Help on Private Treaty Sale

[doubled]

We are getting ready for our first Private Treaty  Sale and it sure would help if you all could give us your comments on whats good about them and whats bad about
Private Treaty sales.  Maybe on what you like to see, how they are run,  we have some ideas of our own but in order to make it a success we would like your
suggestions on some that you have attended. 

 

[shortyjock89]

Wish I could help, but we're planning on having one in the next couple years, so I would really appreciate the info too.

 

[RSC]

We are getting ready for our first Private Treaty  Sale and it sure would help if you all could give us your comments on whats good about them and whats bad about
Private Treaty sales.  Maybe on what you like to see, how they are run,  we have some ideas of our own but in order to make it a success we would like your
suggestions on some that you have attended. 

Here are some thoughts I have on ours.

1.  Get a hold of all the surrounding county extensions and see if they will release addresses to send flyers to.  Some will not release the names but will allow you to take flyers with stamps to them and
they will send them out.

2. Keep advertising as simple and effective as you can.  Get a website and promote people to that site to see pictures and info often.  Hand out business cards with the web address.

3.  Make all your rules clear and defined on your bid sheet that all people pick up when they view the cattle.  For Example;  No  cattle are guarenteed for soundness etc...,  All cattle will need to have a cleared check or wired money before they can be taken from the sale.  Give a final bid time and so on!

4.  If you have guest consigners make it clear to them that they are represented by you and are silent partners.  To many people involved with dealing with customers can be complecated.

5.  Do phone calls for bids in a private place withought any potential customers around.

6.  If you are having sale with one or more person,  keep the official bid-off book in the hands of one person and don't comprimise.  If rumors get around as to who is bidding it can and will effect the price of
the calf.

7.  If you are bringing in other cattle from other people,  get on top of health and get a local vet to help with a procedure.  This comes from experience.

I will think of more,

If you have any questions to the above let me know,

RSC

 

[shortdawg]

Base price on all lots.

The ones I've been in allow you to be in the final bid-off only if you have bid prior to the final bid-off day or time. In other words if you bid at least once you have the option to bid in the final.

I like them b/c they give you more time to think about your bid than a live auction does.

Define what the bid increments will be. Most are $ 100 up to a certian price then $ 250 to $ 500 after a certain price.

Good luck !!!!

 

[RSC]

Base price on all lots.

The ones I've been in allow you to be in the final bid-off only if you have bid prior to the final bid-off day or time. In other words if you bid at least once you have the option to bid in the final.

I like them b/c they give you more time to think about your bid than a live auction does.

Define what the bid increments will be. Most are $ 100 up to a certian price then $ 250 to $ 500 after a certain price.

Good luck !!!!

To add to what Shortdawg said, if you have a heifer/ steer that you need to bring more money, set the bid price close to where you want it to bring.  If people think they are being ran they will quit bidding.

Try your best to plan a day off for you and your spouse the day after: you will be emotionally drained.

Find someone you can consult to,  you will have many that tell you how a bid-off should be ran.  Be firm with your decisions.

RSC

 

[shortdawg]

Thanks for mentioning that RSC. If you have one that you are considering keeping set the base price at a level you could live with. The base price should be set for each animal and doesn't have to be the same for each animal.

 

[justme]

If you get a chance call Deb Core.  I love her sale.  When you leave you know the calf is sold.  You can bid there and the phone bids are done right there in public.  Its interesting way of doing it and they don't go on for days trying to seal the bids.  It would be well worth your time to call her and pick her brain.

 

[Jill]

There are some huge advantages to private treaty sales, look at the clubcalfparadise web site, that was probably the best sale web site I have seen, had nice pics, videos and online bidding, and you could see where the calf was in real time, I don't really like the waiting game to find out 3 days later she was over what I want to spend, like justme says, it would be nice to know if you have the calf bought.
The down side I see to these type of sales is people like me.  I am an impulse buyer, I normally don't have a budget or a top price (to a certain extent) I will buy in the heat of the moment where if an animal gets to a high price and I have time to think about I can usually talk myself out of it.

 

[justme]

With Core's sale you still get that "heat of the moment".  Plus if you don't get the animal you still have a chance to go after another.  I like that I can include my daughter at there sale.  At an auctioneer sale or if they are calling me for days, its hard to get her involvment.

My advice is to have it all in writting and keep it simple.  People want to buy calves and think about calves, not the fine print.

 

[cowz]

We are getting ready for our first Private Treaty  Sale and it sure would help if you all could give us your comments on whats good about them and whats bad about
Private Treaty sales.  Maybe on what you like to see, how they are run,  we have some ideas of our own but in order to make it a success we would like your
suggestions on some that you have attended. 

Here are some thoughts I have on ours.

1.  Get a hold of all the surrounding county extensions and see if they will release addresses to send flyers to.  Some will not release the names but will allow you to take flyers with stamps to them and
they will send them out.

2. Keep advertising as simple and effective as you can.  Get a website and promote people to that site to see pictures and info often.  Hand out business cards with the web address.

3.  Make all your rules clear and defined on your bid sheet that all people pick up when they view the cattle.  For Example;  No  cattle are guarenteed for soundness etc...,  All cattle will need to have a cleared check or wired money before they can be taken from the sale.  Give a final bid time and so on!

4.  If you have guest consigners make it clear to them that they are represented by you and are silent partners.  To many people involved with dealing with customers can be complecated.

5.  Do phone calls for bids in a private place withought any potential customers around.

6.  If you are having sale with one or more person,  keep the official bid-off book in the hands of one person and don't comprimise.  If rumors get around as to who is bidding it can and will effect the price of
the calf.

7.  If you are bringing in other cattle from other people,  get on top of health and get a local vet to help with a procedure.  This comes from experience.

I will think of more,

If you have any questions to the above let me know,

RSC

Guys, RSC just hit it on the head.  These are some very good suggestions!!

I especially identify with the one on guest consignors.  Make sure every detail is discussed.  Have the guest consignors stay at home.  I let a local guy put 5 calves in our sale a couple of years ago.  He camped out at our house for three days with his girlfriend, sister, mother and father.  Everytime someone drove in, it was like they were attacked by a mob of people.   It had to be intimidating to have 6 people watch your every move while you are looking at calves. It created too much stress for me and after feeding the consignor family and the calves for a week, they never said thank you.

Make sure your guest has similar taste in cattle and the same pricing philosophy.

Control all of your ads yourself.  Never let a consignor do their own ad with your name on it without seeing it first.

Get a website and pay for a link to other sites people visit often.

Just a few things that it has cost me a few customers, a bunch of money and hard feelings to learn the hard way.

 

[doubled]

Oh gosh , this was so awesome, I printed it all off to give to the guys, super information, and suggestions. we will take them all to heart, we want the sale to be
the best we can make it, we have the calves good enough I just want to make sure it is run correctly and fairly.  If anyone is in central Iowa please just stop by
and visit we would love to have you.  The guys are really anxious and nervous about this whole thing.  Not to mention me.  Again keep the suggestions coming
and thank  you. (clapping)

 

[jason]

justamom

send me all the info to [email protected] and I will make you a nice little free ad for steerplanet

 

[CAB]

Where is the sale going to be and what is the closing date and time please? Brent

 

[stumpy]

One other thing to think about when writing down the terms and conditions of your sale is when the calves need to be picked-up and paid for by. In my experience it gets less fun and profitable if you feed calves from Sept. to Jan. :-\ Even if you bend the rules a little for someones particular situation it is at least a guidline to work off of. I hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Throttle]

We ran this type sale at our place for 6 years and I've spent many hours on/waiting on the phone on the buying end of the transaction as well. Here are the first things that come to mind for me:

Clear printed terms for type and time of payment and pick up. Unless it is close friends or family, DO NOT LET A CALF LEAVE YOUR PLACE WITHOUT PAYMENT. I was stuck bad by a big name guy that I was sure would be good on his word in my second sale. He said he had her sold, he'd give me $5000, pick her up, take her directly from my place to the family, then send me the remaining $3750 as soon as he arrived home next day. Two years, too many phone calls to count, and many hard feelings later, I showed up at his place and picked out a flat good steer. He priced him to me at 10,000 and I wrote him a check for $6250 loaded him and left. We've done good business with him since, but learned a tough lesson. I'm sure everyone has heard lots of horror stories about nonpayment. Keep the calf in your posession and worse case scenario is you still have the calf when payment does not come through.

Keep bids as confidential a possible, especially where traders are concerned, and especially if you aren't 110% up to date on the latest gossip and know exactly who's working together or against or for or with or what ever. IE - A big namer might send a buddy to sift your set and feel you out. If you unknowingly tell that guy that big namer's other pal has left bids on your 5 best calves then said big namer will call the pal and say, "hey, I'll lay off those at justamoms if you'll let me have that red bull at common sense's." Then you lost your competitive bidding. Not so much the locals and the families, but being mildly involved in the trading game, I can tell you that you don't have to tell anyone who's bidding what, because if you have a good one, we're all calling this guy and that guy and this friend of that guy to find out what this one is gonna bring, who's going how high, can he be partnered, etc. I'm not someone that most of you would recognize by name or in person and I can tell you that I've played this game of "go check that set out for me" for two of the biggest players in the game all over the east and midwest ever since this private treaty bid thing has become the popular thing to do.

I'd let one person handle the bid book and that person has to do all of the calling. On the average 20-40 head set, one, maybe two people making the calls, I guess. Don't string it out anymore than you have to. Make it clear on the terms of sale that the bidders need to leave you a number where they can be reached. Set an order of how calves will be bid off and a time when you will shut dwon for the day. For my last pasture sale I stated that the calves will be bid off starting with the highest priced at time of closing first and that we would call all involved until midnite sale nite, then go 8am to 11pm everyday after that until all were sold. Let people drop down to another calf in the order during the bid off process as well. You'll make thousands by doing that. Pick a time frame in your head and then use it. For example when you call someone and say calf X is at $3250. You'll have to be $3500 to stay in, and that person responds by saying, "can I get back with you?", tell them they have 30 mins then you are moving on.

I agree with all else that RSC put up there as well, especially where consignments are concerned. Just 1-3 people who know the calves really well and don't have a terrible bias toward any particular one is usually all it takes. Lead me toward the good ones, but don't try and sell me on em. Be honest about the faults when they exist.

Just the opinions of someone who has played this fiddle a good bit from both ends. Take them for what they're worth

 

[stick]

Is your sale by bids, or everything pre priced (load and go)

 

[doubled]

Where is the sale going to be and what is the closing date and time please? Brent

The sale is at my sons house,  all the information can be found either on showsteers.com or clubcalves.com under their website DoubldD Showcattle here in Iowa
sale is 25-29th and it ends at noon on the 29th, then they will begin calling the bidders after that.  All the calves are base priced at 1700 except the Blue Roan Heifer,
she is at 2500 and the Macho Simmental Heifer is at 2500.  I can wait for pictures on the Blue Roan she is flat out awesome, she has changed so much since her baby
picture I had on here.  The guys have a really good set of calves to offer.  They have been working really hard.

 

[doubled]

Is your sale by bids, or everything pre priced (load and go)

The sale is by bids, they have white boards in the barn so everyone can see the current bid on that calf, when the sale ends they will begin to call all the bidders.  The guys have
printed the terms and conditions on the sale flyers they hand out when you visit.  The guys are really good at working with kids and teaching them and helping them learn how to
groom and show, as they have helped several kids here in Iowa every week at IJBBA shows.  The dates are again the 25th thru the 29th, ending at noon on the 29th.
We would love to have everyone come and look, I dont think anyone would be disappointed.