Will Online Sales Last?

I think with the economy the way it is, producers are trying to eliminate any costs they can.  By having an online sale, they eliminate comission.  It also gives the smaller producer an avenue to market there calves.  As one of these smaller producers (lol) it seems more economical to have an online sale than having an auctioneer in.

Thought I would share an interesting comment that was made on my blog "Enough is Enough."

"There is no law that you have to have an email account, or even that you have to give your address out to companies/people that might misuse it. You can't use modern technology to have your own blog, advertise your product, and push facebook and twitter without expecting people to use the very same technology to target you as a potential customer. If you want to do things the same old way, go for it! Many producers would love to sell you their cattle privately. They just don't appreciate you jewing them down to market price, then advertising them the next week on your website for 10K. So you can't complain about a producer marketing his/her cattle using the same techniques that you use. Being on the other side of the coin is part of the deal now in this world we have created." - Anonymous

I was not criticising the use of technology to market and advertise cattle.  It has really been a dream come true for me.  As many of you have seen, we have tried to be on the leading edge for using technology (websites, then blogs) and social media (Twitter, Facebook, Steerplanet, etc) to promote our cattle operation.  Really my question is what kind of impact is the modern marketing going to have on the customer's behavior.  When it comes down to it, I am on the selling side of this business, not the buying side, so I totally see the benefits Online Auctions, Eblasts, and web ads as seen on all corners of your screen right now.  We have used most of these techniques ourselves to promote our cattle.  We raise almost all our replacements within our herd, and our own cattle we promote are home raised.  The point of posting this poll on steerplanet was to hear what the thousands of members out there, who are on the buying side of the equation, think of the direction we are heading in the cattle industry.  Not so much the benefits to the sellers, because most of us already know that answer.  More comments are welcome both on this thread and on my blog itself.

By the way Anonymous,
Thank You for checking out our blog, and I hope you enjoyed reading about our operation and maybe you even saw a few cattle that you kinda' liked.  I guess our blog worked!  This person came to our site and took the time to read it, and more importantly, took the time out of their busy life to reply with their thoughts.  <beer>

online sales have boomed, they make it alot esier to buy, as u can go see them and then be somewhere else when they are bought. A downside for me is that, when i go look at 350+ cattle in one weekend, then start to bid online, i have a hard time remembering just how good i thought that one was. Of course i will remember my favorites, but realistically i cant afford all of them. I like to be at the sale early in the morning, one of the first few there, and watch the cattle from a distance all day long, how do they catch my eye, do i know him when i see him, will he have a chance to get looked over by a judge? Im an instinct type of guy, so i have to do a lot of talking to myself when one hits me hard that has a big fault, or potential fault. I like to pick them apart so that i will know what to expect come showtime.

The reason i like buying in person, is the fact that i can pick up reads off the contending bidder much like poker. If they are hesitant, i may go a few bids over what i was originally willing to spend to try and get them bought. But if they still read strong, im not the type to run someone for no reason. Online bidding takes the personality and competition out of buying and makes it less fun for me.

Another thing about online sales, whose to say that the bidder is a good person, good for the money, what if some kid gets on there and bids 20000, cuz he wants a steer when really his dad was out at 5,  then the contending bidder gets him for a lot more than what he really wouldve had to pay. I may be old fashionesd, but the internet has taken personal contact out of everything, theyre even starting to have online shows.

From what I'm hearing, you will not see as many steer guys sell online next year. Mainly for two reasons. One being the commission. I was involved in an online sale on one of the popular sites earlier this fall and the 10%/head cost was a REALLY big expense when we sold almost 40 head for a $3000 average. The sale management probably only sold 4-6 lots for us, the rest went to ppl we would have sold to anyway, so it was not worth that much extra cost, when we had been doing a phone sale with zero commission the last several years. The other place that it cost us some money was by establishing a sale order like a live auction, it limits the person from just jumping down to another calf, or listing alternates, like you do with a phone bid off. I have talked to several other producers and sellers who are thinking the same thing