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Need Help Valuing Stubben AP Saddle

6K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  Saskia 
#1 ·
Hello, I have a friend who's selling a Stubben Siegfried and I need help getting a rough appraisal and dating for it.

It's in pretty decent shape, but has some wear spots, scratches (cannot see in the photos) and water stains.

Size 32 with a 17" seat.

Selling in West Texas so there isn't much of a market for English tack.

Thanks for the help!
 

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#2 ·
I don't know about the value, but as far as the dating goes, I know that Stubben made their saddles with suede knee pads until 1994, or so I was told. Also, I have heard that the green nailheads are for saddles made in or after 1985, and the silver ones are for pre-1985. You used to be able to contact Stubben with the serial number and they could give you a date of manufacture, but I'm not sure if that's an available feature anymore. I contacted Courbette (I believe them and Stubben are paired now) about my saddle and they gave me a date for it, as well as some information about it, like what kind of tree it has and that my specific model was discontinued many years ago.

I think on some models the last two digits of the serial number may be the last two digits of the year of manufacture, depending on which factory it was made in. Mine are 80, and my saddle was made in 1980 in Switzerland.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the info!

I contacted Stubben and unfortunately they were of little help. :(

However, she was able to tell me that due to the nature of the serial number, the saddle was likely bought overseas and then imported, rather than being directly from Stubben's North American branch. Regardless, she could provide no specific info.

She also insisted that no Stubben has ever had green nail heads and that the ones on these were simply faded from the blue. I have to disagree on the faded part, as they are a very vibrant hunter green with a gold trim. Whether or not these are replacements, I cannot say.

I do own another Stubben (technically TexTan, but made by Stubben with a Stubben model) from '85, and it does fit the suede knee roll expectations for it's age, so I'd have to wager that this Siegfried is a fair bit newer.
 
#7 ·
Agreed. They seem to be a harder sell, at least that was my personal experience. I was given one to resell for a friend. It was in excellent condition besides water staining on the underside (but the leather had still remained soft & supple) & had the billets replaced probably sometime in the last couple years. I had it listed for $350 for months both on Facebook groups & eBay. It got little to no interest. It was either 'Stubbens are rock hard' or 'I don't like suede knee rolls' (which I don't either or I might have considered keeping it) or 'Don't like APs.' Eventually I was able to sell it to a lady for a lesson program for $225.

So... it will likely sell at some point lol. They seem to have interest for beginning riders, lesson programs, or just people who like Stubbens. But you're realistically looking at $250. Profit is profit though especially if it's been sitting for years. We took what we could because neither of us needed another saddle.
 
#6 ·
32cm is much more rare than a 31 or even 31.5, so I'd try for more money if the flocking isn't rock hard. Like maybe $450 or so. You can always come down if it doesn't sell. Your saddle doesn't look thrashed. It's nice looking. And that $250 - $300 price is for the well-used or even thrashed Siegfrieds with suede knee pads. I'd look for comparisons in the listings at TackTrader and EquineNow. And in the sold items at ebay, but ebay isn't the saddle venue that it used to be. ebay is attracting fewer buyers as more people go to the Facebook groups and saddle prices on "ebah" can be vastly lower than what a saddle is worth in a Facebook group that's attracting the right buyers. In fact, I see a lot of saddles go for low bid on ebay and then get marked up to the real worth and flipped on Facebook. You might keyword search the English tack Facebooks and see what similar saddles are listed for or sold for.
 
#8 ·
Don't take the advice of the chatboard people as gospel. They will almost always lowball you, and a lot of times it's because they buy low someplace like the ads here and resell high somewhere else. To find comps, to to ebay, log in, look at Advanced Search. Put in Stubben Siegfried, and check the box called "Sold." Sort that high to low or low to high and pick valid comparisons. ebay + PayPal fees will take 10% - 15% of the total price including the shipping. But you can see that people have recently paid more than $250 for similar saddles, and then paid $50 shipping on top of that.
 
#9 ·
Unfortunately Stubbens in general don't sell for much. They don't fit a variety of horses and to top it of APs are not in fashion.

I would really be looking for ads in the local area and then under cutting the price a little. Something is most likely to sell quickly after its advertised, its new and fresh. If you price it too high then drop it you'll have more difficulty.
 
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