Online auction service aims to help horse lovers

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

CJ Hearts, aka Crackerjack, is an 11-year-old, 14.2 hand, 950 lb. registered ApHC gelding that loves people. He is from Texas and can be bought on StampedeAuction.com. -Staff photo by Poehl

Nov. 25, 2004 - Whether trying to find a horse to buy or trying to find a new home for a horse, it can now be done online. StampedAuction.com is like an E-bay for live horses.

Sam Ford and his brother, Tim, operate the website from Alabama.

"We sensed there was a need for this out there. Live auctions can be expensive, difficult and time consuming," Sam said. "Then, there are internet options, like classified listings, but they are not interactive."

Sam began the website from a marketing stand point, as he is in charge of promotions.

"I have always been a horse owner and loved horses, and I was frustrated with the auctions available," Ford said. "We're coming at it from every man's perspective. There was nothing like this available. It's a competitive bid environment and it's run almost identically to E-bay."

With the website unofficially opening on Nov. 2 the Ford's have been amazed with the progress of the website. On their tenth day to be open, the 1,000th member joined. Monday, Nov. 15, was the official grand opening of the website.

"The opening on the 2nd began by accident," Ford explained. "We put out a notice to locals and a few friends to check out our website. This was also a chance for us to get the bugs out of our system. Just from that handful, we had six horses listed that first day and 50 horses were listed by the second day. It's just been snowballing since then and we're blown away."

Now, around 125 new members join every day, including people from all 50 states and some from Canada.

"The buyers have the capability to bid by proxy," Ford explained. "The seller gets to set a reserve price that needs to be met and the lister has the option between a five, seven, 10 or 14 day auction. Ninety percent go with the 14-day auction."

With over 600 horses already listed on the website, Ford said he is also pleased with the volume of bids.

"We've had one horse sell for over $10,000 and another has sold for $5,000," Ford said.

It is free to become a member of StampedeAuction.com, which allows people to sell or buy horses. Each person selling a horse can upload up to four pictures and add a description of the horse being sold. They are also able to list the horses pedigree, Ford said.

"We mandate a bidding price that begins at $3.16. It's not a special number, but we wanted it to stand out and set it low because it gives bidders the opportunity to say what the horse is worth," Ford said. "In a perfect world, that's how auctions should work."

Besides advertising from word of mouth, which has "been tremendous," Ford said, they also advertise in a Google ad word campaign. "We pay to have our name come up at the top when you type in certain words like 'horses for sale,'" he said. "That is probably the most effective way to advertise. We also buy advertising in National and Regional horse magazines."

StampedeAuction.com also features a discussion forum and live chat rooms where the close-knit community of horse lovers can speak with one another.

"We're unique from other auctions because we put the bidder in control and we are an interactive website. Other auctions are like store fronts," Ford said.