I am a member of English Tack Exchange & English Tack Trader. These are large groups with 60k+ members. I remember the days where you would have to comment within a minute to snag an item. Tons of people would be commenting “next”, bidding wars, and sending their PayPal info. Now, I’ve noticed these sale ads are LUCKY to get an “interested” comment and definitely no ‘likes’. Obviously, we’re in the middle of a pandemic but I noticed this months before Covid crept into the US. What do you think has changed with selling/buying on Facebook? Interested in everyone’s response because I feel like there’s been a dramatic shift.
IMO, prices seem to be higher on used stuff now, and shipping costs more; I don’t particularly need anything so I only browse once in a while, but I haven’t seen anything that even sparked my interest as a good deal in quite a while. No point in paying almost new price plus shipping when I can buy brand new for the same $$$ (and get 2-3 day delivery!).
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Even a few years ago when I was selling a ton of stuff on there for a friend, I really only made sales directly from my ad if the items were a) name brand b) hot/fads at the moment c) almost brand new and d) priced very reasonably. Also, with that many people posting your ad moves down the page extremely fast so you have to be lucky that somebody who wants those items sees it.
I had much better luck with selling when I went through the page looking for people who had posted ads in search of items that I had and responding to those.
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I have found the same with my local FB horse classified groups. There isn’t as much listed and it tends to be more expensive.
I do know younger people are trending away from Facebook so the traffic might be slowing. I don’t know if there are sales sites on other apps.
I remember when Craigslist was great locally for horses and tack but that evaporated totally
I have been finding the search function in FB groups to be basically unusable. I don’t have time to scroll through everything that has been posted for the one specific item I’m looking for, so unless it’s desperate or something I can only afford used I have changed to the marketplace function, or the used tack websites that have been popping up.
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I tried using the FB page High End English Tack for sale this spring when I was looking for a good quality event saddle and the best response I had looked like the perfect saddle. Thank god paypal wouldn’t let me pay, as the seller was tagged by paypal as a scammer. Made me very leery dealing on FB for those kinds of sales. I have had good luck with e-bay in the past and at least through e-bay you have some slight protection as a buyer.
Ah yes, everyone has made pretty good points. It’s over saturated with junk and over priced items. I think I also realized that a few years ago “equestrian fashion” took a trendier turn towards Instagram brands where people went wild for that stuff. I guess the craze has kind of fizzled out or there’s different groups for those fads. I’ve noticed ‘Saddle Pads Anonymous’ is still going strong with people exchanging saddle pads at ridiculous prices. I bet it’s a matter of time until that is done and over with.
I used to always be able to sell items on that page whereas now I feel like I’ll have better luck at my local tack shop. Yes, my profit takes a hit but I suppose it’s good to support local. I was shocked that I couldn’t sell a Cavalleria Toscana jacket for $100.
I’m really leery of buying tack on FB, especially from those who are frequent posters and have a large inventory. I got totally scammed by someone who advertises a lot of stuff and, I assume, sells a lot. I paid $150 for what was advertised as a PS of Sweden High Jump Bridle. Instead I got some really cheap knockoff. The leather was such poor quality I wouldn’t even put it on my horse. I ended up selling it for $15 at a used tack sale.
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The search thing is a killer for me. I can’t ever find what I’m looking for, even with a brand name… so I look elsewhere for deals, like a sale at Riding Warehouse that offers free shipping over a certain dollar amount.
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I’ve only ever bought off FB locally, where I could go see the stuff. Every single time was straight up and fair even if the saddle or breeches ended up not fitting and j didn’t buy.
I don’t know what the deal is with the FB sellers with bottomless supplies of “new with tags” gear. I assume one of the following: they buy deep discounted closeouts and resell at a profit but less than full retail; they are selling knockoffs; they are selling stolen goods. They are never local, so I don’t bother with them.
Once when we had a light fingered, FB active, problem young adult at the barn, it occurred to me the very fractured FB market was a huge boon for anyone sling stolen goods. You could steal locally and you could then post them for sale on a FB group on the other side of the country and likely no one who knew you would ever stumble across your post.
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Many people are probably moving to using FB Marketplace as well. I find a lot of tack for sale on there as well as the other sites. The searching ability makes it easy (so long as things are spelled right, I always try variations to make sure to find the best deal).
I think most of these groups came about prior to FB Marketplace being a big thing. I’ve gotten a few things off both the group. I’m actually trying to sell boots right now and so far I’ve only had a few bites that haven’t gone through (Posted to both a group AND marketplace). People are holding onto their money from the shutdown as well.
I agree I have found a lot more tack posted on FB Marketplace. I have found that people are just asking ridiculous amounts of money for used items…if I can buy it new for $10 more after cost + shipping, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m buying new!
I also find the search function to be difficult to use. I don’t have all day to try and locate the one piece of tack I may be looking for. So, I think perhaps if the search function were a little easier, I would browse more.
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There was some young person who was trying to set up a saddle selling site on FB but only wanted to sell high quality. Think CWD, Voltaire, that type. She posted looking for low cost, high quality saddles for sale that she could buy and resell at a higher price. She was only willing to pay up to $2,000 per saddle. I couldn’t believe anyone would go for it, because if she was going to sell it at a higher price than she was buying it for, why wouldn’t the owner just do it themselves and keep the profits? I haven’t seen her posts in a while so I guess it didn’t go down the way she planned.
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I buy and sell often on Facebook and have only had an issue with someone scamming me two times.
I’ll hit up my local tack sales and buy stuff to resell. It certainly has helped me pay for more than a few vet bills.
Still selling my stuff like hot cakes. If things are overpriced then people won’t bite. Consumers are more educated than ever. If you can search the item and find it the same price new, no one is going to by it used lol
Yeah, I see lots of overpriced stuff. I mean, as much as I want to help out individual people instead of lining more corporate pockets, it just isn’t worth buying something for more than, say, 75% of its retail price. IDC if it’s only been used once, ye private seller doesn’t come with a 30-day return policy and guarantee that I’ll get the item I think I’m buying (well, almost guarantee, Wayfair did just send me the wrong floor mats. But I got to return them for a refund with zero issue). I constantly see “Buyer beware!” Posts of people never getting items after paying, getting something completely different, etc.)
Facebook groups are also heckin annoying to look for stuff since there’s no search filters or anything. Marketplace is marginally better - I put in search filters but it still constantly shows me crap that doesn’t fit my search filters at all.
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The stuff that I sell either goes immediately or never at all. I think part of it is that the post gets buried easily if no one comments. I had a few pairs of pants I posted 2 - 3 times and had no interest. Then I posted them in the comments of an ISO add. The poster bought them all and I had three more people ask me if there were still available. I guess they just never got to see the original post.
Things that aren’t common brands won’t sell. You want that middle of the range stuff that is expensive enough people are looking for a deal but not so expensive that they have never seen the brand in real life and have no idea if it’ll fit.
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I’ve found a few great deals for used tack in the facebook groups (in particular that Tailored Sportsman reseller when she posts brand new with tags breeches), but I do agree that sometimes things get buried and the lack of search function is frustrating. The bad experience that I had was this:
Someone posted a sort of “down on their luck because of COVID” ISO post looking for super cheap schooling breeches to ride in so I sold a few pairs of schooling breeches to that person at a low low price basically giving them away. A few days later that very same down on their luck person listed each pair of breeches that I sold to her for 5x the price!! I guess good for her for being so entrepreneurial but it rubbed me the wrong way, I would have rather donated them somewhere. Since then I’ve seen that same person post ISOs for particular items and again re-sell them a few days later.
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Wow that’s a special kind of jerk.
I agree, I sold my items really quickly because my goal was to get rid of them more so then to make as much money back from them. Almost all the posts I see, people are trying to sell items for close to retail cost. My favorite are people trying to sell items that are above what they cost on sale (Greenhak brand specifically in Canada) currently justifying because they did not purchase the item during the sale. Also, to see used blankets go for more than $200 makes no sense. My horse ripped her winter blanket, and I got her a brand new Weatherbeeta cheaper than what the average selling price for a used winter was going for.
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