhere like the HOYS/ RIHS or it's a particularly hard type to find then the market just won't bare the big prices it once did... horses are expensive to keep so the number of people who can keep them is reduced and those have a huge choice at the moment (Unless you want a broken 15.2 trad cob )

I agree with the previous posters, advertise and see what you get but if you need to sell then you may have to settle for less money..

Blitz
 
I'm going to sound like a cow now but unless he has done alot comepetition wise I think £3500 is a good price, ok, the tack is worth £1000 but I would say £3500 for the horse is at the moment quite a generous offer. A friend has one for sale that sounds very much like yours and she is after £3500 including tack, i have just politely told her that she would be lucky to get that. I know some fab horses for sale at less than this and they are still avaliable. Taking the P**s would be making you an offer of £1500. The market has changed ALOT in the last 2yrs.
 
hmm, I think I'll disagree with the general trend here - good allrounders sell and sell for good money.
I had one few weeks ago, smaller, older, uglier and not keen on jumping - safe hacking, a bit of a dab hand in dressagey things and pleasant to do from the ground, sold him within 3 days for £3.5K - naked so to speak;) Could sell him 5 times over.
Now, take a few years off, add jumping, couple of inches and some comp record, throw in good quality tack and I don't think £5-6K is outrageous, especially if it's nice and safe.

People keep wittering about buyers market, yada, yada, yada.
When you ask how much your horse is worth for sale you get answers adding to not much at all, but if you asked how much you would need to pay for a horse of exactly the same description, the price range suddenly shoots up.
Advertise him at what you think he's worth and see what the future brings - you might be pleasantly surprised.
 
sorry also have to agree with the others - I know we dont know much about him or his comp record etc so can only go by what you have told us, but what you have described is the type of horse I am looking for at the moment and I am pretty sure I will be able to find one for under 3k.
 
Given the article in H&H last week about buying a safe, genuine all rounder RC type I think you should advertise for what you think he's worth and see. You may have to take less but then again you might not.

It's the top and bottom end of the market that has reduced. Good quality, safe, fun horses are still worth what they were a while back.

A good dealer near me is still getting £8k for good quality safe horses - not world beaters with competition points just reliable horses that do a good job (unaff - 1m SJ and prelim dressage).
 
Sorry to hear you have to sell you horse, it can't be an easy time for you.


Unfortunately the only way you will know for sure what he is worth is to advertise him and see what happens. People are very worried at the moment, the economy seems to be dipping again, so it's about the worst time to try to sell. I don't think these people did anything wrong in getting in touch and letting you know their budget - it would have been cheecky to come try him and THEN mention their budget, but as is, they just asked and you can't blame them for that.

As for price, if he does not have a competition record, but is more of a happy allrounder, I would say 4k won't be far off the mark.
 
Actually i don't think they were taking the piss, if you haven't advertised him and they have a budget how were they to know what you wanted for him? You could advertise him with tack available seperately.
 
i think he would be worth at least £4.5k.

i always take valuations on H&H with a pinch of salt- when i sold my 4yro the average price people thought she should be was around £2.5k- i got nearly double that without advertising and could have sold her 10 times over!!
 
To be honest I think anyone will struggle to get more than £5k for a good allrounder with no affiliated record. And it would have to be a good age and very clean/sound/pretty to justify more than about £3500.

There is a wide variety of prices on adverts at the moment, and I think this reflects keeness/need to sell and area of the country.

You need to bear in mind, that while it is useful to the new owner to get all tack and rugs included it may not add a lot value wise. Especially not for an owner who has had similar sized horses before. I think £3000 - £4000 is probably fair for a horse like this, afterall at 9 you are buying the horse standing in front of you not "potential" as you are with a 4 year old. I'd advertise at that sort of price and say "tack and rugs available by negotiation" and you can then chuck them in to clinch the deal if necessary, agree a separate price for them or sell without and sell anything worth selling separately then chuck in what isn't worth selling as a goodwill gesture.
 
It's also worth bearing in mind that there will be a lot of allrounders similar to your horse going on the market at this time, as people are selling up to go to uni.
 
Personally I think you are right. I think a lot of people use the current situation to bring down prices but when they are selling their own it is very different. I have just spent a lot of money on a very nice little allrounder, not world beater but safe, sensible and has done a bit of everything. I looked for over a year and saw a lot of horses and everyone is looking for exactly that and I was beaten to it a number of times and all the horses that sold right up to this month went at a premium price. I think £5000 is a reasonable price for a safe, sensible allrounder and a bit more with all his wardrobe. There will always be people who can afford good horses so stick with it and don't be pressured into taking a very low price. Good luck.
 
Could you put him on sales livery at a yard like mine (a pony that has won at shows but spooks at everything and rears is being sold for 7K - it's unlikely that anything on sales livery on this yard will sell for less than 5K) they compete your horse for you and can advise what they think horse will sell for :D I do think 3.5 is under priced (currently looking for horse similar to yours - with a 3K budget but all the horses similar to yours are 5K+)
 
If I read your post without knowing what you had been ofered I would have said put him up for £4k but be prepared to take £3.5k! What sort of compeating has he done as you dont mention that, if he has affiliated in anything that will make the price higher but if he's just done a bit of low level everything I doubt you would get more than £3.5K unless he has potential or is suitable for pony club?


a friend of mine just sold an amazing horse - lovely, no bad bits, very smart looking, BD'd at novice level, BSJA's newcomers for only £4500, price started off at £7k but she had to come down as she wasn't even getting any phone calls. 5 years ago this was a £10K horse
 
I'd advertise your horse for the price you'd like for him and see what the response is, my experience is that horses are worth aprox 1/2 of their value 2 or 3 years ago.. You may be lucky but you may end up having the horse for a long time and having to readvertise him for lower and lower amounts..

£3500 seems like a very serious offer to me!
 
I'm in the same area as you, and I know a few people who have their horses up for sale. The ones I know are up for between £6k for nice, allrounder riding club types and £15k for a youngster with potential. (None of these have sold though.)

I think that you should price him how you think, put some adds up and see what happens.

To be fair to the girl who offered you the £3.5k, if she didn't know what you were expecting, then for her that was probably a lot of money, and it is possible find a decent allrounder for £3.5k by looking on places like horsequest.
 
£3500 seems a reasonable price unless your horses has won qualifiers or at county level in the show ring.


I'm in Herts and horses are still selling for reasonable money here.

Maybe ask for £4500 with tack etc.
 
Oh dear looks like I am out of touch with the market then?

Have looked at horses like him to help me come to a figure, on horse mart/quest/deals & hound and 3.5 seems to buy a much younger horse, just backed or with average looks/conformation etc.

I am not asking a heck lot more than this, but I too read the article in last weeks H&H and he really seems to match what they are talking about, then again maybe their research for the article is out of date re prices?

I read posts on here all the time about how people can't load or catch their horse, get it to go in an outline, jump, hack out or it's got sweet itch, weaves, box walks, bolts and the list goes on, surely a horse that doesn't do any of the above is worth something even in the current climate?!!!

I will go ahead and advertise him see how it goes, and hope I am not living in la la land!!!
 
He sounds like a really nice horse, but bearing in mind the fact that people are losing their jobs and houses etc. £3500 at the moment seems like a very good price.
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Ditto that. £3,500 sounds bang on to me!
 
You are not living in La La Land. My sister has been looking for a horse like yours for the past month or so. Please can all the people who have said that £3,500 is a fair price please let me know where you are seeing the horses advertised at this price:)

We saw a 6yo thast had done some RC stuff, pretty green - but a nice horse - they wanted £7k for it and it sold in a day. Other horse at £6k that when we went to see them we refused to get on as they were quiet scary.

This buyers market is la la land
 
I totally agree with DD. Where the hell are all the nice safe allrounders for £3.5K???? Certainly not round here. I looked for ages for one for a friend who had a budget of that, and we did eventually find one but she ended up with something that hadn't done a lot at all.

I would definitely advertise for £6 - £7K if you are including tack and rugs.
 
ditto - yard has just sold a 16.1 mare, 5, backed, been out a couple of times and placed local dressage, XC schooled and been out SJ CR etc. She went quickly for over £7K. Mare was geniunely unspoilt and was definately a good event prospect but there was a lot of interest.

I would have a look at H&H, Horsedeals and Horsequest for ideas. Money goes up in direct response to what your horse can do, so if he is a good all rounder, get him out to local dressage, go unaffiliated BSJA etc - it really increases your horses value.
 
£3.500 for a genuine safe sound alrounder is not a lot to me, especially with tack thrown in.I paid £4.800 for a 14.2 welsh cob that is a very safe nice alrounder and he was worth every penny.Seller had been offered £4000 and wouldn't accept.When you think how much it costs to keep them over the years why not pay a bit more and get something decent.
 
bespoke said:
I read posts on here all the time about how people can't load or catch their horse, get it to go in an outline, jump, hack out or it's got sweet itch, weaves, box walks, bolts and the list goes on, surely a horse that doesn't do any of the above is worth something even in the current climate?!!!
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My horse was an absolute s**t today - I'll gladly do a swap if you fancy it ;) :D :D
 
I would say start at where you think you should, and don't include the tack - you can always add the tack in and come down later. If you sold quickly at a lower price you'd know you'd under valued him. Yes, it is more of a buyers market BUT the good ones are hard to find, and IME there are people out there with the budget that do want to spend it, if there's someone to whom he appeals then he will sell quickly.
 
bespoke said:
16.2, 9 years, done a bit of everything, good to hack, load, clip, bath, shoe, catch, 110%in stable, fab conformation, always placed showing in fact a genuine all rounder, same home last 5 years.
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TBH, I read this bit and thought 'about £3k' so to be offered £3,500 is a good offer, especially in this market. I'd take it!
 
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