making an offer

[3nutmeg]

What are people looking for when they advertise "make an offer" ? How do you go about making a decent offer?

[Blue feather]

In my experience they are looking to be insulted.. Typically goes something like this, "I am interested in your horse, would you be willing to take $ XXXXXX ?". Response, " are you kidding? I'm not giving the horse away.". It would be so much easier if they gave a starting price.

[3nutmeg]

That is true. It's like pick a number that I'm thinking of.

[madelyn]

Maybe they are just really trying to test the water and waste your time. Maybe they are clueless about what price to set. There are ways to figure out what a "reasonable" offer would be. A hundred years ago or so I went through the course and got certified as a horse appraiser. Kind of like real estate but you would use sales of similar animals, claiming price if the horse ran for a tag, and other indicators of the value of the animal.

[Bohemia]

This is an interesting conversation because I just contacted a sales company rep that had an "out" at the NY-bred yearling sale at Saratoga and he said "the owner will entertain an offer."

Not sure if I should start low and then have the owner counter-offer? Also don't want to insult the guy by being too low.

[madelyn]

Depends on why the horse was an "out" - ie: x-rays or scope? What is wrong with the horse? With yearlings, you can figure up the cost of the horse counting up the cost of breeding and raising it.. and then compare the horse to very similar ones sold. Figure out what you WANT to pay. Offer that. No deal is really good unless both sides are happy.

[AmberVa]

I assume the horse was an "out" because it did not meet the reserve, find out the reserve and the highest bid if you can and go somewhat higher.

[madelyn]

Actually, an 'OUT' is a horse that is withdrawn from the sale before the sale begins. A 'reserve not attained' horse is listed in the results as an RNA and then a price in parenthesis that represents either the reserve or the last highest bid on the horse that did not sell.