I need to sell a hardly used CWD saddle. I used to use all CWDs and now switched to all Bruno del Grange. I have one at a consignment store (that doesn’t seem to be moving), I have another sitting in my tack room that I need to do something with. I went on EBay, there seem to be a ton of them for sale. Anyone know the best on-line site or other means of marketing a used saddle in great condition? I know I’m going to take a loss on it which is fine, would just like to get it sold with as little effort as possible on my part!
My preference is to buy and sell locally. Where I live, the tack market has left Craigslist and moved onto FB, so look for anything called Horse Classifieds for your town or state. There is also a national high end tack fb group.
You could also see if the CWD dealer carries used saddles on consignment.
CWD has certainly flooded the market in recent years so is also dominating the resale market. They are extremely expensive new but don’t have a reputation of being super durable (no idea if this is true or not). So if you price a used CWD too high the buyers just might opt for a new one custom fitted.
Basically selling anything, either you do the legwork or you pay a commission for someone else to do so.
I suspect if you find the sweet spot for pricing someone will grab the saddle in 24 hours. If an item is for sale in a relatively transparent and popular forum like eBay and it isn’t selling, then it is priced too high for that market.
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/780520645350061/
but as scribbler noted, if it isn’t selling, it’s generally overpriced.
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Like a car, a saddle depreciates a lot as soon as it’s purchased. Especially if the saddle has semi custom fit options, panels built for a specific horse. Custom boots saddles wedding dresses 
etc lose the value of bring custom once they pass on to another user.
I figure at least 50 % off retail on a used saddle a few years old, and at least 30% on very new in as new condition.
But that might not be enough to move a really high end saddle quickly in a flooded market.
If you knock $1000 or $1500 off retail to sell a $3000 or $4000 saddle used, that drops it into a whole other price range and makes it widely attractive.
If you knock $1000 off a $10k saddle, anyone in that market might prefer to go new. Even if you knock it down to $7000 people shopping in that price bracket might feel that getting the semi custom options, fitting, and warranty or service is worth going new.
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I’ve bought great saddles off of eBay (both from USA and europe) and back when the chronicle mag had ads, one nice one from a woman in Jax changing disciplines. Only bad deal I have got was buying one in my state, GA, from a store which advertised in online GA horse sale mag. I donated that one to a Chronicle horse rescue and it ended up with one of the “volunteers.”
I once bought a new saddle many decades ago and everyone I knew kept saying things about it. So I never bought another new one! A new saddle is to be “broken in” and gets comments about its newness. Although a few saddles I’ve bought on eBay are barely used and are great.
Last saddle off of eBay came with a nice note from the former owner saying she hoped I and my horses had as much success with it as she and her horse had had showing. Great seller!
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I recently bought a saddle from a seller who posted it on a regional horsey FB page. I had missed seeing it but when she reduced the price and bumped it up, I saw it and jumped on it as the price was very good. The seller lives about 90 miles away and I sent her a deposit via PayPal and we met a few days later about halfway between our homes. The saddle looked exactly as pictured and sale was super easy.
Find the most active regional FB pages and get it posted. List it in neighboring areas too, since people are willing to travel a bit to find the right saddle.
Prices on used CWDs seem fairly low to me recently. It seems that they flooded the marked of late, meaning that there are plenty of them out there.
Contact Leah at Redwood Tack. She sells lots of high end saddles for a reasonable consignment fee. She is easy to buy from - free trial and shipping. Does a great job!
Redwood Tack, MD Tack Exchange, and DFW Tack Exchange all do a booming business on high end used saddles. I have bought/sold from each in various capacities and have always had wonderful experiences. All 3 sites do trials, which is what basically every buyer is looking for. Good luck!
People tend to be dumping saddles like old boyfriends. I am amazed at the ads for barely used saddles and not just from CWD. I could hardly fathom selling a saddle I paid so much for originally at such a loss. Why don’t these saddles fit the person and horse they were measured for? I still have my custom Antares saddle that I bought in 2003 for $3000. I had it measured for a broad Quarter Horse with the AO tree. It fits my current horse fine as he has a similar build.
I saw something similar with used Schleese all over the place a few years back “three months old as new safly does not fit horse.”
Some possibilities.
Fad saddle oversold by reps who can’t fit properly.
A trend among those with more money than sense to upgrade every year. Like with cars. Or running shoes.
Teens outgrowing saddles, people buying new horses.
Everyone flocking to a new fad saddle (maybe Voltaire)
Finally maybe they really do wear out fast.
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Voltaire isn’t so new anymore and it’s not a “fad” so much as it is a great balanced and lightweight saddle with about the most comfortable seat I have ever sat in in my entire life. I have one (and I have had it very easily modified for my horse - their turnaround is 2 weeks and our local rep is awesome). Perhaps the Voltaire reps are just better at fitting and scheduling saddle modifications and the CWD reps just want to sell their clients another new saddle? I know my Voltaire rep has been great about fitting - sometimes the saddle has needed a minor tweak and other times we needed new panels (horse is asymmetrical and his body is constantly changing). The panel swap took 2 weeks and the saddle came back completely conditioned and detailed - it looked gorgeous. Every rivet was sparkling. I know for my next horse I can likely do a panel swap again and keep my beloved saddle. Why pay $6k when I can pay $650? I am not hearing these same situations from my CWD friends. Every time they don’t have a saddle that fits, they are getting a new saddle. Could just be a difference in business model? Might just be our local reps.
A lot of times they are sponsored rider saddles that have been exchanged out as most of the french brands do a new sponsored rider saddle every year/every other year and then sell the former.
