I and my wife Janet (Trotting C Sales) helped manage the Reece Family Sale and it was a great success and I am sure I speak for Toni Reece and her entire family when I say Thank You because the only way it can be a success is by having you folks that are the good consignors and the good buyers. So Thanks To All Of You!!!
Now to the topic of sales. We have worked with Toni at the Reece Family sale since their first one 5 years ago and they do try hard. We also managed the office for all of the Lucky Four Production Sales and have worked the Breeders Winter Classic sale in Fort Worth. We also did the Aloha Acres Dispersal Sale last December in Florida. We also put on the Mount Airy Miniature horse sale 3 times a year, and we have attended most of the other production, dispersal, and consignment sales so we have had some experience in this field. I believe the good production sales as well as the well run consignment sales offer a valuable service to our industry as a whole. The consignment sales such as The Ultimate Event that John Cherry and the IAMHA have, and the Breeders Winter Classic (which I believe has been canceled this year), and I like to think the Mount Airy Miniature Horse sale are all well run and well respected consignment sales that people look forward to and offers farms and breeders a venue to sale there stock without having to be big enough to have their own production sale. I have observed that good horses will bring good prices at most any well run sale while less quality horses will bring poor prices at the same sales. Our buying public has matured to the point they are demanding quality for their money, not like the old days when anything small would bring a big price. An example is, I had a horse consigned to the Mount Airy sale a few years back that had just sold the month before at the World Show sale and it brought $600 more than it did at the world sale but in the same sale were a couple of lesser quality horses that sold for a song, but that is what they were worth. There are some other good sales around that I didn't mention but as we all know there are some that are not so good and it always bothers me to see them all lumped together as if they are all the same.
Here in Texas as in most states the law is that it must be called in the ring. Once the seller allows the auctioneer to final sell the horse and it walks out of the ring the sale is consumated and the sale is final.
Take care and stay in touch.
Just so I understand, and btw didn't know what PO stood for until you just mentioned it, so thanks! So, if I have a horse going through an auction and choose not to set a reserve. The bidding gets up to $1000 and tops out there. The auctioneer says "sold for $1000 to number 4" but the horse is still in the ring. At that moment I, as the owner of the horse, can hold up my hand or in some manner get the auctioneer's attention, and indicate I don't want to sell it for that amount? Do I understand that correctly?
StarRidgeAcres, this depends on the terms and condition of the particular sale as to how no sales are handled. All my sales are as John stated in that you may "No Sale" but must do so before the horse leaves the ring. Other sale may have you set a reserve that the horse must bring but require you to go by that reserve and not "No Sale" in the ring. I prefer the "No Sale" before it leaves the ring because there is many times the seller will change their mind once the bidding is under way or over and decide they will sale or decide that they want more than their original reserve based on the other prices.
Some sales will see horses being passed in the ring, but then buyers go and make a private deal back in the barn. Benefit there is the horse gets sold without a commission being paid on the sale price. That way seller might take a little less than what was announced in the ring, and so buyer gets a good deal--he pays more than the final bid, but less than the required minimum price announced by the seller in the ring.
Of course the sales organizers are well aware of this situation, and some sales explicitly forbid any selling of horses in the barn.
This is a big No-No at any consignment sale I know of and especially at my sales. The sale promoter will likely have invested anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 or more (and likely more towards the higher end) to put the sale on with facility cost, advertising, insurance, labor, supplies, etc... and the consignment and commission is the only way of making back their investment and hopefully a little profit for their efforts. The time effort and money the sale has invested is what brought that seller and that buyer together and to try to cheat the sale out of their part is awfully close to stealing in my opinion. Now at farm production sales where the horses all belong to the same person and the seller and the sale are one and the same this is a different story unless they have contracted a sale company to do the sale on commission.
Just my thoughts on sales from a guy who has seen a few.
By the way John I was not able to make the Ultimate Event Sale this year but have head all good things about it and hope to make it next year.
