How to price a saddle ?

[TSWJB]

[QUOTE=goodlife;7358962]
For the person who asked about age on a high end saddle, I just sold a saddle that was originally purchased for $5k in 2001 for $1500. It took a few months to get a deal done as well. It was a pretty standard size Delgrange, if that helps you at all.[/QUOTE]

thanks that is very helpful! the saddle i was looking at was more money and she and I got stuck over 50 bucks. I felt if she didnt accept, then it was meant to look for something newer. If she did accept, I would take a chance, but i was worried about the tree being 10 years old. She didn’t get back to me. And i know the saddle has been for sale for many months. i was wondering why it wasn’t snapped up. Then saw threads on used saddle trees breaking after 2 years of use and panels might need to be redone. I am so confused as to what i want to get! and i have to stay in a reasonable budget because i will be in the market for an F150 or F250 at some point in the future. The truck is more important to me, and spending money on a saddle is dipping into my truck budget.

[jn4jenny]

[QUOTE=ammy-ville;7358828]
Speaking of seam tears due to idiots riding in jeans (hey, all my saddles were REALLY hard leather up until then apparently…)

IS there anyway to repair a small seam seperation due to a rub on the seat seam from jeans without doing full seat replacement that isn’t ugly?

Has anyone had experience on whether damage will spread if said idiot stopped riding in jeans after realizing what caused the damage? Or does it (on an otherwise healthy well made saddle) just stay in status quo if you ride in soft breeches thereafter?

Edit: Sorry to highjack![/QUOTE]

Without seeing the actual rip, it would be hard to say whether it’s likely to keep splitting.

That said, most seat-splits can be patched. If it’s done tactfully, it can stop the seam from spreading and not affect the ride-ability of the saddle. But of course, depending on the location of the seam and how it would need to be patched, it can also be something you feel through your breeches on every stride.

[alto]

[QUOTE=TSWJB;7358859]
I have stopped small tears from getting bigger with crazy glue. Bevals doesn’t like this when I did this. I had to have the stitching repaired because it was coming apart and they kept saying why did you do that? But it works! I was going to have a seat replaced by someone and they told me they had a waiting list and if I wanted a quick fix I could use crazy glue. It really works. I had a hole develop in my knee pads from the rain one day. I just glued it back together. It has lasted. I had to reglue about a year later.[/QUOTE]

If you’re going to use this, go ahead & try to remove it before taking the saddle in for any repairs … then you’ll have an appreciation for why Beval (& other leather people) consider this an unkindness to beautiful leather.

If you’re OK with a glued together saddle, then keep that tube handy

I looked at a used saddle that someone had driven 20-30 tiny nails into the pommel, then someone else had tried to remove (most) of them … I didn’t buy the saddle …

[JenEM]

[QUOTE=jn4jenny;7359187]
Without seeing the actual rip, it would be hard to say whether it’s likely to keep splitting.

That said, most seat-splits can be patched. If it’s done tactfully, it can stop the seam from spreading and not affect the ride-ability of the saddle. But of course, depending on the location of the seam and how it would need to be patched, it can also be something you feel through your breeches on every stride.[/QUOTE]

Mine is a Beval, and it was stitched to fix the splits, maybe 1.5-2" on either side. You can’t see it or feel it when riding, and I’ve done both h/j and some starter-BN eventing in it as well, over a period of several years, with no worsening of the splits, but I think I’ve ridden in it in jeans maybe twice, when I was doing some rehab walks. I’d actually talked with a fitter/repair person about fixing it, but they didn’t reseat, and for something that didn’t effect the rideablity, I didn’t feel it was forth messing with further. Now that I’m looking at selling it, I was curious to see what others thoughts were on how that would effect pricing. Thanks to those who chimed in on that point, especially the fitters!

[jn4jenny]

RM, I’ll start by saying that the US market and the Canadian market are a bit different. JMHO but prices tend to be a bit higher in Canada, but French tack seems to move a little faster on the US market. If you want to look at Canadian prices,

That said, if you’re willing to send it to the US for consignment, I can tell you who I’d send it to if your priority is to move it fast and at a fair price: Cori McGraw at High End Used Saddles. She’s usually not my first pick because her consignment rate is a wee big higher than the other excellent French-tack consignment dealers in the US (if you’re wondering, my favorite is Patricia at fineusedsaddles.com who is a total class act, also a big fan of Rachel at iselltack.com). But Cori basically sold her ENTIRE INVENTORY over the Christmas holidays, so she’s got clients beating down her door for saddles. She posted about it on her FB page and if you look at her inventory list, it’s not an exaggeration. To be clear, I like Cori as a vendor too, and the only reason I’d rank her third is because of her 25% consignment rate. But given her inventory shortage, she could mark your saddle up 5-6% more to cover that higher consignment rate and still move the saddle.
http://www.highendusedsaddles.com/consignment.htm

FWIW, Patricia’s consignment rate is 20% and Rachel’s rate is 15%. But the price you pay for Rachel’s low consignment rate is that she’s swimming in inventory. Patricia’s inventory hovers somewhere in the middle.
http://fineusedsaddles.com/consignment.php
http://iselltackblog.com/consignment-agreement/

Even if you don’t want to consign, browsing those three ladies’ sites will give you a ballpark on your saddle’s market value.

You might also find some comps on CWD Used Sellier, Used-Devoucoux.com, French-Used-Saddles.com, Marylandtackexchange.com, etc.

[Spud_amp_Saf]

[QUOTE=alto;7359244]
If you’re going to use this, go ahead & try to remove it before taking the saddle in for any repairs … then you’ll have an appreciation for why Beval (& other leather people) consider this an unkindness to beautiful leather.

If you’re OK with a glued together saddle, then keep that tube handy

I looked at a used saddle that someone had driven 20-30 tiny nails into the pommel, then someone else had tried to remove (most) of them … I didn’t buy the saddle …[/QUOTE]

I fixed a small split on my saddle with krazy glue a few months ago. It was on an older saddle that I got for a great deal, and the split was tiny. So far, it’s holding up well also. I have no intentions of re-selling this saddle at any time - I got it for a decent price and its useful for a lot of different horses, so I figured I would take the chance.

[TSWJB]

[QUOTE=alto;7359244]
If you’re going to use this, go ahead & try to remove it before taking the saddle in for any repairs … then you’ll have an appreciation for why Beval (& other leather people) consider this an unkindness to beautiful leather.
If you’re OK with a glued together saddle, then keep that tube handy
QUOTE]

I was definitely letting people know that gluing your saddle works great, but not if you want to sell it because stores like Bevals really got annoyed with me for gluing the seat where it starts to wear at the seams. It stopped all wear and it was smooth because I used my finger and smoothed it out. Never caught on my breeches like a patch would do. And its such a small layer, it will not be hard to remove if you wanted the seat replaced.
BUT Bevals did make a very big deal about it, even though that was not what I brought the saddle in for. The panels were coming undone and I needed them to be stitched back.
If I were to replace my knee rolls, it would be a piece of cake to pull them apart from the saddle even if the part that I glued was right on the edge. I have no intention of replacing them though, so I glued my hole back together and its working great! Nothing snags or gets caught when I am riding. Nice smooth glue! But I am sure Bevals would be offended!

[TSWJB]

[QUOTE=jn4jenny;7359299]
To be clear, I like Cori as a vendor too, and the only reason I’d rank her third is because of her 25% consignment rate. But given her inventory shortage, she could mark your saddle up 5-6% more to cover that higher consignment rate and still move the saddle.
http://www.highendusedsaddles.com/consignment.htm

FWIW, Patricia’s consignment rate is 20% and Rachel’s rate is 15%. But the price you pay for Rachel’s low consignment rate is that she’s swimming in inventory. Patricia’s inventory hovers somewhere in the middle.
http://fineusedsaddles.com/consignment.php
http://iselltackblog.com/consignment-agreement/

.[/QUOTE]
Curious why the lower commission person is swimming with saddles but the higher commission person is all sold out? From this list, I would buy from Rachel because I bet the saddles would be priced lower. I find that the sellers want the money for their saddle so if they consign to a higher commission person, they mark the saddles up more. At least 3 people told me, they would ask more if they consigned.

[jn4jenny]

[QUOTE=TSWJB;7359433]
Curious why the lower commission person is swimming with saddles but the higher commission person is all sold out? From this list, I would buy from Rachel because I bet the saddles would be priced lower. I find that the sellers want the money for their saddle so if they consign to a higher commission person, they mark the saddles up more. At least 3 people told me, they would ask more if they consigned.[/QUOTE]

The short answer is “because the saddle market is more complicated than buy low, sell high.” That’s certainly at the heart of things, but there’s a whole lot of factors that influence why sellers pick a consignment vendor and why buyers buy from a particular vendor.

A higher consignment rate doesn’t always mean worse deals. Cori’s prices are sometimes even lower than Rachel’s. It depends so much on the circumstances. Every saddle has its own story, every seller has their own priorities, every buyer has a different equation of things they care about besides the saddle’s bottom-line price.

If I were a buyer OR a seller of a high-end French saddle, I would shop with all three vendors. I’m simply suggesting to Royal Monaco that if speed is a factor, Cori happens to be in a position to move inventory quickly. That may not be true in 2, 4, 6 weeks. I’ve seen times when Cori’s inventory gets glutted and Rachel’s a little light in the loafers. :lol:

[horsepoor]

I don’t believe I Sell Tack (“Rachel”) is just 15% anymore. It was 18% when I inquired back in August or so and I thought I saw somewhere recently that it is now 20%.

I had a fabulous experience selling through Patricia and Fine Used Saddles, so would highly recommend her, if the OP decides to go the consignment route. And it us a brand/model that fits in to her type of inventory.

[ammy-ville]

I don’t know that Cori ever carries that big of an inventory, and her prices are very very fair and several people from my barn have dealt with her and found her very easy and reliable. Not that the others aren’t, just she’s the one I have experience with, but I have been lurking on her website for years and I don’t know that she’s ever had a huge inventory of saddles.

[Royal_Monaco]

Well, the Devoucoux is sold and the CWD is ordered