A Kelly Blue Book for saddles

[ElementFarm]

I think it’s a great starting point.

Is there any way to account for variables?
–for example, full calf or buffalo will be worth more
–off colors, like black in a close contact saddle, will likely make it worth less.
–year made makes a difference; even if the saddle is meticulously cared for, I would expect to pay less for a 2002 model vs a 2014

I put my three main saddles (CWD, Tad Coffin, Voltaire) in and felt the results for expected value were probably in line with what I would ask for, or expect to pay when buying used.

neat tool! Thanks for building it and sharing!

[PNWjumper]

I should have added to my first post:

Thanks for putting something so useful together and sharing it with all of us! What a great idea!

[HJdaydream]

Very neat! Great job!

I do think it’d would be helpful to put the year as well, because I know my 2010 Antares wouldn’t fetch the same price as say, a 2015. Also, it would be nice to have a place to put in the the flap specifics, such as 3AA, for a long very forward flap Antares, or 2L (normal flap length and forwardness) for CWD etc. The more common flap configurations probably sell a bit better then the “odd ball” ones, thus effecting price. Something to think about! :yes:

[GucciJumper]

My prestige saddle isn’t in the system

[Daisyesq]

If the user inputs an 18’ seat, will your website show sales of another size seat?

Here’s an example: Dressage Custom Saddlery, Advantage R, 18" (no sales), but if you had sold a 17.5", the result would still be relevant.

I think you have a very nice idea here, possibly a very useful tool! THanks

[BellaMia]

No child saddles or sizes either, at least in English.

[butiwantedapony]

I like the idea.

I buy/sell and consign saddles, and put in a few different ones. It didn’t seem terribly accurate, price usually came in very low compared to what I’ve been seeing.

Many of the saddles I put in came up as “not found” although they are fairly common/popular brands/models.

[TackHunter]

[QUOTE=PNWjumper;8881701]
I should have added to my first post:

Thanks for putting something so useful together and sharing it with all of us! What a great idea! :)[/QUOTE]

Thanks a lot! you made my day

[TackHunter]

[QUOTE=butiwantedapony;8882841]
I like the idea.

I buy/sell and consign saddles, and put in a few different ones. It didn’t seem terribly accurate, price usually came in very low compared to what I’ve been seeing.

Many of the saddles I put in came up as “not found” although they are fairly common/popular brands/models.[/QUOTE]

I’ll admit that we don’t have an enormous pool of sales data. Basically I manually put in all of our past saddle sales as well as reached out to a few friends at other tack shops, ( and tried to find what I could online).

You sound like you’ve got quite a bit of experience buying & selling used saddles. Would you want to add the asking/selling prices for the ones you said were missing? I would give you (or your consignment shop) credit and whatnot. If you don’t have any past sales to reference but know something is lower than it should be, feel free to tell me the saddle make and model. aill manually do some research and fix it

[refresh]

Really great idea! You have done a great job with the website, simplicity and clarity - which is what you’re trying to provide in selling a saddle as well. Really well done.

I do have some feedback for you as well! I have no idea how difficult these things are to code or if it would be worth it, since it’s working well as is. I just looked up the value of my saddle and I don’t know what model it is. Perhaps if I type in “Butet” at the top, the models available should come up as a drop down on the next section. I put in “flat” and “equitation” (ha!) and it still gave me accurate results, for what I would expect.

: )

[TackHunter]

Right now, I don’t have enough sales data to distinguish between seat sizes with a lot of accuracy. So the tool tries to search for the specific seat size, and if there’s not a lot of matches to really give an accurate estimate it will look at any seat size from that brand & model and factor that into the results. In your case, it sounds like i don’t have that model at all. because it would at least find a different seat size if the 18 wasn’t available

Also i really appreciate that you took the time to leave some feedback. if you want to leave some more info about your saddle, i can do some research and add it to the books!

[Equisis]

This is a very interesting idea! Thanks for putting it together.

For the seat sizes- maybe you could narrow it down to a couple of ranges? For example, I wouldn’t expect there to be much of a price difference between a 17 and a 17.5, but it might impact your results depending on what you have in the database. A range of sizes might help even that out.

I also agree that more information would be helpful, especially if you’re talking high end tack- flap size, leather type, color, etc is important and can have a big impact on price. I put in three saddles I currently have, and none of them were listed- Toulouse Marielle, Voltaire Lexington, and Voltaire Adelaide. For the Adelaide, it suggested that they typically sold for $0- fortunately for me, that is not true! :lol:

[jawa]

Does it matter where you are located for selling a saddle? Or has the interwebz made that a non issue?

[TackHunter]

[QUOTE=jawa;8883353]
Does it matter where you are located for selling a saddle? Or has the interwebz made that a non issue?[/QUOTE]

I’d honestly say the internet has made location less important (assuming you’re not shipping internationally). It has become increasingly common for people to check the internet for deals on big ticket items like saddles before buying. We also see a lot of local shops listing stuff on our site, so it’s not just buyers that are moving online. It’s is just a much bigger market, which is usually better for both buyers and sellers.

[netg]

[QUOTE=TackHunter;8881533]
You’re talking about Custom (brand) saddles, right? if so, do you know what model it is? I’d love to research some pricing info and add it to the tool[/QUOTE]

Advantage R and Advantage Monoflap, but it didn’t recognize either Custom or Custom Saddlery at all. Is also didn’t recognize Dresch, but that wasn’t surprising. (And I tried more than one spelling of that…)

[katenreno]

Super cool idea!! I did try to input my County WB 2000 Dressage saddle, and it didn’t find the WB 2000 as a model. But I can see how the database will have to be absolutely huge. Rome wasn’t built in a day! And I’m sure us COTH peeps are a great resource to let you know what saddles you may be missing from said database. But way to go, I love this!!

[katenreno]

Also, I put in my jump saddle. I have the Pessoa Gen-X2. The Gen-X is an option, but not the Gen-X2. I have an 18" seat, which was also not an option. And lastly, I have the adjustable gullet, the XCH system. That could be trickier to add, because that is unique to Pessoa. (I know Bates saddles have similar systems, and another brand whose name is escaping me). That part is less important, but the Gen-X2 model and the larger seat size might be a good idea to add in.

[paulosey]

No brands I entered were recognized…Bates, Santa Cruz,Albion or Bona Allen for western. Would be a great tool though. I will go back and try some other brands.

[hopashore1]

Awesome tool! Thank you so much for making it.

Could we crowdsource some more data for you? Maybe make a google drive spreadsheet with the fields you want in whatever way is easiest to incorporate into your existing dataset?

[TackHunter]

[QUOTE=hopashore1;8886749]
Awesome tool! Thank you so much for making it.

Could we crowdsource some more data for you? Maybe make a google drive spreadsheet with the fields you want in whatever way is easiest to incorporate into your existing dataset?[/QUOTE]

That would be amazing!!

Now that I think about it, all I’d need to add new entries is the following:

Discipline:
Brand:
Specific Model:
Seat Size:
Tree Width:
Condition:
Notes (customizations? addt’l options?):

Sticker Price (what they asked when you bought it):
Actual Price (what you ended up paying):

I’d love to make a spreadsheet and post it, but im afraid it might come off as sketchy if I’m like “hey enter your info into this spreadsheet” haha any ideas on how to get some people behind this? It’d be super cool if this became a free tool anyone could use when appraising/shopping for saddles!