Private Treaty Sales?

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Part Timer

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Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
189
Location
Mendon,Ohio
What are the benefits to a private treaty sale?  How does the bidding work?  If I bid $2000 and the next highest bid is $1000, does that mean I over paid by $1000?
 

farmboy

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Apr 21, 2007
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5,652
Location
south webster ohio
private treaty sales tend to work like this

first guy bids the base price. say the base is 800. he bids 800
the next guy bids 1000
the next guy bids 1200
so on and so forth

now. at the end of the sale, they sellers will call everyone who bid in order of 1st bid, 2nd bid... etc etc.

say at the end of the sale the highest bid was 2000. the first guy who bid 800 will get a call asking him if he wants to bid 2100 or however much. if he bids the price goes up, guy number 2 gets the call asking if he wants to bid. they do this in order until everyone drops out and the highest bidder gets the calf. their is always a bid board with the highest bid on that calf at the sale location.
 

Chap

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Apr 25, 2007
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623
Location
Tipton, IA
private treaty bids work like normal auctions minus the auctioneer.  you will basically start at the opening bid or "floor" price.  if you are not the first bid, the seller will tell you where you need to bid in order to be an active paricipant in the auction.  At the end of the sale (close) the sellers will contact all parties that have bid on that animal, starting with the 1st bidder,  they will then contact all bidders and ask them to increase their bid until only 1 person is left as the new owner.  The process can often take several days to complete, but it does allow people to come, view and bid over an extended time period.  most sales will run in $100 increments up to a set price ($2500 in most cases) and then go by $250 from there on out.
 

Part Timer

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Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
189
Location
Mendon,Ohio
Thanks for the replies.  Do they usually bring more money than a regular auction?  I still dont like the fact that if I purchased one that I would have to make a seperate trip back.
 

stick

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Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
388
Some sales are "load and go" meaning each animal is priced. If you are willing to pay what the animal is priced at, it's yours.
 

SKF

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Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
1,057
We had a bad experience with a private treaty sale earlier this year. We called placed a bid on a steer and left all of our information including more then one phone number. Waited until the sale was over for them to call us with the bidding and I kept my phone on at my side waiting to here from them. After a while I had not heard so I called to see where the bidding was and was informed that the steer was sold. I asked why we were not called and he claimed he tried to call and when I explained that I have been waiting by the phone and that no one has called. I also checked the back up numbers and there was no call. A couple months later I show up at a show and my daughter sees this steer and she goes there's the steer I really wanted. Talked to the people who had the steer and sure enough it was the steer we bid on. The guy explained that they have been buying from these people in the past so they were able to buy the steer. The steer was from Ok and we all live in Fl. I don't understand why this steer was in the sale when it was all ready sold?? I am no longer so trusting with these private treaty sales. I prefer a  sale where I am there to see what is going on. Anyone else have a problem before?
 

j3cattleco

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Joined
May 14, 2007
Messages
439
Location
Alamogordo NM
We have found that the Private Treaty Sales seem to work best for us and our customers.  The main reasons are people don't get caught up in the emotion of the auction and tend to have a better chance of staying on task and budget.  Other things we like about them is the lower cost to run.  You don't have a auctioneer bill to pay, or facilities to rent or build.  You  can have one anywhere.  We have built our clientel on selling steers sight unseen.  Over 70 percent of the steers we sell each year we sell sight unseen and to me that is a huge compliment.  We have quite a few steers that have already won their county fairs or are heading to state that we have been able to place with families that trusted us enough to give us their budget and then we send them calves.  One thing we try to do though also is never spend all of someone's budget.  We have changed things up this year as we are going to bid off the top calves and have the rest priced and ready to go so that families can have their choice on how they would like to proceed. 
 
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