A little venting

[vickie gee]

I haven't even been looking at the sales board in some time (shocking, I know), so I've not seen the ad. However, as described, it doesn't offend me a bit. It's ironic that a thread "against" it is probably really just additional advertising as people go to find the ad

I thought the same thing AND such great instructional material to rookies like me who have never advertised or sold a horse. See, I thought to "make room for the foals" was TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. Duh. So much to learn, so little time.

 

[Connie P]

It is always best to never judge another. You just never know when something may arise in your own life to change things in a big hurry. I know this first hand. I have had some pretty hard knocks in life. I personally do not think this ad is offensive in any way.

I do not take offense to anybody's ad's. As another person wrote "if I don't like the ad, I just skip over it". No biggie.

 

[Becky]

Selling these days in a poor economy requires some creative advertising. I certainly wasn't offended by the ad and in fact, the ad drew me to it by the way it was worded. Creative indeed!

 

[Southern_Heart]

Wow

as if we don't have better things to do or better things to talk about than flame someones ad.

I took no offense to that ad at all........

Having said that I'm going to go love on my horses.

They don't judge people at all.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I wasn't really offended by it but I also had a different viewpoint now. I've always looked at those "divorce" "lost my job" etc ads and thought "why can't you just say you have some horses for sale?" But now having gone through a divorce that I NEVER imagined I'd be going through and having experienced the difficulty first-hand of caring for a farm, and all that goes along with it, as a single woman, I actually "get" those ads. Those people are saying "I wouldn't be selling if it weren't for..."

Now, having said that, I've not once said the word "divorce" in any of my sale ads. I don't even thing I've said anything related to life changes. But the reality is I wouldn't be offering as many horses if it weren't for the circumstance. But on the other hand, I do think there are folks that may use excuses sometimes to get attention or whatever.

One ad I will ALWAYS pass over? The one that starts out "Need to make room for upcoming foals." I will never read past that line.

The ad in reference didn't bother me. Some I have thought were making fun at other people's misfortune, but this wasn't one of them in my opinion.

 

[jegray21]

Interesting conversation...Never good to judge each other but I do find it interesting that the adds always seem to have a lot of personal information in them. Honestly I would buy the horse whether or not the seller was having a personal crisis or not if I liked it and the price was right. In times like these we need to be supportive of each others struggles. just my opinion

 

[Marty]

No no no!

No picking on da Songcatcher!

FREELAND ROCKS!

 

[gvpalominominis]

I wasn't offended either... cause... I've used the same type of saying... in my LB ad before = ) I take pride in that I practice selective and restrictive breeding (planned parenthood) and with all due respect, believe there should probably be a lot more breeders practicing that... especially in these times. As a breeder, I keep trying to shoot for better with each breeding, but we of course can't keep them all.

Here's to everyone... hoping for a better 2010 for sales and economy!

 

[Yaddax3]

People have been mentioning what turns them off in an ad.

So, now I'm curious.

What keeps you riveted?

 

[LaVern]

I loved Little Kings Make Me an Offer. Brought back the old way of horse dealing.

 

[RockRiverTiff]

People have been mentioning what turns them off in an ad.
So, now I'm curious.

What keeps you riveted?

Good pictures! Honestly, if the horse in the ad catches my eye, then all the ad needs to be is a link to their website. I'd much rather see the horses and judge their assets for myself than read about them.

 

[k9mini2]

OK I very rarely post anything here, but I just saw an ad on the sale board that I find tacky. I goes on to say We have not been sick, not getting a divorce etc etc. The ad goes on and on with the not's
I take it as putting people down who are experiencing difficulties in their lives and are explaining why they are selling.

Yes I know there are some people who post some tragedy when in fact that isn't the real reason they are selling.

But there are people out there who are experiencing some of these sad life changing event. I just seems very insensitive to me.

I have seen this type of ad multipal times from different people over the past year or two and just finally got irritated enough to post this... I am not making a point of just this one person. My reaction is to this one and all the ones I have previously seen that give me that.." OH thats real tacky" reaction.

Thanks for letting me vent. Maybe I am over sensitive.

I will say again, I was not just pointing out one certain person, it just so happened this latest ad over the last couple of years that has bothered me. I guess sensitivity to people who are having misfortune is not stylish these days.

 

[Songcatcher]

I will say again, I was not just pointing out one certain person, it just so happened this latest ad over the last couple of years that has bothered me. I guess sensitivity to people who are having misfortune is not stylish these days.

Sensitivity to others should always be the norm. Again I apologize to anyone my ad may have offended. It was certainly not my intention to do so. I have edited the introduction to my ad in a way that I hope is more sensitive and yet gets the point across that I have good horses for sale without being desperate to dump them.

 

[Sunny]

I've only read the replies on the first page, but I just wanted to say that I've never understood why people feel a need to give a reason WHY they're selling their horses anyway. What difference does it make?! If I want to sell a horse or two or twelve, it's no one's business whether my health is bad or I'm going through a divorce or any other life situation. If I want to sell a horse, I should be able to (and do) just post the pertinent information and be done with it. I also think that by giving information about a personal crisis, some people are tempted to swoop in and offer an insultingly low price because they think the seller may be desperate and, to me, that's just wrong. JMO

 

[Sandee]

Sensitivity to others should always be the norm. Again I apologize to anyone my ad may have offended. It was certainly not my intention to do so. I have edited the introduction to my ad in a way that I hope is more sensitive and yet gets the point across that I have good horses for sale without being desperate to dump them.

IMO, no need to apologize nor change your ad. I understood exactly what you were trying to say the first time.

What I can't understand is why people have to get their knickers in a bind over a trivial thing and then publicize it.

 

[horsehug]

I'm with Renee! I LOVED the Little Kings "Lets make a deal sale!!"

It was so much fun and so exciting! And it truly was a chance to get FANTASTIC horses at FANTASTIC prices!!

And Songcatcher, I liked your ad the way it was! I did not see it as mean spirited at all!

Susan O.

 

[Minimor]

I also was not in any way offended by the ad in question. I thought it was kind of cute, and made me think about all the ads that do list off any of those problems as a reason for offering horses for sale--I can see that with so many 'desperate to sell because' ads (and yes, any of the "forces" sale ads, such as 'divorce forces sale' or 'ill health forces sale' do have an air of desperation about them--and I always think that must lead to some people making ridiculously low offers, because they think/hope the seller is really so desperate to sell that they will take any low offer just to move the horse)--but anyway, with so many of those sorts of ads out there, a plain sale ad for a farm that wants to sell some horses without any underlying reason of desperation almost seems out of place. Like Leia said, I bet that those farms do get a bit frustrated sometimes with potential buyers who think that they should be so anxious to sell they will almost give their horses away.

It seems like everyone in the world is having a fire sale because they've got some terrible reason they can no longer keep their horses and they'll drop the prices quite low to accommodate that. For someone who is selling their horses because that's what they do and they want to make a profit (you know, like most horse breeders used to before the economy tanked? ) I bet it gets pretty frustrating having people expect you to sell the horse for half of what it's worth or less because they assume you're having problems.

As for the question of what keeps me interested in an ad--good photos. Good photos of horses that look like they're actually the right horses described in the ad! Sometimes I will read through an ad & then look at the photo and think surely they must have clicked on the wrong photo, because that horse doesn't look anything like his description!!

While it has never bothered me to inquire on a price of a horse I like, I won't have anything to do with the ads which say "make me an offer". Why not? Because I wouldn't like to offend anyone by making an offer of $1500 on a horse the seller is thinking of as an $18000 horse.

 

[WhiteTailsMinis]

I haven't even been looking at the sales board in some time (shocking, I know), so I've not seen the ad. However, as described, it doesn't offend me a bit. It's ironic that a thread "against" it is probably really just additional advertising as people go to find the ad

I thought the same thing AND such great instructional material to rookies like me who have never advertised or sold a horse. See, I thought to "make room for the foals" was TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. Duh. So much to learn, so little time.

I'm guilty for mentioning the upcoming foals in my recent ad - BUT - I am advertising 4 colts. We keep the fillies for our future breeding to carry our farm name. We have 6 mature stallions in our breeding program so we certainly want to move the colts born in '09. How many boys does any one farm need? Aren't all farms wanting to move their colts from one foaling season to the next? We're bound to get more colts in this foaling season - I haven't learned the trick yet to guarentee I only get fillies LOL

With that said, I'm not giving them away as they are still quality bred colts. Selling them for 500 and 600 bucks does not help the miniature industry! I've got plenty of land and plenty of food and water to care for them - - so why would mentioning upcoming foals make someone NOT want to read the rest of my ad? I guess I need to be educated on the do's and don'ts of LB advertising?

I did not take offense in the ad at all. I understood where she was coming from because people think with this economy that anyone advertising is needing to sell so bad that they are willing to give them away - and that isn't truly the case for every ad.

 

[Minimor]

so why would mentioning upcoming foals make someone NOT want to read the rest of my ad?

The general thinking is, if a farm is offering sale horses at reduced prices (and that's often what the farm is doing when they word the ad something to the effect of "must sell to make room for the new foal crop") then maybe they're raising more horses than they can readily sell, and that being the case they shouldn't be breeding more. Even if you aren't "giving away" your colts in order to move them, many farms DO offer their "left over" horses from the previous years at giveaway prices just so that they reduce numbers to make room for the new foals, and that's why there is such a negativity associated with that particular wording in ads.
I do realize that in some cases a farm doesn't even really mean the ad the way many people take it--it's just that they don't think about how it comes across to some, and use it as an advertising gimmick--a reason to offer some horses for sale when they don't have any real reason to sell, other than that they are in the business of selling. Because I do know that some farms that use that wording aren't actually dumping their horses the way the ad makes it sound like they are, the wording doesn't really bother me that much--but obviously there are a large number of people who do dislike the implication of that wording, and in view of that it's something to avoid when advertising horses for sale.

 

[minie812]

WOW, Holy-Moley I am sooooo guilty of having bad health (I have a doc for every organ-bone & joint in my body) but GOOD doctors fixed me right up...AGAIN

I was ready to sell out and call it quits and never have another horsey or any animal for that matter. Drug this old body out to the barn & looked at my little minis and said...NOPE, can't do it! Sold off a few and turned around and bought another stallion and so it goes. I don't take offense to the ads that get posted about health-divorce-lost job-vet bills and stuff after all I have been there too and feel fortunate (I ain't dead yet)...