# What Should I Charge?



## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

No one?


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## DubyaS6 (Aug 30, 2010)

Just my $0.02, but I really think it would depend on the horse being sold.

What you do sounds very involved, and while I can appreciate that, if I was trying to sell a $1500 (or honestly even $5000) horse, I am not going to pay you anything near what all of that would be worth.

With that being said, if I was trying to sell a $15000 or more horse, then I may be willing to pay you $400 for your time and pictures to market my horse.


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

Well when you state 'anything over $2,000' it seems as though $2000 is around your average selling price. Hardly high calibre.

Anyone can wash, film, photograph and edit selling ads. Anyone. The art of the selling when you sell on behalf of someone is not just making the ad but who you are yourself and how much exposure YOU can give the horse.

Not on Dreamhorse. Not on EquineNow. You, _yourself_ generating additional interest on top of what someone can do themselves. What you have decribed is not a special service, just a willingness to do the work that someone else doesn't want to do.

So to me charging $30 per showing is absurd for a horse that is under $5,000 but hey a sucker is born every minute.


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## Deerly (Apr 18, 2010)

Do you have examples of the photos? The quality and composition would influence price a lot I'd think.

Good luck


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## JustDressageIt (Oct 4, 2007)

sarahver said:


> Well when you state 'anything over $2,000' it seems as though $2000 is around your average selling price. Hardly high calibre.
> 
> Anyone can wash, film, photograph and edit selling ads. Anyone. The art of the selling when you sell on behalf of someone is not just making the ad but who you are yourself and how much exposure YOU can give the horse.
> 
> ...


This.

If you're going to do sales work, maybe charge a flat fee for spiffing 'em up, taking photo and video and listing the horse (advertisement fee) then take a 10% commission if the horse sells through you. Anything else, IMO, gets mucky. 
HorsesofCanada.com ran this kind of site - they personally viewed the horses, took good quality photos and video, and acted as an agent. I believe they charged a "advertising fee" (flat fee for them to see the horse, get video/pics, and list the horse) then a 10% commission if the horse sold through them.


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## DubyaS6 (Aug 30, 2010)

I really don't think I would want to be responsible for showing the horse myself as a barn owner. You could potentially run into issues of the horse owner saying you didn't show the horse properly to the interested party.

I may be looking into it too much, but I would let the owner show the horse and if they wanted to pay your for your listing services, then great.


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## Ashley S (Apr 11, 2011)

Honestly it sounds like you're going a little overboard for any horse that isn't a champion. From what I gather you're just creating an advert for a horse on your website and then showing it to prospective buyers, unless it's professional quality the service doesn't have any significant value, even then you have to ask yourself if your average client with their $2000 horse is going to pay more than ~$100 to sell it? A dozen or so photos and a 5min demo video is probably all you need.


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

Whoops I forgot I posted this! 

I attached a few pictures I've done so far. The pictures and videos get better each time. I have a good cameras but I'm not a professional photographer or anything.. (I took a few classes in college but that's it)... Here is a link to the first sale video I did:
YouTube - ‪txpeach182's Channel‬‏

I've done the 10% thing and have got burned. I took on a horse whose price was $7500. I groomed, took photos and did a video put the horse on my website and facebook ect... They paid for dreamhorse ads but I created the ad and managed it. He was a fabulous looking horse with good breeding. Even though he was a quarter horse (whose prices have tanked since they are a dime a dozen) I probably answered 200 emails... spent hours on the phone and showed him to several people. I could've sold that horse 20 times over but he went lame and the owners couldn't afford to do a ton of diagnostics. They ended up basically giving him away and I didn't get a dime for my effort other than board. 

I've had a lot of people inquire what I would charge to do this for their horses... some to sell and some just to have nice pictures of their horse because its cheaper than hiring a traditional photographer.


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## TheLastUnicorn (Jun 11, 2010)

sarahver said:


> Well when you state 'anything over $2,000' it seems as though $2000 is around your average selling price. Hardly high calibre.
> 
> Anyone can wash, film, photograph and edit selling ads. Anyone. The art of the selling when you sell on behalf of someone is not just making the ad but who you are yourself and how much exposure YOU can give the horse.
> 
> ...


You'd think it was that easy wouldn't you... But let's admit it, a large number of sales ads have photos which won't appeal to those experienced, serious shoppers.

For instance, how many people do we get posting in the conformation thread with really awkward photos? Those are often the photos offered up, especially on sites with free ads. They are useless if conformation is important because I'm looking for my next show horse, breeding stock, etc. Less important if all I want is a sound, sane partner for my kids to plod around the yard on.

I would probably happily pay someone money to do the prep and phtography on a horse I was trying to promote for any reason. Not because I can't do it, but because I have enough on my plate without having to worry about getting those perfect shots... Bathing, braiding and all. 

I have been asked if I would shoot promo shots for people, though I always ask that they have the horse appropriately turned out, and the hander or rider as well... I just dont have that much spare time on my hands to do the part anyone with a hose and shampoo bottle can do.

I have been paid $60 per shoot. They will get 20-25 finished shots (cropped, high resolution, on a disc or memory stick). Generally I will shoot anywhere between 100 and 200 photos per shoot. The clients I've had have also then taken their favorites and blown them up for framing as a memoir. I am far from a "professional" photographer, but I've been told I have a good eye for capturing great moments.

I do think there may be a niche for this sort if thing... But what you charge may be better as a sliding scale rather than a set price. I actually didn't set my price, it was offered to me, then passed along as word of mouth. I have no. Idea what they were selling their horse's for, price wise... Nor did I care, I wanted the chance to practice my skills, with the lunch I was fed and the fun we had on top of the cash, I was more than happy LOL


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

Thank you for your input unicorn!! Well said!


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

I think a service like that should be used more often. It took me 3 years to find the right horse. I may have passed up many suitable horses because of bad pictures that stopped me from personally seeing the horse. Sometimes the right picture makes all the difference.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

DubyaS6 said:


> Just my $0.02, but I really think it would depend on the horse being sold.
> 
> What you do sounds very involved, and while I can appreciate that, if I was trying to sell a $1500 (or honestly even $5000) horse, I am not going to pay you anything near what all of that would be worth.
> 
> With that being said, if I was trying to sell a $15000 or more horse, then I may be willing to pay you $400 for your time and pictures to market my horse.


 Agreed but if you are selling an expensive horse I would think you would have lots of pics already from a show or something and would not pay for this service.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

I think people that post bad pictures are typically ones that do not show and may be a less expensive horse and they won't pay for that service.

As far as getting burned on the 10% COMMISION I don't agree. You would have been burned if they sold the horse for 7500.00 and not paid you. You win some you lose some. You could have a contract that says 10% or a minimum of X incase they decide not to sell the horse for some reason or the horse could die ion the interum.


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Agreed with above. Typically in these situations, you charge a base fee of say $100 plus 10% commission on sale of horse.

Unfortunately, it's a great service that people SHOULD use but don't/won't. I agree with other posters in saying you very likely will not find a lot of work doing this at the price it's technically worth. As someone else pointed out, the people who SHOULD use your service don't care. If you post a blurry pic of your horse grazing, you're not incompetent, you're just stupid and clearly don't give a darn about actually marketing the horse so why would you pay even $50 getting someone to do it for you?

My old Dressage coach is now an advertised "sales agent", who basically offers virtually the same service - however, the reason she makes money is because of connections. It's worth something to people to have their horses on her site and have her telling her friends.


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## Ladytrails (Jul 28, 2010)

I would love to have this caliber of well-done photos of my horses, even though they aren't being sold. Just for my album, I'd pay ~$50 for pics alone.They are beautifully posed and with great background scenes.


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## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

I agree with the above post. If I were ever to sell my horse it would be fantastic to have that kind of service, because I am horribly bad with computors and cropping/editing photos. I like to take the pictures, I just can never get them on the computor, nevermind cropping, posting and creating an ad.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

Its not like I'm going to stop boarding horses and giving lessons to sell horses or anything lol. Its just something I do (mostly for myself) that people approach me about. I figured I would add it to the list of services on the ol' website since I'm updating it anyway....


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## PerchiesKisses (Dec 6, 2010)

I dunno what it would be worth, so I won't venture to guess, but I can definitely say that if you ever happen by Northern Ontario I would gladly pay you to doa photoshoot with my boy


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