Any steerplanet members ever do an online sale?

[vet tech]

To those who have done one what was your experiences?

 

[justintime]

I have had 4 online sales but they have been mainly embryos, flushes and a few pregnancies. I did offer a few select heifer calves in one of these sales. The embryo auctions themselves have had mixed results, but I have sold as many embryos in a few days after each sale was over as I did in the sale itself. I'm not sure why this has happened but it has happened in 3 of the 4 sales. The last sale I had was in February 2012, and I actually sold more embryos after the sale was over than I did in the sale.
The costs of running these sales are minimal and I have relied on mainly eBlasts to advertize the sale. The highest costs I have had ( not including the time I put into setting up the sale lots) has been 2.7%. I can't sell cattle at the local auction market for that cost so I think it does offer an economical method of selling.
Selling live cattle is a different situation that what I have been doing though. If my embryos do not sell in the online sale, they stay in my inventory at the ET center. If you are selling live calves, if you don't get them sold, you have a limited amount of time to market them somewhere's else.

 

[vet tech]

Good point. Thanks for your input. There will be live calf lots and MAYBE a egg lot or two.

 

[Gargan]

not to hijack ur thread Soehnlen, but just wanted to say that is a stout looking WA steer of urs that Wade Rodgers posted on his blog. Would love to see more pics of him once u get him clipped out.  (thumbsup)

 

[vet tech]

Thank you Gargan, appreciate that. His dam is a up and coming donor for us. I'll post more info in the classifieds as sale time rolls around.

 

[frostback]

Ive never had a sale but have bought calves through them. If you do it make sure the calves are clipped well and have a smoking good photo. If the photo of the calf is no good I dont spend the time to see the video. Its that first look that gets people looking more.  Good luck.

 

[vet tech]

Thanks frostback, that's something I've noticed too.

 

[jason]

There have always been a lot of talk on here and having people come together for 1 large steerplanet sale.  I think a pretty neat idea, but something will take quite a bit of effort, some logistics, and a go-getter behind the idea.

I ran a poll not too long ago about the use of online sales and what people want and didn't want.  I had over 100 responses and most people consider them as a positive, would buy from them, and would use them.

I did ask, would you be interested in hosting your own online sale if you had a platform to do so.  I think I got close to 65 yes, 9 no, and the rest were unanswered.  That is off the top of my head, but the overwhelming majority was interested.  I have come up with a neat solution I think to fill the need.  I have taken a step back because of recent problems with forum, but I think I got those resolved. 

 

[Gargan]

There have always been a lot of talk on here and having people come together for 1 large steerplanet sale.  I think a pretty neat idea, but something will take quite a bit of effort, some logistics, and a go-getter behind the idea.

I ran a poll not too long ago about the use of online sales and what people want and didn't want.  I had over 100 responses and most people consider them as a positive, would buy from them, and would use them.

I did ask, would you be interested in hosting your own online sale if you had a platform to do so.  I think I got close to 65 yes, 9 no, and the rest were unanswered.  That is off the top of my head, but the overwhelming majority was interested.  I have come up with a neat solution I think to fill the need.  I have taken a step back because of recent problems with forum, but I think I got those resolved. 

I remember talk of this jason, and it would be a good idea for people that had just a few calves to sell. Also, it would be differenet locations for different buyers. i know many times i do not look at sales if they are to far away from me. I think it could be a success if some1 wanted to ramrod it with strict deadlines for pics, videos, info about the calves and etc.

 

[Freddy]

I had a online sale last Jan. with bred females and some fall steer calves ...Was very pleased for first time with bred  females and the steers made me makee the decision that fall steers son't sell in this region very well and will not
try that again ......Watched some of the other sales also and was not imppressed by very many of them .....Might have one this fall haven't madee up my mind yet .....

 

[leanbeef]

Our sale is not an online deal, but it isn't a traditional live auction, either. We started in 2006 with an idea to host an open house to celebrate 35 years in the Simmental business. It was really an idea to promote our program locally and an effort to build on our customer relationships. As we thot about having cattle on display, it didn't make sense not to have cattle for sale, and that kinda fed into the idea to hold a silent auction on all the cattle we displayed.

We do print a sale catalog with a minimum opening bid on every lot. We offer every calf from our current calf crop along with a selection of bred females, pairs & ET lots to draw more interest, and we invite two guest consignors who help fill in some of those gaps where we don't have the cattle we need.

We call our event Open House at the Farm, and all the animals are on display, each with an individual bid sheet. I like not having to haul the cattle, not having to run them all thru a sale ring, and not having to worry about cattle not bringing what we think they're worth without having to bid them in or No Sale anything which can be perceived as sketchy by some buyers. We're very upfront with the opening bids and we don't apologize for minimum starting bids. It's a very relaxed atmosphere, and we still get to visit with customer, and hopefully have some cattle that people bid on. The bidding helps us figure out where our cattle fall as far as what they're worth, and it gets a little more $ than if we just priced them private treaty.

We never expect to sell every lot. I budget the sale based on what we HOPE to sell or expect to move at the opening bid price. It may not be the cheapest way to get cattle sold, but I think our costs are less than most production sales & definitely less than most consignment type
sales. We usually sell 30-40 lots out of about 60 lots we catalog, and that's counting all our weanling calves, both bulls and heifers. We'll move a few of the bull calves, and the rest we'll sell by spring as yearlings. The heifers that don't move will either go back into our herd or they'll go in next year's sale as breds and be more marketable that way.

We held our first open house in 2006 and sold enough bred stuff that we needed a few years to recover numbers wise. We waited 3 years
to do another one, building our cow herd back up, and now we try to plan so we can do it every year. People tend to forget about you or find other genetic sources if you skip years in between!

We do have an online presence in marketing, but I like having people out and talking to them face to face. The online part is necessary to help expand our reach geographically, and I think the personal part is just as important to reach people closer to home who we've been doing business with for many years.

Good luck! There are LOTS of ways to do things without having to do everything the way you see most other people doing it.