Private Auction

What exactly is the point?

We can buy/bid on horses as long as they are up for sale, so why is private auction also an option?

I suppose currently it's if you want to sell a horse to a particular person and not risk having some random person buy it from under the intended buyer... or go through the potential hassle of sifting through multiple bids.

And yes, we have a transfer option for horses now... but that could easily be abused to scam people.

Private auctions also have no autobuys so you can select the person you want to buy no matter what price you desire to sell at.

hmm.
that's interesting - perhaps I'm experiencing some sort of bug then, because while I can see that horses are listed for private auction, there's no option for me to bid on them anywhere. I assumed it was so people could message the owner directly, but perhaps it's became I'm missing something.

is there supposed to be a bid option on horses up for private auction?

I just grabbed the first bid only horse in my search:
https://www.equiverse.com/horse.php?id=396375

Under "Pedigree, Breeding and Foals" box is another saying " This Horse is for PRIVATE Sale"
Then: List Price Bid Only Make an Offer $ Bid button