Selling saddle on Craigslist?

[Chickerdoodle13]

My dad has had good luck selling saddles on craigslist. We've never sold anything super expensive, just mostly saddles between $100 and $200. They get swept up like crazy because we have so many riding barns and trail riding places around here. They buy up saddles like crazy, especially cheap ones. If your saddle is an expensive one, you might run into more of an issue with people wanting to try it out before buying. If it is a less expensive, used saddle, people are usually willing to just buy it up and take a risk. A couple times people asked my dad to borrow it to try and he usually turned them down unless it was a friend. There was always someone else willing to buy without a trial period.

What I would do is ask for money up front, and write up a "contract" sort of thing giving them an amount of time they have to return the saddle for a refund. I would not let anyone try out the saddle without giving full price for it, unless they were close and you would be willing to bring the saddle to them to try.

I used to give refunds to people who bought chicks from me, but too many people took advantage of it so I started writing up posters and contracts stating they could bring the chick/bird back but I would not issue a refund. Sometimes offering a refund is a good thing, but sometimes people take advantage of it and you don't want to get screwed over either. Just be very clear in your ad about your policies. Also, receipts for bigger priced items are a really, really good idea.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I'd have them pay the full price with the condition that if they take it home and try it out and find it not suitable they can return it for a full refund. A week is ample time to try out a saddle. I bought a saddle off of CL, I'm not all that savvy so I really wouldn't know what would fit my horse unless I tried it out. I'd make a little contract that both of you sign and keep a copy that specifies what condition the saddle is in and how long the buyer can try the saddle out for. I'd try just selling it first without a return policy and only do the return policy if you have trouble selling it.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Whip light, drive slow, pay cash, before you go.

Cash, cash, cash.

NO CASHIER'S CHECKS - CASH CASH CASH.

Craigslist sounds like a SUPER way to meet serial killers!

Put it on consignment in the tack shop and let them keep the 10% or whatever commission for handling the hassle - make sure they sign an agreement to give you the selling price of the saddle if it goes out on trial and does not come back.

FAR less worry and far fewer serial killers.

 

[patandchickens]

Some tack shops take as much as 40% commission, though; and if your saddle does not match their usual inventory it can potentially sit there for a looong time without selling, whereas with Craigslist you can drop the price if you need it gone soon.

So sometimes that's a better option, and sometimes not.

People who don't want to invite Craigslist serial killers to their homes

quite frequently arrange to meet them in a public place e.g. donut shop parking lot or so forth, not a big deal generally.

Cannot emphasize the cash thing enough though! Cashiers check or money order is NO GOOD, has to be Ben Franklins and so forth, and not a bad idea to refresh your memory on the most obvious things to look for in terms of counterfeiting.

Pat

 

[jettgirl24]

Oh I definitely don't have them to my house. I always meet in a public place with my very large MMA fighter boyfriend at my side

I've sold enough on Craigslist I feel like I've got the logistics part down, just never sold anything that someone woudl want to try first.

I'll definitely be asking for cash up front, maybe let them return it within 24 hours if it doesn't fit. Definitely not giving them more that 24 hours though - too much risk for wear and tear. I'm gonna try Craigslist first and see how it goes, then maybe consign if I need to. I've decided to sell my Klimke dressage AND the nice Crosby all purpose that I used to event in so I can turn around and get a nicer new dressage saddle. I figure I haven't used my jumping saddle in at least 7 years, it doesn't fit any of my hroses, and I have no plans to leave the dressage arena anytime soon (or ever

) so I might as well sell it now while it's still in next to new condition despite it's age. They're very nice saddles so they'll definitely be above the $300 or $400 mark but we're not talking $2000 either so hopefully I'll get some bites!

 

[welsummerchicks]

SOOOOO...what kind of saddle are you going to get when you get all those sold?

 

[seymore0626]

I had someone come to buy eggs and produce with bogus bills!!! Be careful!!!! I liked the doberman advice.....

 

[mandelyn]

Selling on CL is easy!

- Take good photos, up close, so that when CL shrinks them for the site, you can still see the item clearly.
- Provide a contact phone number, some people won't respond to email only adds because of selling scams.
- Know the value of the item you're selling, and price it right around "wow that's a bargain" prices to sell it quickly, not less than 50% but not greater than 75% of the original sale price, taking into account condition. Otherwise you'll sit on it for awhile unless it's rare, special, or something you just don't see often, or you'll short yourself by selling too cheap.
- Provide a clear and specific description. For a saddle, size of tree, size of seat, width between the gullet, what type of horse it fit, what type of horse it didn't fit, color, material, maker, original retail price, every detail. It cuts down on time spent responding to questions.
- State the terms of the sale. Cash only, no shipping, no trial period without cash up front, or sale is final, however you want to do that. Yes you can bring your horse to try it out, no, you'll bring it them... whatever the details are.

You can take a check, just sit on the check AND the item until it clears and proves to be good. 14+ days. The buyer will likely find a way to pay cash. Money orders... not always real. Treat it like a check because of all the scams.

Don't bring strangers into your house or tack room to see what all you have. Thieves have been using CL to scope out places. At least in my area they have been. Do your best to screen people before making meeting arrangements. Don't accept visits when you're home alone, unless they prove to be genuine horse people over the phone. We had a guy beat to near death and robbed when someone showed to "buy" a play station off him through CL. In a parking lot, because he was trying to be safe and not have them at his house. Really pay attention to how they talk on the phone, what they say, how they say it. I've had some calls that just didn't sound right. My "out" when talking to them is to interrupt them and say "Oh, you know what? Someone who was a no-show I think just pulled in, let me call you back with if it sold or not" and I hop off the phone and make a note of the number they called from. For your own safety, you're totally allowed to profile people and go with your gut.

When I was relocating some rescue kittens, I must have gotten 4 calls from people who sounded like they needed dog bait. One even had several barking dogs in the background during the phone call! Another was talking back and forth with a friend, trying to decide what size kittens they needed and asking how big mine were. Yeah, don't think so. I didn't rescue these kittens for someone to turn around and mistreat them or worse. They ended up going to a no-kill foster based group to go through their adoption routine, I got tired of dealing with CL "fake" homes. Cl is great to sell Antiques for me, awful to find homes for kittens.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Two cautions here.

First, IME it just pisses people off and/or worries them if you say "sure I will take a check but you cannot have the item at all until the check has cleared to my satisfaction", it seems to make a lot of people feel like you are pulling a fast one and indeed for all they know you COULD be. Since the point of this is generally to force them to pay cash, IMHO it is a lot more effective to simply state CASH ONLY no exceptions.

Second, this business of waiting til the check has cleared. There is cleared and there is cleared. I sold a horse once to a large local lesson/show barn so I accepted a check, deposit it, waited til the funds appeared as available in my account... and five days or so AFTER apparently clearing my account, THEN the check bounced. I am not sure what the actual banking procedures are here, but my recollection of my understanding at the time was that my bank posted it as cleared when enough time had passed BUT at least in this particular case that was not the same as their having actually gotten the funds from the seller's account and when the did go to withdraw the money it wasn't there. Much frenetic activity ensued. In the end it turned out okay, I have a feeling I never did get the whole story but "supposedly" the barn mgr bought the horse off an account that the barn owner was closing to switch to another account and used the wrong checkbook, and THREE WEEKS later they did finally make good, although I realized later they never did pay my bounced-check fee, grrrrr.

But it could very, very, very easily have turned out to be a scam and I'd'a been out a perfectly good little orange horse with no money to show for it

So, if you DO 'wait til the check clears' I would suggest having an in-person interrogation of someone at the bank to make sure they are willing to SWEAR to you that the check cannot possibly "relapse" into bouncitude.

Bottom line: cash.

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[jettgirl24]

SOOOOO...what kind of saddle are you going to get when you get all those sold?

Well, I've tried several from the tack shop... Two custom JDS and a Passier Grand Gilbert... It's looking like I'm gonna go with my trainer's Roosli Schachen though. It fits my horse like a dream and I absolutely love it... Probably my favorite of all of the saddles I've ever sat in. She said it has magically fit almost every horse she has put it on so I really like that too since I'm planning to buy a baby in the next few years and would like to not have to buy yet another saddle for that one