My Thoughts/Observations After Conducting my Own Online Auction

[StarRidgeAcres]

Overall...I'd do it again. And I would encourage others to do the same if they are up to it. Here are some of the pros and cons that have come to my mind since doing it.

Pros:

1. The horses never leave the property so the possibility of injury, catching a virus, trauma of a trailer ride, being in a new place, etc is eliminated. This was a HUGE consideration for me.
2. I had an opportunity to screen potential buyers. Another HUGE consideration for me. I stated in the auction rules that I reserved the right to ask for references PRIOR to accepting the first bid from anyone. As the person running the auction, this added work (so a con) but was well worth it in the end as an owner which made it on the pro side for me.
3. If there was a piece of information I failed to gather on a horse, I could just get it, not like if the horse was already in the ring and then it dawned on me I should have added an important piece of info about the horse. Just add it to the site.
4. Time! I had TIME to get to know people, time to share all the info I had on each horse, time to check references, etc. I didn't feel rushed...well, until the end!lol But that will go in the con section!
   
   
   
5. It cost me nothing but my time to do!
   
   Just a bit for an ad here on LB but it was well worth it!
   
   
   

Cons:

1. The end of the auction is a nightmare - emails, calls, etc. I finally just shut the page down and went through my emails and where there were two bids, I made sure I took the one that was before the end time. But it's a little stressful while it's going on.
2. Can't make everyone happy. Some folks were ticked about not getting a certain horse and some folks were ticked about me asking them for references. Personally, I don't feel responsible for either as I stated in the auction rules that I reserve the right to ask for references and I also clearly stated the end time. But still some folks were upset.
3. It takes time to get the pictures, verbiage, etc ready to go. But really I'd have to do this if I was selling the horse another way, but it is a bit overwhelming to have it ready for all horses at once.
4. Having too few horses to offer a variety. For this reason, I had some other farms join me. I would HIGHLY suggest this approach to anyone considering doing an online auction - buddy up with a couple of other farms to offer more options and share in any advertising costs, etc.
5. The rush at the end!
   
   I don't really know a way to avoid this, so it may just be a hazzard one has to accept.

All in all, I would do it again. I learned some things that will make a future one easier (like if I'm willing to take payments to say that up front - don't make people have to ask) and I sold 8 of my horses to what seem like GREAT homes!

And some folks are still emailing me so I will probably sell a couple more in the process.

If you have horses to sell, have a website, can make your own changes to the site (don't have to pay someone to do it) I would encourage you to buddy up with some of your friends and go for it!! Advertise it here on LB as a feature ad - it's SO worth the exposure you will get! You can't buy advertising like that anywhere else for the $. I also advertised it on Facebook and via some of my friends' sites as well, but LB did the most for me.

If anyone has questions about doing their own, feel free to contact me. It's really a great new option to consider and having survived it (

) I do suggest others try it. There's really nothing to lose but some of your time.

Thanks!

PS: and if you can't make changes to your own site, contact someone like Heather at Marestare and I bet she could offer you some options.

 

[ruffian]

Congratulations!! I was thinking of doing one, but don't have enough of my own to put on a good auction. You're idea of inviting a few other farms is a great one!

 

[Songcatcher]

Thanks for posting your thoughts and experiences. It really gives people something to think about. It seems there have been a lot of online auctions lately. Perhaps others will share their thoughts also.

 

[targetsmom]

Thank you SO much for posting this information!!! And congrats on selling 8 horses (At least)!!! I certainly think that sellers have to be more creative in these challenging times. I have something different planned for next month (don't know how much I can say here....so that is all I will say). I am glad I got Toffee from you the old fashioned way because I think it must be stressful for the potential buyers, not knowing if they got a particular horse.

 

[little lady]

Thanks for the input. I enjoy the online auctions and think it is a great way to go all the way around.

Tagetsmom-When she had Toffe for sale I was eyeballing her for days and when I finally decided to act it was too late. You got a nice one there with an added bonus!

 

[RockRiverTiff]

I've been watching all the online auctions, and I think you're to be commended Parmela for having the most available information on all the horses. It really seemed like full disclosure on your page, and that's pretty unusual for an auction. I can see this becoming very popular in the years to come, but one thing I haven't seen anywhere that would be wonderful is VIDEOS! One benefit of a live auction is that you get to see the horse from all angles, but some of the online auctions have posted horses with just one photo. Pretty much any digital camera can do short video clips now, and it's free to upload them to YouTube. Even if you don't want to invest in more bandwidth on your own site, you can start a new YouTube account, load all the auction horses' videos to it, and then post those links to the auction page.

 

[Holly at WhiteTailsMinis]

Thanks for posting your experience with the online auction. And congrats on selling some horses!

 

[Reble]

Great Ideal, nice to see no reserves.

People could start with a higher starting price, so people have a

good ideal what they need to offer instead of reserves.

Thanks for such a great experience, know watch how many people might need your

help. Excellent action. So glad you did well.

 

[dannigirl]

I thought you did a great job and spent a lot of time making sure all the information was as correct as you could get it. I didn't think about the idea of posting that payment arrangements could possibly be made with seller. I would probably have put that statement on my horses if I had thought about it. Someone said they would not like the stress of not knowing they had the horse. Is it possible to put a "buy it now" price. That price could be up to 50% higher than the starting price--for instance. Just a thought. Don't know how that would work with emailing bids since it would have to apply only to horses that do not have any bids on them yet.

 

[LC Farm]

That is great to read. I would like to have one but not enough horses to make it worth while.

 

[Connie P]

Great info Parmela!

 

[dannigirl]

one other thing. If there are several of you selling on the auction, it may be helpful to a buyer to list the city/state the horses are located. Most of Parmela's were withing a short distance (within few hundred miles) but if you are selling from cross country, this may make a difference and not surprise a buyer that looks at only one place.

 

[Witts Mini Horse Ranch]

Robin, I bet we could get a big one going with the OKIES...the bad part would be...the one person running it....on thier website...I guess you put seperate contact info on each one.

 

[Charlotte]

Parmela, it was good to read your experiences with the online auction. I thought maybe my situation/auction was unique, but my auction experience was almost identical to yours. The end was a nightmare.

I did do one thing which was different from what you did. I don't do my own web site so I arrnaged with my webmaster to make the bid amount changes as I sent them to her. She had them up instantly there at the end, but it was very stressful for me with bids coming in simultaneously and the phone ringing. I would definitely have help here next time during the ending and not be trying to handle all of it by myself.

I did finally have to do what you did and call a halt to it and go with the time of the emails. Some losing bidders were not happy with me so I will make any future auction set up a bit differently.

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I hope it also helps others to understand all of the work that goes into a project like this.

Charlotte

 

[wcr]

Great post and very informational.

Charlotte-what would you do differently at the end?

 

[HGFarm]

Very interesting and good info!!! This is certainly informative! Congrats on your auction results and I dont know any way to avoid the big mess at the end either, but you did survive it, LOL

I love the idea of asking for references too!

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I'm glad folks are finding it helpful!

I do think that adding a "buy it now" price may be a good idea in some instances and also adding a field for city/state/zip of the horse location (if multiple farms are going in together) is a good idea also.

As for the end of the auction, if I do it again (and I believe I will) I will say up front that the ONLY way to bid is via email. It's not fair to those who make an effort to get their bids in early and via the bidder form to allow others to bid via phone. When it's done via phone, there is no data trail to prove the date/time of the bid. Also, I will not put myself through that rush at the end. I will update the site as I can, but will rely on looking at the date/time stamps of the bidder forms as my "final" price. If I lose a few dollars because of it, then so be it.

A suggestion for when multiple farms go in together, yes the entire list of horses would probably only exist on one of the sites, but just make sure that all the advertising points to the one site, make sure there are links to the auction on all "participating" sites. The one person doing the work of uploading the pics, and updating the site can seek renumeration for doing so. You could ask for a flat fee per horse in the auction or a % of the final sale price or some other combination. That way you are compensated for your time and trouble (and do NOT kid yourself - it's time consuming!) and other people get to participate who otherwise wouldn't.

I was asked via email if I felt that some horses sold for less than they would have in a traditional private sale situation. (And I do plan to respond to that well thought out email with GREAT questions, but I'm at work and getting to my personal email is pretty hard, so tonight I will respond.) The answer is yes, I do feel that almost all sold for less than they would have if I'd kept them on my traditional sale page, continued to advertise them on the saleboard and the other options we all use. But I knew that going into it, so for instance, that's why you didn't see a horse like Raven as part of the auction. I believe (I realize other's may disagree) that the horses I sold via the auction (talking about my PERSONAL horses and NOT the horses from other farms) ranged from pet quality to good quality broodmares to one that I believe has National/World potential in the show ring. MOST of them were pet to local level show quality. I can think of five excellent broodmares that I offered at a very, very low starting price. Three sold. The two others probably didn't due to people being scared off by their age. That's OK. I'd just as soon keep them then have them go somewhere where the person is unsure if they made the right decision. Could I have gotten more for the 3 that I sold using a different method? Maybe. You have to decide for yourself if you have the time to put into it. As many know, I have a lot of life changes going on right now so I needed to reduce the number of horses I have due to having the physical space to keep them (I am moving and the new place is less than half the size). This is also probably the worst time of year to sell horses. Spring is obviously the best time - going into winter...not so much.

Another question posed to me was did I feel that my very low starting bids scared any people off. The thinking being if a horse is listed for a starting price of $250 is MUST be of less quality than a horse listed on another auction with a starting price of $2500. My thought is that there may have been a few people who thought that way, but most ( believe) buy like me and I look at the horse and I decide for myself what I think the value is. Maybe I'm going to get a fabulous deal! Maybe I'm being taken for a ride. Both scenarios exist.

It seems to me when the ecomony is in a weakened state, that medium to lower quality horses really take a hit in price and the demand for them is almost non-existant. But the cream of the crop horses still bring top dollar. At least that's the way it seems to me. Maybe that top dollar is now $10,000 instead of $20,000 but it's still good money for the horse.

These online auctions are not for everyone. But if you have to place some and want the peace of mind of being able to screen the buyers, it's a GREAT way to do it. If you either don't have to sell now or don't particuarly care who buys the horse then other options may be better for you.

In the end, it's all about what works best for your situation. This is just another option that more of us have than we realize. My whole point in sharing my experience was to encourage others who previously thought they couldn't do it themselves, to consider that maybe they can.

 

[little lady]

Just as an added note with regards to the prices...if one spends less on a quality horse that may enable them to spend more on training/showing etc.

 

[ruffian]

I thought about something while walking out to the barn -- we HAVE a great on-line auction site that doesn't seem to get used much. In fact there wasn't any horses on it at all the last time I looked. Why? I'm talking about the LC Auction. It's all set up, it's all ready to go, why aren't more people using it?

 

[stormy]

Honestly I have heard people comment on the name of the LB auction site, Last Chance auction...like they can't sell it anywhere else so they list it on the auction as their last chance....

I have purchased and sold horses on the LB auction so do not agree but perception may impact acceptance.