Sales Savvy with Nikki Everdeen and Erin Sanderson, and Me

Original article written by Kim Plausible posted 9 years 0 weeks ago

This is the worst start to an article ever but I’ve had this document open for about four days and haven’t come up with anything better. So away we go!

I continue to receive requests from players for articles and this one comes from an owner curious about selling horses. As a newer player, she in particular wanted information about how new players might be able to get their horses to sell. I haven’t done much selling myself since I’ve returned to the sim, so I contacted a few owners and thought about some selling measures that have worked on me as a buyer, so I’ll talk about some of those in the article.

But first I want to talk about all the different reasons a person might be selling or even buying horses, because I think that’s important to look into. Are you selling the horse because you have too many and are trying to cut down? Are you selling it because you simply want to turn a profit? Or are you selling it because you don’t think it has any talent?

SELLING TO REDUCE

When Erin Sanderson started to feel a time crunch due to her ‘horse hoarding’ problem, she went to the forum to begin her selling process. She advertised that she would be selling in the Auction and Sales Page and included relevant information that would help buyers to negotiate with her satisfactorily. She stated when she would be selling, why she was selling, and gave a link to a search page with her for sale horses. She was honest about why she had chosen the horses she did - they weren’t her ‘favorites’ and mentioned their gallops - but then she hit on all the selling points, pointing out that most of the horses were well-bred, that gallops can improve, that the horses were mostly already equipment checked, and that the colts were left ungelded, meaning they could be gelded right away for a sort of rebate.

She continued to update the page whenever she added a certain class of horses, and priced them so that it would be easy for those looking through her sales horses to know what they were buying - $5k for a solid galloper, $1k for a claimer, and so on. When she was down below a hundred horses, she offered to take offers on a package deal, and yours truly took her up on the offer.

Because Erin was up front about what she was selling, and I knew what kind of quality horses I would be getting (I was targeting mostly her claimers), I put in an offer of $30k for 38 horses, and Erin accepted. I got a few horses ‘for free’ but Erin met her goal of moving out nearly 40 horses in one day, dramatically decreasing her stable. I then took her up on her offer and gelded most of the colts, reducing my costs to around $20k, so we both went a long way toward our respective goals. I got cheap horses, and she moved a bunch out of her stables!

That’s why it’s important to have a goal going into the sale. Erin knew what her goal was with her sale, and getting rid of a ton of horses at once was worth the $8k loss in profits she would have made had she sold the horses individually - if they ever sold! At this point, Ms Sanderson has sold all but 10 of the horses she put up on the sales page, and that’s a massive reduction that was successfully run. To see her strategy, check out the thread title Time Crunch Reduction Sale in the aforementioned forum.

SELLING HORSES FOR A PROFIT

Nikki Everdeen has long been a prominent breeder-for-profit in the sim and took the time to message me about her selling strategy. Because of the sheer number of horses she sells every year - around 200 - Nikki has a pretty standardized process for selling which begins with her yearling crop. Sellers who aren’t dealing with so many horses might take a different approach, but I’ll talk a little more about that as I examine this particular situation.

Like Erin, Nikki finds that setting prices based on gallop quality helps her move a lot of horses and helps buyers to know what they are in for. In this case, Nikki uses the following table to price her yearlings:

Different Career - Gelded and GPed
Claimers - $1 (which can be had from Nikki for free if you private message her)
Solid - $1-$1,000
Productive - Usually sold for the price of the stud fee
Allowance - $50,000 - $75,0000 for thoroughbreds, as low as $35,000 for some mixed breeds
Stakes - $150,000 - $300,000

This is not a system that favors micromanagers, which smaller stables tend to be. Nikki notes, “I've sold at least two Steward's Cup winners as yearlings!” But this is an excellent example of looking at the big picture scope of things, where Nikki is turning a profit on her Allowance and Stakes-bred horses, and also on any horses that she sent to her own stallions, and the other yearlings are moving out of her stable reducing her numbers and stress.

In my opinion, which means diddly, newer players tend to micromanage a little too much and a strategy like Nikki’s is more healthy and less frustrating. Trying to get back the price of the stud fee for a claimer type horse is only going to frustrate you and your buyer, but your breeding successes whether through racing or sales should be making up for your breeding failures. At the time of selling, you have already spent that money, and it’s not going to come back. Now, your focus should be on getting what you FAIRLY can for the horse according to their potential (as racers or broodmares or both), and not on making back what you gambled away on the breeding. Spending your time and effort elsewhere will likely benefit your stable more.

Also like Erin, Nikki makes use of the forum for advertising her sales. She keeps a running list of all the horses she currently has for sales, a comprehensive list including gallop, sire, dam, dam’s rating, maybe a note about family, and whether their equipment is figured out. She says, “I definitely notice an increase in sales right after posting this information on the forum.” She also uses the links to relist the horses (which is totally brilliant) and that way if they have sold, she can remove it right then. Check out Inspiration Stud Thoroughbreds for Sale to see how her system works.

SELLING BECAUSE YOU THINK YOUR HORSE SUCKS

If you are selling the horse because you just genuinely don’t think it has any talent and you don’t want to pay board for it anymore, then please, consider… not. If it’s three years or older, then send the horse to greener pastures for free. If it’s not, then consider retiring and pensioning it until it is, so you aren’t paying day rate on it. If it’s a yearling, which cannot be retired or pensioned, then… uh, you do realize that gallops can improve every nine weeks, right?

Nikki Everdeen uses her alternate training barn for different career gallopers, but for those of us who don’t have an alternate training barn, why not just leave it in with the rest of the yearlings? It will cost you $320 in board and $560 in day rate, and in nine weeks it might very well jump up to claimer, and then to productive. If it doesn’t, then as a two year old, you can retire and pension it, costing only $320 in board from then on. That costs only $1520 to wait until it’s free to send to greener pastures, and there’s a possibility that the horse will improve. If you really can’t stand it being there, then save yourself $500 WHOLE SIM DOLLARS and send it to greener pastures right away.

My point being, though, that there is nothing worse than buying a horse off the sales page and realizing that some jerk just tossed it up there so they wouldn’t have to pay board or the greener pastures fee. They put them on the sales page so you would do that for them! I haven’t run into this much on the sales page - I’m a pretty picky buyer even with my $1 horses - but when I did the horses were all listed for like $1,000-$10,000 and they were all off the same seller, so I just don’t do business with that player anymore. If GPing your breeding failures is that great an expense, then maybe sell one of your nice horses so that you have the money to GP or pension the rest.

This is obviously my personal preference and if you genuinely believe there are people who want your Different Career type horses (for instance, for steeplechasing or broodmares), then please by all means do sell them! Maybe start a forum thread warning people of what they are getting into and why you think the horses still have value. "It’s easier to explain price once than to apologize for quality forever," as Zig Ziglar said.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Which brings me to the tips and tricks portion of the article! I cannot believe I still have more to write omg. Pam Maier, I don’t forgive you for making me actually work instead of blowing hot air like I usually do.

Advertising sales on the forum, writing a bit about the horse, and linking to the sales page seems to help tremendously in moving horses. I can vouch for this myself. I put two horses up on the sales page, both accidental purchases on my part. Both were milers, both had upsides. One was a turf miler colt who had won last out and another was an all-weather filly from a very nice family who had galloped claimer. I advertised the filly on the forum, and it was sold within 24 hours. The colt never moved, but I think if I had advertised him as I did the filly, he would have, but I didn’t because I was happy to continue winning races with him. Experiment one goes to the test and not the control subject; Hypothesis: advertising helps.

Make sure you know why you are selling and be willing to compromise in other aspects in order to meet your goal. If you are selling to reduce numbers, be willing to make a little less profit. If you are selling for profit, accept that you probably won’t move horses as quickly and it may take a bit more effort on your part to illustrate the value of your horse.

Last, price horses accordingly. Based on the success of the two sellers mentioned, claimer type horses are not likely to move for more than $1k, unless they have another purpose besides racing, like as a broodmare. Also consider that if you geld a claimer type horse you have already made your $1k off of him, so maybe sell him for a little less. No need to be greedy.

I know that New Players in particular have a difficult time selling horses because often the horses they have aren’t of great quality. If you are selling a horse because you aren’t making any money off of it and you don’t want to play with it anymore, consider other alternatives for making money with the horse, such as filling races, or running restricted races at Trial Park and Junior High. Another tip is to only buy horses that you can GP for free already! And remember that pensioned horses only cost you $320 a year, so go ahead and pension any younger horses you can’t sell and don’t want to keep. If they have a different career, they can even earn you a bit of money, which is fun. Then when they hit four, you can GP them for free.

In summary, remember that you aren't just selling horses. You're attaching a certain quality, price, and experiencing to your name as a seller. You're creating a business relationship with the people you're selling to. There are certain names on the sales page that I always check for because I simply know how they work as sellers, I know what quality horses they sell at what price point, and I trust their breeding savvy or pricing. Become that type of seller, and you won't have to work so hard to move the horses you list.

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Regina Moore for all your sim-help needs!

-- Kim Plausible is a home-and-phone simmer with eight years of experience who was just being a pesky pita when she said you should contact Regina Moore, and she hopes her fellow writer will not kill her for the crack. If you have any questions, you should probably just experiment and see what works best for you. Good luck! --

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