Where to sell brown dressage saddle?

[the_rook]

Just as a note - I am not selling anything here

I have a really beautiful medium brown dressage saddle that I have been hanging on to for, oh, 7-8 years because I thought it might one day fit “my second horse” that I didn’t have yet. Well, the day has come, and I have a second horse and it doesn’t fit her chunky self! The saddle can be widened one size, but really, I just don’t think that will work since it has more of an A shaped tree and she is kind of like a small barrel on legs. So reluctantly I am going to sell it.

However, my problem is I have contacted a couple consignment shops and none of them are interested in taking it because it’s brown, despite that it is a nice brand and in excellent condition. So I am wondering - can anyone recommend some consignment shops that might take a brown saddle? Or somewhere I should try independently selling it? I don’t want to sell on eBay because I have gotten burned a couple times by buyers and I don’t want to lose such an expensive item or have it returned to me damaged. I looked through some of the dressage tack pages on Facebook but they hardly seem to have anyone commenting on items.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

[AnastasiaBeaverhousen]

Contact Pelham Saddlery. You fill out a form and submit it. They will send you back a form stating whether or not they will accept your saddle on consignment.
You can put a price or they will suggest a price.
I thought their consignment fee reasonablr.
They can even detail your saddle if you want. For a price of course.

They are a reputable company . But go to their web site and read for yourself. They post their terms and conditions and it looks pretty straightforward to me.

There are a couple of online consignment shops that deal with high dollar saddles.
if you look through some previous saddle search threads you might find them.

But I’d start with Pelham Saddlery first.

Good luck

[joiedevie99]

If it is a brand that has reps in the country, like Custom Saddlery, the local rep is your best bet. Otherwise, I’d say I see a lot more brown saddles around than I did 10 years ago. Maybe try a tack shop in a hot dressage area, like Wellington.

[the_rook]

@AnastasiaBeaverhousen Thank you! I had looked at Pelham before but not for a long time. I will fill out their form and see what they say!

@joiedevie99 That’s a good idea. I wouldn’t have even thought of contacting a rep. Although I am in Oregon and the saddle reps and fitters are a little sparse haha

[Fellbutbackup]

Equus Now in Ohio might be able to help

[mmeqcenter]

Facebook is where I see a lot of saddens selling, including brown. If it is an 18”, please PM me details I may be interested

[mpsbarnmanager]

Contact Sam’s Saddlery on fb. She’s a personal friend with low commissions and great results!

[arabiansrock]

If it’s a 17.5 or 18 please pm me also, I may also be interested

[CLB15]

Short of a brand rep (some will take consignments but others are trade-in only) I agree with the suggestion for FB groups specifically for dressage saddles. I haven’t had success selling my lightly-used-but-doesn’t-fit, brown saddle yet but have found a replacement (also brown) on there. There’s so many consignment tack shops out there, that unless they’re putting listings on ebay or FB I feel like as a buyer it’s find all the shops to feel like you’re seeing all your options.

[fordtraktor]

Ditto FB Marketplace. I have sold a ton of stuff on there. I usually don’t get comments until the item actually sells, most people PM.

[DQ_Foxhunter]

I agree with FB Marketplace, I sold a older saddle flat knee rolls) on there that I thought I was going to have to give away.
One of my dressage horses is chestnut and I use brown tack on her.
I like brown tack on chestnuts, I have a black saddle for the bay.
There are people who like brown tack so hang in there!

[GraceLikeRain]

FB for sure. Brown saddles are not common and tend to get a lot of attention. High quality photos, detail description, and measurements tend to weed out the tire kickers who send a single question at a time for days and then disappear.

[Lucassb]

I recently sold my much loved brown Makila on FB. I had to list it a couple times (and it was a wide tree, which is perhaps a smaller market.) But I got a good price for it (above what one of the more active consignment places suggested as a list price) and it sold reasonably fast.

[equinelibrium]

That’s surprising that no one is interested in taking it. I got my brown dressage saddle from my local saddle fitter who had it on consignment. If I’m remembering correctly, it sold pretty quick (and it’s a bit of an odd size). Maybe it’s my jumper roots but I adore my brown saddle, it’s much prettier than black in my opinion. I agree that FB marketplace is your best bet, but I can send you my fitter’s contact info if you’re interested!

[the_rook]

Wow! Awesome, thank you all so much for the recommendations and suggestions to try selling on FB. Pelham did actually say they would take it, but I guess if I didn’t have to pay a commission that would be nice too - since I have to buy a new (to me) saddle for my young horse and I can use all the $$ I can get!

@equinelibrium I also really like the look of brown dressage saddles… the one I have for my older mare is coincidentally brown as well.

Sorry to those of you looking for a 17.5"-18", it’s a 17". I swear it always goes that people are selling whatever you aren’t looking for. I feel like I see 17.5"-18" saddles all day long for sale while I’m looking for 16.5"-17" ones!

[hoopoe]

16.5 is a rare bird for dressage saddles

DO you have a saddle fitter, have you let them know?

Does the ODS newsletter / site take sales listings? What about the Chapter in the greater Portland area?

Cannot believe brown has not made it back into mainstream. I have always used brown and my fitter had no issue moving my old saddle when I needed a new one.

[Hayburner]

I used a brown Frank Balinese Elegance on my chestnut gelding’. It looked super.

[Jarpur]

I had a brown one, too, and liked it very much – it was quite attractive on two red duns I owned which it fit very well – so I think there’s a market for yours. But, when I sold the horse for which it was an especially good fit (my independent fitter, who hadn’t sold me the saddle, said it was as though it was custom), her buyer also bought the saddle, which didn’t fit my up-and-coming young horse.

If I had to sell one, sans matching horse, I’d contact my saddle fitter. She does a tremendous amount of business, and could probably get it done quickly for a reasonable commission.

It’s worth it to me not to have to deal with tirekickers, people who don’t read (or comprehend) ads, or shipping. And I say this has someone who has sold (and shipped) several saddles online in the past, and one in a consignment shop (which got me what I had paid for it when new, even after deducting the commission!).

[the_rook]

I do have a saddle fitter, and I can definitely ask her if she would take it - but I might try selling on FB first for a little bit and see how that goes! I too find the lack of reading comprehension and stupid questions to be annoying so we will see how long that lasts.

I was actually really surprised that one of the places I contacted said no (kind of local to me), because they do a good volume of used saddles and had a couple (like 2-3) brown dressage saddles on their website. Maybe they didn’t like the brand/color/size combo, I don’t know, but they specifically said they didn’t want it because they had no market for brown dressage saddles.

[the_rook]

@hoopoe

16.5 is a rare bird for dressage saddles

For sure - my jump saddle is 16.5" but my dressage is 17" Even 17" in dressage seems hard to find sometimes!