Just Curious about private treaty sales

[STEERJOCK21L]

I justed wanted to ask;what is a private treaty sale ))? How do they work,what goes on. All information is needed.

 

[cherokee1]

since no one has answered you yet, here it is in a nut shell.

Assuming (yes I know what happens when you assume) that you are talking private treaty bid off like they do in Iowa and SD....

You go to breeders place, look at the calves still on cow and for the most part not clipped (some places have already weaned but not to many)

Find calf that you like

Put "bid" on said calf.

Sale has an end date of say Sept. 20th at noon.

Who ever showed interest in that calf by the 20th at noon then gets called, You bid say 9 and there is 2 other people that put bids on calf so then you get called and they say Hey on calf 2007 that you bid on you will need to be 1200.00 (because 2 other people bid after you at 1000 and 1100) you either say yea or neigh, if you bid again at 12 then breeder calls person #2 and says you need to be 13, and so on.  It goes this way until people drop off and someone ends up with the calf. 

You do have to trust who you are trying to buy from to a certain extent, since the bidding is on the phone not in person seeing the other people bid also. As a side note, we have met alot of awesome people by visiting their place that we now call friend. 


This year, we put bids on 6 different calves (all steers) and ended up with 2, the other 4 calves went into the 10 and 20 thousand dollar marks.......

The down side is that we have to make another 800 mile trip to go pick up our calves. 
The upside is you get to see part of the USA that you may not have seen before, you meet really good people, from the people with the calves to sell to other people looking.  This has been our family adventure/vacation for 10 years now, it is great time spent with your family, times that can not be replaced and times that I am going to REALLY miss when we are done. Makes me sad because this is our last year then all the kids are done showing 4-H level anyway and are in college.

Hope that is what you were looking for.

 

[jason]

Great rundown, some of the rules will change depending on the seller, but very informative description.

 

[ELBEE]

Private sales here at ELBEE Farms are: Visit, view herd. Sale cattle have pre-set price, first come first pick. Sometimes prices can be negotiated on volume sales. Depending on time of year and class of cattle (bulls, replacement heifers, club calves), cattle can load and go.

 

[CAB]

I like the FCFS sales best. As producers you just need to be happy with what price you have set the animals @, and be ready to keep them if you don't get your price. If as a buyer, you are going to some of these pasture bid off sales, have a price in mind ahead of time that you are going to back off @ and try to stick to that. Than you will hopefully not get home with a calf that you aren't going to be happy with. This also helps with you wondering if you are being ran up by the seller, which I don't think happens very much, but I may be naive. Cab

 

[DLD]

Trust is important in the bid off sales. We have a few of those down here, and the ones I have participated in have the policy that if you are the buyer and you ask, they will tell you who the runner up bidder is (after bidding is closed) so that you can contact them and confirm that if you wish.

A set price, first come first serve format is still the most comfortable way to buy for me, but I understand that the bid off deals usually make more (sometimes alot more) money for the sellers, so I respect their decisions to sell 'em however they want.

 

[CAB]

  What I like the best about FCFS is that you know that you may not be able to aford that great one and know that you may be able to find the calf that just need stime to come on and you don't have to run around so much. Cab

 

[common sense]

The nice thing is that most of them will allow you to drop to another calf if your first choice goes beyond your budget.  It's important to make notes or even take a picture on all of the calves that you like so that you can keep them straight when you are bidding.  I think the bid off is nice especially when they will let you know afterwards who you were bidding against.  That keeps it fair.  It's no different than an auction...just SLOWER.  I guarantee you don't always know who you are bidding against in a auction especially when they offer internet buyers.

 

[cowz]

We have a fall, first come, first served sale.  We call it "Load and Go" pricing.  If you pay the asking price, we write a pre-approved brand inspection and bill of sale and away you go.

We don't play games with prices.  We try to have calves for sale in all categories, something for every budget.  The only way we dicker is if a large group, such as a family or FFA chapter buys together.  Then we will cut some slack.  We also try to help our buyers with free feet trimming and pre-fair cliipping and the use of our scales.  We thought about trying the silent auction style, but most of our customers come from a long way off and would not be excited about making 2 trips.

 

[mommacow]

The nice thing is that most of them will allow you to drop to another calf if your first choice goes beyond your budget.  It's important to make notes or even take a picture on all of the calves that you like so that you can keep them straight when you are bidding.  I think the bid off is nice especially when they will let you know afterwards who you were bidding against.  That keeps it fair.  It's no different than an auction...just SLOWER.  I guarantee you don't always know who you are bidding against in a auction especially when they offer internet buyers.

I hate that drop down on another calf if the one you bid on gets out of your price range.  Just hate it!!  But I understand why it happens.  We try to stay away from the sales that do that.

 

[AAOK]

I've been in Sales all my life, and everything I have ever sold (with the exception of my house) has been by private treaty. 
By definition: Private Treaty - a sale of property at a price agreed on by the seller and buyer without an intervening agency.

 

[common sense]

I don't know why you would stay away from sales that allow you to bid on another calf if yours goes too high?  I think that works nice so that you don't get stuck with more calves than you want or need.  If you have several calves that you like in one location you can bid on your favorite and if it goes too high you can jump to your second favorite.  I think thats a nice deal so you aren't just left out completely. I think it's a nice service.

I hate that drop down on another calf if the one you bid on gets out of your price range.  Just hate it!!  But I understand why it happens.  We try to stay away from the sales that do that.

 

[afhm]

I don't care from that dropping down mess either.  I understand why the sellers do it, and it is their sale play by their rules or don't play at all. The way I feel, or would do it is make you submit a bid before the deadline on every calf in which you are interested.  If you only want one calf, inform me at the get go and when you get one bought you would be allowed to drop out on  the other calves you have bid on if you so choose.  It sucks when you have had the only bid on a calf from the deadline then all of a sudden there are  other people on the calf.  I wish more sellers that don't allow the dropping would call every one who has the only bid at closing time and let those people know that they have that calf bought so they can bid accordingly on other calves knowing that their budget is a little smaller. 

 

[DLD]

I don't care from that dropping down mess either.  I understand why the sellers do it, and it is their sale play by their rules or don't play at all. The way I feel, or would do it is make you submit a bid before the deadline on every calf in which you are interested.  If you only want one calf, inform me at the get go and when you get one bought you would be allowed to drop out on  the other calves you have bid on if you so choose.  It sucks when you have had the only bid on a calf from the deadline then all of a sudden there are  other people on the calf.  I wish more sellers that don't allow the dropping would call every one who has the only bid at closing time and let those people know that they have that calf bought so they can bid accordingly on other calves knowing that their budget is a little smaller. 

I'd prefer it that way, too. The one sale that I do buy something out of every year does tell you before the sale if you're the only bidder that the calf is yours. They tried the drop down thing, but weren't real satisfied with it - I'll tell them about this idea and see if they might be willing to try it.

 

[JbarL]

We have a fall, first come, first served sale.  We call it "Load and Go" pricing.  If you pay the asking price, we write a pre-approved brand inspection and bill of sale and away you go.

We don't play games with prices.  We try to have calves for sale in all categories, something for every budget.  The only way we dicker is if a large group, such as a family or FFA chapter buys together.  Then we will cut some slack.  We also try to help our buyers with free feet trimming and pre-fair cliipping and the use of our scales.  We thought about trying the silent auction style, but most of our customers come from a long way off and would not be excited about making 2 trips.

 ......bingo....thats cow business......i sure enjoy all the  www stuff....for lookin'...and askin'....and learn'.....but buyin' and sellin' means .....goin' an gettin'....an payin'.
works good for us.......and the folks we deal with also.....jbarl