Should sale catalogs still be mailed out?

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Mitch

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Sep 3, 2008
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N.E. Iowa
Just received my Shorthorn Country today.  Believe there were mailed out last of April.  It was almost 3 weeks in the mail.  So if we want Sale catalogs in the hands of buyers 2-3 weeks before the sale and it takes 1 week to print plus another week to design.  Know we are out 8 weeks.  So to get  pictures we must start 9-10 weeks before the sale. Some of my calves may not be born yet.  Calves can change alot in 2 1/2 months before the sale.

So my question is:                    Do you want a catalog mailed to you?

                                                    Is a on-line catalog adequate?
           
                                                    Any other suggestions
 

jason

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Emporia, Kansas
I think we are in the bridge between the two right now.  I think there will always be place for printed materials, but I do think we will see a large shift to online catalogs. 

For my wife's first mother's day, I bought her an ipad 2.  I am not a huge fan of Apple, but her mom and a few other relatives had one and they wanted to "face time" with each other.  After messing around with it the last couple days, the idea of a tablet really does fit a need.  It will never be a desktop replacement for power users, but I can see it filing the niche of the laptop.  It is so easy to pick it up, be instantly on and start browsing the web or using apps.  Battery life blows away a laptop, it essentially a large smart phone.

Further, as we start rolling out more fiber, everyone is going to be connected to lines that was essentially make any wait time a thing of the past.  We are beginning the age where everything will be stored on clouds online; movies, video games, your files, and even operating systems.  The rumor on the new play station 4 is that it will not even take discs, everything will be connected through an online server.

 

firesweepranch

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SW MO
Being from a rural area, I can assure you that printed material is a MUST for many older breeders that refuse to embrace the technology. And, if you do not mail them a catalog, they will not come and buy! Also, I like to have one in my hand, I look up cow records and make notes on how many calves were registered and such. Just me
 

stick

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I don't have a laptop or tablet yet, so I would prefer having a printed catalog rather than moving the desktop to the "reading room".  ;D
 

justintime

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Saskatchewan Canada
I'm always a little surprised by the number of producers who still do not ( or will not) use a computer. I find these people in all areas of the US and Canada. Some of the most surprising ones to me are not very old. I can think of a couple producers in the mid 40s who requested sale catalogs for our bull sale this year. I told both these guys that our catalog was online and both said that they did not own a computer. Some of these people are very progressive cattle breeders, and I know of a couple very well known producers who have never sent an email and would have problems turning a computer on.

I agree that this may change in time, but I think we will have to reply on snail mail for some time into the future. One of the problems I have with online sale catalogs is that some people delete their sale catalogs very soon after the completion of the sale. I purchaed embryos in two sales this spring, and my printer was not working at the time. In both cases I could not even find out what sale lots I had purchased 1 day after the sale, because the sale catalogs were removed from the site already.

I do not think online sale catalogs are the total answer myself. I still prefer having a sale catalog in my hands over trying to read an online sale catalog, but I fully understand the frustrations of trying to get a sale catalag produced and mailed so that there is time to get to people. It can drive you crazy!  I always mail sale catalogs first class just because I don't trust snail mail, and it gets to be a big expense.
 

Doc

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Cottontown, Tennessee
Absolutely still want a hard copy mailed to me. Still easier to flip back and forth with a real catalog.Also I stick them in my briefcase to look at when at a airport or when waiting on someone. Lots of times I will be talking to someone about the sale & it is easier to pull the catalog out than to fire up the computer.JMO
 

mark tenenbaum

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Virginia Sometimes Iowa and Kansas
Doc said:
Absolutely still want a hard copy mailed to me. Still easier to flip back and forth with a real catalog.Also I stick them in my briefcase to look at when at a airport or when waiting on someone. Lots of times I will be talking to someone about the sale & it is easier to pull the catalog out than to fire up the computer.JMO
/// I agree-I can use a computer in a rudimentary sense-but i wanted to go back over the 2012 Iowa beef expo-and its already gone-I like to keep hard copy to reference O0
 

Jacob B

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Ithaca, Michigan
I would have to say that I still like to have a hard copy in my hands to drag around with me for a wk or two prior to a sale to go over, expecialy if I'm going to a sale.  I want to study it so that I know just what I'm looking at when I see it in front me sale day.  I just can't spend that kind of time in front of the computer doing that, but if I have it with me during the day, when I get a chance I can pull it out a thumb through it a few times every once in a while.
 

Red Cow Relocators

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As a sale managment business I can tell you that while there are some who do use the online catalogs effectively, many do not. We try to have our hard copy mailed directly from the printers 4 to 6 weeks prior to the sale. Depending on the sale we may mail out from 750 to 3000+ catalogs, yes the postage is high, yes some do not arrive much before the sale, but many people including myself prefer to have a hard copy in there hands while looking through the cattle in person. We do post a link to the catalogs on our website as well. I was recently involve in a sale that was strictly on line catalogs only and my feeling was that we left alot of money on the table. It may be the wave of the future but it hasn't happened yet. RCR
 

Garrett

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Jerseyville, IL
I always like a hard copy sale catalog mailed to me but I think having an online version of it can always be helpful
 

thunderdownunder

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Australia
Nothing is as satisfying as that hard copy catalogue or newsletter, which you can carry with you and constantly flick back and forth through, or refer to on the move.
 

Aussie

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:))) Its hard to put checks and crosses next to selected lots on a on line catalog. On line is good to look at while waiting for the "real thing" but IMO hard copy for sale day and later reference is the winner.
 

Mitch

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N.E. Iowa
Thanks for the comments.  I to like the hard copy.  But for those of you that put on a production sale the cost of catalogs and postage is getting rather high.  Last year we printed and sent out about 3500 catalogs at a cost of $9075.00.  Also we have about 500-600 catalogs that didn't get to were they were sent and never came back, so who ate them!!  I know it only takes a couple of buyers who got the catalog and ended up buying to pay for the postage and catalogs.  I guess it is just part of doing business, a large part cost wise.

I was just looking for alternatives to keep the cost down.  Still appreciate any more suggestions or comments.
 

J2F

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In my dream world I like to have a hard copy catalog  and see more recent  video of the sale cattle on line somewhere.
 

upthecreek

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Elm CreeK,MB
I still like to have a hard copy of the catalogue.  My kids and I spend many hours looking through them whether or not we plan on buying anything.
 

justintime

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Mitch said:
Thanks for the comments.  I to like the hard copy.  But for those of you that put on a production sale the cost of catalogs and postage is getting rather high.  Last year we printed and sent out about 3500 catalogs at a cost of $9075.00.  Also we have about 500-600 catalogs that didn't get to were they were sent and never came back, so who ate them!!   I know it only takes a couple of buyers who got the catalog and ended up buying to pay for the postage and catalogs.   I guess it is just part of doing business, a large part cost wise.

I was just looking for alternatives to keep the cost down.  Still appreciate any more suggestions or comments.

Anyone who has never had their own production sale or has been involved in the management of a sale they have consigned to, really has no idea how much work and expense is involved, IMO.  The decisions are sometimes very tough ones but you have to design a budget and stick as close as possible to it, or your sale expenses can get crazy. Figuring out how many sale catalogs you are going to send out, where your advertising will be placed, who will be involved in your sale as sales reps and management are all important considerations. Many people think they should be on your mailing list even if they have spoken to you or purchased a few straws of semen at sometime. I had a guy phone me a week before our bull sale this spring, asking why I had taken him off our mailing list. He purchased 5 straws of semen from me last year, so I assume that is why he thought I would have placed him on our mailing list. I mailed him a sale catalog by priority mail ( at a cost of $16.00) and then contacted him prior to the sale. He told me he wasn't interested in a bull, but liked to have the sale catalog to look through. If I had known that, I could have sent it to him by regular mail and saved myself close to $15.00!  

I look at my sale catalogs as being good promotion, so I like to send quite a bunch out. Normally, I can send 750 - 800 sale catalogs out for the same price as a 1 page full color ad in a breed magazine. ( I do not believe this is a replacement for advertising in a breed magazine, but is supplemental to it) I still have to draw a line someplace in who will be included in my catalog mailing. I could easily send out 10,000- 12,000 catalogs or more,  if I send one to every person who has purchased in the past 2 years within the breed. For bull sales, it is your commercial bull buyers that are the most important and I always print lots of extra copies of the sale catalog so that it allows them to be placed in sale barns, feed and supply stores, and anywhere else potential buyers may see them. Most printers only charge a very minimal amount to overrun a sale catalog, and sometimes it really isn't much over the paper cost.

I have had 23 production sales over the years and have also consigned cattle to countless other sales. For at least 25 years, I have tried to keep sale expenses at 15% or less and I have only managed to accomplish this twice in this time. Both times this only happened because the sale grossed considerably more than what I had expected it to do.( There have been several sales that have ended up with sale costs being between 15 -16 % and some others that ended up at 18-20 %) This simply means that you need to get more for your cattle in a production sale than what you would get if you could sell them all by private treaty as there are so many built in costs. I would also add that if you have your own sale or consign to a sale, the only number that reallly is meaningful is the total dollars the sale generated for you. I have seen people almost drive themselves crazy trying to figure out why one of their animals did not bring as much as they expected and other animals brought more than expected. I always do a rough calculation of the money I would like to get from a sale. When the sale is over, if I have reached this amount or passed it, I am pleased with the sale, regardless what each animal sold for. A few years ago, we had a bad ice storm the morning of our sale, and our sale day crowd was smaller than normal,.  When the sale was over we had 8 head that had not sold, but I had surpassed what I was hoping to get from the cattle in the sale by $8800. I was very pleased with the sale, despite several people who were feeling bad that we had not got them all sold.
 

Steve123

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I have had 23 production sales over the years and have also consigned cattle to countless other sales. For at least 25 years, I have tried to keep sale expenses at 15%

15% of what?
 

justintime

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Steve123 said:
I have had 23 production sales over the years and have also consigned cattle to countless other sales. For at least 25 years, I have tried to keep sale expenses at 15%

15% of what?

15% of the sale gross
 

chambero

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Feb 12, 2007
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Texas
I'm amazed at how many places send me catalogs I've never asked for.  It's got to be expensive. 

Hard copies are absolutely necessary.  But I'd be somewhat stingy with who I sent them to unless someone requested one.
 
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