I understand your reluctance but send Leah at Redwood Tack an email. She prefers to buy saddles outright vs consign. If she thinks she can sell it, she will make you an offer. Worth a try.
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This may be obvious, but you also might not be listing it on the right FB page and you might get better results if your trainer is the one who lists it since it will get shared with her contacts, plus people will have more confidence in its condition if there’s a trainer putting her name on it. I had a very nice but older Beval at a fair price that wasn’t moving on a “regular” FB tack sale site, but once my trainer put it up on a FB site dedicated to high end tack for our region, it was sold at the same price by the end of the day. The buyers came to the barn to check it out and paid me cash. I gave my trainer 10% for fielding the responses and putting her “stamp of approval” on it.
But it you also have to realize that every saddle loses half its market value the second the tag comes off and price accordingly.
Why don’t you try selling it outright to a consigner? Both old dominion and Maryland tack exchange do this. I’ve used both of them and they were great. I didn’t want the hassle of waiting for the saddle to sell so I was willing to take less and get the money ASAP for a saddle I wasn’t using.
I also tried to sell mine on FB - no luck! Again ppl want to try the saddle. If you notice, most high end saddles on FB get little response.
I was in a similar situation last year with a used Antares. It was a desirable size (17") with full calf leather and pro panels. I tried for many, many months to sell it on my own with no success.
I gave up and took it to Rebecca at Goldfinch Fine Tack because she’s local to me. She had it sold within weeks for a decent amount more than I’d been asking for it. I also bought my new saddle through her and got a great consignment rate because of that.
I understand your hesitation to consign but it really is the easiest way to get the saddle sold.
I’m sorry you had a bad experience but there are reputable sellers out there. There are only two reasons a saddle doesn’t sell. Weird size or overpriced. I know you think it is underpriced but resellers know the market very well and what sells or doesn’t sell.
May as well take advantage of their knowledge even if you don’t end up selling through them.
The sad reality is that there are a GLUT of used-to-be-the-it-French-saddles out there and unless yours is juts a few years old or the current popular brand… they’re just not commanding much. Devoucoux are several times removed the “it” saddle AND on top they are a shape that is pretty A-Frame-y and just doesn’t fit that many horses properly. Unless yours is quite inexpensive, it’s going to be a tough sell. That’s just the reality. You might try aiming it at more of an eventing crowd on FB, they are less into the “popularity” and tended to like that brand better to begin with. For a H/J market, if it’s more than 5-6 years old, honestly you’re going to have to be patient if you want more than $1,500 for it. They just don’t hold value that well, there aren’t that many people looking, and for each person looking they have dozens to pick from.
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Yes, this is what I was afraid of. I think the market is flooded right now. It’s sitting at 1650 right now. I thought that would be low enough to move it along, but maybe not.
Spinoff idea; anyone have a good reccomendation for someone to do foam adjustments on French saddles?
I was looking at it today and thinking while it’s not wide enough for the horse I bought it for, it might work on miss mare if the foam was reduced a bit.
You can’t “adjust” foam short of swapping out the panels. Anyone is going to charge you minimum $400ish for that and likely no one is going to want to touch a Dev other than Dev. So my suggestion would be to call your local Dev rep and then steel yourself for a lot of hassle/hard sell because they’ve got much more interest in selling you a new saddle instead 
As someone who was recently in the market to buy a high-end used saddle, I’ll echo what others have said. I was trying to find a jump saddle for my 5-yr. old TB, and on the strong recommendation of my trainer, I was only looking at wool-flocked saddles since his topline is likely to continue evolving. I ended up scoring a County Conquest off eBay at a great price that fits us both. I think at the very least you will need allow trials.
As for consignment stores in Northern Virginia, I really liked Galloping Grape in Warrenton as a buyer (I haven’t consigned anything through them). Kim is very knowledgeable, and if you don’t find what you need, you can always get a couple bottles of wine as a consolation prize!
So I actually had the panels of my devocoux removed and had it wool flocked to fit my extremely awkward, hard to fit, high withered, scoliosis horse. Best 500$ I ever spent. A good saddle fitter will do it
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I’m not sure what bad experiences you’ve had in the past with consignment but there are a few sites that are very reputable. Highline Tack is one, and they only charge an 18% consignment fee whereas others I’ve seen are in the 25-30% range. I had my CWD listed for sale on eBay and Facebook with no interest, so I ended up consigning it at a local tack shop. Theres also a few sites like Redwood tack that will buy your saddle outright and sell it, but they usually offer only about half the saddle price because they have to turn around and sell it. I was offered $1200 as an outright purchase on a consignment site and ended up consigning it for $3000 at my local tack shop. I’d only reccomend selling it to one of those sites if you really want to get rid of it fast. Consigning on the other hand, especially at places like Highline, would really take the hassle off your hands. I hope this helps 
Who did you use? Would love the contact
Circling back with an update - I consigned my saddle with Highline this summer, and it sold in a month and I had payment in hand the next day. Susy was easy to deal with and good with communication, and her commission was only 18%, which was the lowest I found at any of the places I considered. So, I was definitely glad I didn’t waste a bunch of time trying to sell it myself, it was well worth the commission to let her handle it!
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I think its probably priced too high considering the condition you describe. I sold my friend’s older Devoucoux to Dina at Old Dominion for either $1200 or $1400, can’t remember exactly . And I believe it was listed on her website for $1795. After receiving the pictures and again after sending her the saddle, Dina commented on its excellent condition and how well cared for it was. Based on that I think your saddle is overpriced and that’s probably why its not moving.
I agree, it was worth paying a commission not to have to deal with buyers, tire kickers and trials, or wonder what kind of condition it would come back in after a trial. That’s why we just sold it directly to Dina to let her consign it.
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I had a Devoucoux on consignment that didn’t go either. I chalked it up to the economy being too good (people want new saddles) and the saddle not being enough of a deal for how old it was (and that it’s not the currently trendy brand). I ended up deciding to keep that one and sell my newer one (Antares) when the horse it was purchased for sells. We’ll see if that goes any better!
I have never tried to sell a saddle but rom what I have seen online and I store for used saddles your price is way to high. I get that Devacoucoux is a good brand but possible buyers that are looking for a used saddle don’t care about that. If they were willing to pay close to full price for a used saddle no matter the brand then they would just go and buy that same saddle brand new.
So my advice is like many others here, lower your price. Other, better brands, have sold for $800-$1000 for a saddle that is used but in good condition.
Maybe try FB breed show groups as well?
I ended up deciding to send it out to get the panels modified. Devoucoux will do it for me.
The saddle is currently modified to fit a super specific type of horse, which is why I believe it is worth more. It fits the super high ‘shark fin’ withered OTTB type. I know that when I was trying to find this saddle I spent months looking for one with this much wither clearance; so I do feel a bit bad modifying it back to just a regular saddle since I know there is someone out there, right now, trying to find this exact saddle.
I paid close to 2k, before deciding to modify it I had it down to 1500$. And it saw almost no use from me during my ownership of it.
Oh well. I will get back a saddle that fits my new horse so that is nice.
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Just curious as to how much that will cost you.
