Ok, so I have been looking to purchase a specific horse, with a certain pedigree etc.  Find one here on BHW that is advertised at a price, and then a reduced price.  Joy!  Exactly what I was looking for.

Contacted seller and they had decided they weren't sure if they were selling.  Contacted them a couple of days later and yes, they would sell but at TWICE the advertised price....WAAAAYYYY out of my budget.

Is it just me, or is that an unscrupulous seller?  If I advertise something I stand by my word, not try to find someone to buy and then jack up the price.

I expect Karma will come around on this, but what are your thoughts???

Life's too short to worry about it.  If you don't want to pay what they're currently asking - just find another horse.  Maybe they had some unfortunate life circumstances force them to offer the reduced pricing and then got it figured out.

Kinda sounds like they didn’t know what they had, then realized what they had. Maybe they decided they really didn’t want to sell like they told you, but since you called back, decided to name a different price. 

Nope wouldn’t buy from them now or in the future were I you. And yeah, I would be a little miffed. 

Thats CRAZY! I had one I found on here want a 10% non refundable deposit to hold the horse for a day until I could get the 2 hrs away to try her. I work weekdays and contacted her late thurs asking if I could come try her first thing sat. When she said that I said NO WAY. What if I didnt like the horse? Im out a chunk of change. Needless to say, I will not even look at a horse this person has ever again. A couple hundred bucks to hold for a day I can understand but several thousand?!?! NOPE! And the horse had been for sale for about 6 months. I can totally understand why now. 

Those are the one's I walk away from. They're beating around the bush, tire kicking the buyers who are serious. I had my eye on a Dinero mare that was posted for sale Friday night for an ok price. Sunday night the ad was updated, Sister just won the american again! in bold letters at the top of the ad. Price change, up $5,000. Another I noticed a few weeks ago priced kinda high ad said price will increase the more she's legged up. Price goes up $1,000 a week, I keep watching. I mark down the name of those sellers, won't ever do business with them. But through all of these there's someone who will be dumb enough to pay for these horses and the sellers know that. A horse is only worth what someone's willing to pay. On the other hand a 5 year old DTF daugher, running youth 1D was jsut posted for next to nothing & those I stay awayf rom too. Big red flags. Glad I decided to keep my 5 year old now & not deal with it.

I'll play the other side.  Once a price is posted, it is not written in stone.  If the horse breaks his leg he is no longer the same price.  If he wins a major race, he is no longer the same price.  If I put 6 months of training on him since I last updated my ad, I may want to adjust my price at that time.  If you don't like the sellers asking price, then don't buy the horse.  In my opinion an asking  price is starting point in a negotiation, not an ending point.  

In that instance, I'd not pay the deposit and take my chances, and if the horse is still there Saturday, go try it. If it's gone, it's gone. I know it's offputting to ask for a deposit, but when you have person after person ask if you can hold the horse until it's convenient for them to come out, and then they don't show up, you start to think of ways to weed out the ones who aren't really serious. If you're willng to pay a deposit, you're serious about the horse. I guarantee you this person has been burned so many times by no-shows that they're just over it and this is their solution.

I had a guy call me on a colt one time and the price was listed, we visited for a little while and then he said----can you do any better on the price, I said sure and told him a $1000 dollars higher. There was silence and I said ALL, you meant better for you, I thought you meant for me. LOL. He gave a chuckle also---then bought the colt for the listed price.

I agree, deposits can be good but if you were looking at a $25,000 you're about to spend $2,500 on a deposit you don't get back if you don't like the horse. I don't know about anyone here, but there's no way in hell I'd ever do that. Absolutely no reason anyone needs that much money to hold a horse for one day, even if they've had 20 others waste their time. That's jsut being greedy and wanting to milk whatever dime they can from someone 

Greedy .....yes .... but also a VERY good way to weed out the "tire kickers" ............

That is great!  I made a similar comment once.  Had a mare for sale for $6500 FIRM.  High school girl tried her twice (they brought a trailer the second time), they got along great.  Mom is writing the check and asks me "are you sure you won't take $6000?  I prefer round numbers".  I told her if she preferred round numbers, she was welcome to make the check for $7000.  She laughed and paid the $6500.  

Without knowing the background of the seller or the horse, I would say we all have the choice to negotiate the price being asked or walk away.  I sell prospects.  I get messages all the time asking if I have anything for sale.  I tell them what I have and quote them a price for what I want for the horse NOW.  3 months from now I might have a different price.  Especially if I sent them out to be broke. I now have more money in them and the buyer has less money they need to spend to get them where they can start using them. So the price is not going to stay the same for a weanling, yearling or 2 year old. Just sayin'. 

Run into that all the time, people get a price on a weaner and then the next year as a yearling they expect it to be the same. UM----NO !!!!!!!!!!!!

A price is only what someone is willing to sell a horse for and what someone is willing to buy a horse for, that's it.

We use to tell folks who would ask if my first horse was for sale that he was, and he was priced at $1,000,000.  He was worth his weight in gold to us, and not a standout world champion performer by any means, but very good at being a little girls best friend. Frankly though I know what we paid for him and I think if the right person had made a serious offer with an outstanding number for what he was, my folks would have had to think about it.

We are in a similar situation now.  We have one who we have quoted a few people our bottom dollar on.  He's not legged up, he needs to be in good shape to perform at his best, and we are going to have to put time (time=$) into him this year to get him there while we have other horses who need our focus.  I can't say that in 6 months if we're at a roping and we've put in the time to bring him to peak condition and someone asks for a price on him that we would give them the same $# that we're giving people today.

I do think just because a relative won something big that increasing the price overnight when the animal for sale hasn't done anything different or spectacular is kind of questionable - it's not like we didn't know Sister is a standout animal and the favorite going into The American.  I tend to think if someone actually went and tried the horse and offered the original asking price or a little less, that the seller would take it. 

Now, if the horse in question was an actual horse competiting at the American who wasn't particularly well known before The American and they won?  Yes, their price just went up, and probably the stud fee on their sire and the value of the other offspring of the dam just increased as well.

We had a horse that my husband was trying out.  In the less than a week that we had him the owner raised the price 3 times.  Needless to say he got sent back

I don’t put the horse on hold under any circumstance, too many people set appointments to try the horse and don’t show.  I would not ever pay a deposit to have a horse put on hold and would never want to keep someone’s money because they didn’t like the horse.   I understand work schedules etc. but that is just part of buying, getting there first or at the right time.   Once someone has tried the horse and I think they are serious that I am more than happy to be flexible and work with them. We have bought several high dollar horses and none of the deals involved deposits.