What's wrong with this guy?

Kv. Bolivian Bishop

Clean short pedigree, conformation is ok for a 2nd generation horse, no gray...
Non-specialty stats are 66. Not too great but not horrible either. 

Has won a ribbon and over 18k in prize money and his tack is included in the sale.

I know sales are at an all time low, but I really can't figure out why this horse won't sell.
Normally my foals sell within a weak or two but this one has been sitting there for months.

Can someone tell me why he just won't sell? O.o

There's nothing wrong with him.  It's just the horse market.  If you search for all the Akhal-Tekes for sale, yours is something like the third most expensive.  It also has the highest stats, so it ought to be one of the most expensive, but the sad thing is that pricing a horse what it ought to be worth often means that it won't sell.

The one thing I can think of that might help it sell a little quicker would be to put it up for open sale rather than private auction.  There are people who won't buy via private auction, because they don't have to wait for the horse's owner to get around to approving the sale.  If you put your horse up for open sale, suddenly it may become an option for people like this.

Lol, he was just sold... thank all the EV gods and the buyer :p

I don't ever use public sale for horses from my line, as I am picky about who buys my horses.

We lost so many breeds to boost the economy, but now it seems things have gotten even worse.

Thanks for your input confessor :)

Some more things to consider, coming from a Teke breeder:

Racing is one of the more common Teke discipline along woth Dressage, but you will find that racing Tekes from other breeders have the lowest non spec stats due to them all having pre recode lines. But your horse had 66 non spec stats, which most would consider is too high.

Now for the whole selling part, I don't know what you get the price to but for my dressage Tekes, I typically sell them at 25k and 30k if it has a pattern or sooty. I haven't had a problem selling at those prices but any higher will cause buyers to lose interest. 
Private bidding is something I consider a no-no when selling too because whether we like it or not, people don't want to wait to see if they'll get accepted. Again, they quickly lose interest.
Age. You are more likely to sell horses as a foal. I think the reason why is quite obvious.
Time. Not sure how long your horse has been up for but one of my foals once got sold after two weeks. Three weeks is when I take the horse down and toss it to the RC cause I know someone will want him there. (I really only did this to one horse, the others got sold)

Just some little things I've learned from breeding a selling a lot of Tekes.

^{Tell me about it, I have an 19 yr old Welsh pony that's been for sale since he was a foal. And he started as 30k for an almost 700 stat foal. I try to use public sales because a lot of people have told me the don't bother even looking at a horse listed for private sale. My prices are all negotiable to an extent for the right player but it's still super difficult to sell anything these days :c. Hence why I now ask around for interest before breeding extra foals, I just don't have the space (have expanded more and more these last few months) to keep horses for sale.} 

I'm with feline here, I don't use public sales for any horse that I personally bred and put effort into. Also I have no issues buying from the private sales (just got two really nice qhs from the private sales and an awesome teke). I have a pretty little chestnut that won't sell (he's a qh which is a widely popular breed, but I just keep hanging onto him) if he never sells, which is a possiblity, I'll offer him as a stud and let him go into pixel heaven.

It is so hard to sell horses. I'm just now getting into less popular breeds and worry that it'll be nightmarish to sell the foals. I'll probably have to cull the extras because I won't be able to hang onto them like I do with the random qh that doesn't sell. (And unless they are stallions which I can gelded I won't use the RC).

I agree with insomniaglet, I wouldn't get rid of a lot of my Arabs that I am breeding for the world! And I wouldn't sell any horses that I worked on, to get the best stats and color, just like insomniaglet as well.

Well, this thread certainly illustrates one very good way to get a horse to sell - draw attention to it!

I understand wanting to pick and choose who buys your horses.  It's unfortunate that the trade-off is slower sales.

I don't understand it either! I remember when my horses used to sell within .3 seconds.

I have this horse for sale too: 3yo QH mare with over 864 total stats. Has both speed and intelligence as super high stats, confo of 60.33, and a clean foundation pedigree. I even have her for $5k straight sale and nothing... This is wild.

I know the feeling. Got several horses that haven't been sold and some have been up for sale since they were foals! If they don't sell by the time their 15, they're going to be put into my Open Breeding's Division. :)


@ Pistol - Dang............ ♥ I had to grab that lovely filly of yours!!! ♥

Last edited on 2018-03-10 at 18:55:35 by Feathered Gold

RemRem -All other racing foals from the same foal crop sold pretty quickly and were in the same price range. But you are correct about the non specialty stats. If we're not able to breed down non specialty stats we'll never be able to be compete with pre recode lines. 

About the pricing, it just feels wrong to sell perfectly good horses for peanuts. Sales are at an all time low, but in my opinion  making money on this game has never been easier than it is now. Show winnings, riding school, daily interest, show revenue, the fountain... 
Even if my horses won nothing I could easily live off my bank interest alone.
I bought foals for 100k when I thought they were worth it. 
It's a real shame that people just don't want to invest in quality anymore.

Maple - I breed 3 foals per breeding pair. I keep the best one, sell the second best and cull the 3rd. It does take a up a lot of space in my stable and I sometimes get a bit annoyed with all the foals cluttering things up. And culling just takes soooooo long. I understand how you don't want to breed extra's.

Insomniaglet - I got rid of less popular breeds because selling them was impossible and no one wanted to use my studs unless I charged about 2k for a breeding. It's ridiculous O.o
I have been playing SIM games for 16 years now (dang I'm old...) and I have always been a sucker for rare breeds. For the very first time I'm choosing a popular breed (Vanners... I don't even like them) just because I want to be able to sell foals & offer stud services.
I have a little pet project of racing clydesdales, and I know I will NEVER, EVER be able to sell any of the foals. My extra's will end up in the virtual glue factory :p

Last edited on 2018-03-11 at 01:39:56 by Féline

Well, at least credit prices are going down, lol. Selling horses has been rather annoying, though, I agree. :/

The horse market worries me. It is getting worse lately and I often wonder if it will ever recover. In past, the market wasn't great but I always could sell my horse through private auctions without any problem (even with rarer breeds). Now, the market is even worser and I can't even sell on flat sale...

At this point, I am seriously consider to going fully private. Originally, I was going to breed for 3 foals (keep the best one for future breeding, sell the second best, and keep third for riding school). But now, I probably will breed twice and keep both foals (one for breeding and one for riding school).

I often wonder what can we do to encourage market.

I think it is partly because we have unlimited access to horses from the equine center.
We can simply buy tons of foundies and select those who fit our needs.

I'm also guilty of that because I'm so picky about what horses I want and I want control over the lines. So often it's easier to spend my evening clicking through foundation horses.

However, when I do find a horse that is perfect for my lines I buy it no matter what the asking price is. I don't mind spending over 100k for a foal.

I think a lack of incentive is a huge problem when it comes to selling horses. When I purchase a horse, I see it as an investment. I want to be able to make back the money I spent on it someday, and turn a profit if I'm lucky. But people aren't buying horses because they know they likely won't make enough money from them to cover the cost of buying it. It's just as easy to make a horse from the EC and do well in showing as it is to buy a high-statted horse. (The exception to this is low non-specialty stats). High stats don't really mean anything. Just because a horse has higher stats doesn't mean it will perform any better in shows than any other horse. The exception to this is when the horse is just about to reach the next bracket, but that has nothing to do with total stats, but with the fact that it has some of the highest stats within its current bracket.

I confess that I don't know what to do to fix this problem, but a start would be to increase the amount of money you can win in higher level shows. People would be encouraged to buy better-statted horses so they could compete for higher prizes. I don't think this alone will fix everything, but I think it's a vital step for the future of this game. Limiting the amount of horses one can create would likely help, as well. People wanting to start new lines would be forced to cooperate with other players and/or buy from them. I don't think there's such a thing as a market that can never recover. It just may take a lot of work to fix.