To lute.....

CaliannG · #21 10/30/10, 01:46 PM

I do understand, chamoisee. However, in this case, the timing was not the issue. ~smiles~ So, response to Devil's Advocate:

We had agreed on a price on Sunday. It was not half of their asking price... it was the normal bit of haggling that makes everyone feel like they are getting a fair deal.

(Well, Texas style. The gentleman asked for $25 more than his actual price, we haggled until he came to his actual price, which was not even CLOSE to $50, so it wasn't half of what he wanted.)

Since it is quite a drive for me, we agreed that I would be out there bright and early Wednesday morning, with *cash* in hand. Not a check, not a payment plan, not anything like that, full cash.

It was not that we didn't have any contact during the between days. The wife and I were chitchatting the entire time, talking about canning, recipes, blah, blah, blah. We had been chatting on the phone the day before, and when the husband called to tell me it was a no-go, the wife and I were in the middle of an e-mail convo.

And the thing is, the call came late. This guy, who had bought from them before, was coming the next afternoon to pick up all of the does. So sorry.

Notice the "next afternoon"? I was due there the next MORNING. He would have KNOWN if I was going to flake BEFORE this person showed up.

~smiles~ Most of the time, I *do* try to give people the benefit of the doubt. I know there are tons of flakes in this world, and tons of cons too.

I think the main thing I am upset about is the timing. The call came in at 8 p.m. (what if I had already been in bed? What if I didn't get the call? Would he have waited to tell me when I GOT there?) I was due to be at their place between 8 and 9 a.m. Since it was well after dark, everything that needed to be done in preparation for the arrival of a new goat HAD BEEN done. Quarantine area had already been cleaned, repaired, set up, etc., which was more than a bit of work. The trailer had been cleaned out, disinfected, hooked up and tested out. A lot of effort had been put into preparing for her arrival.

I would not have put that much effort into it if I had thought he wasn't going to honor a gentleman's agreement. I would have waited until the doe was in my trailer, and she would have stayed in there once I got home, waiting for me to finish all those quarantine preparations.

~sighs~ As I mentioned in my previous post, I KNOW that no money changed hands, I KNOW that a gentleman's agreement isn't worth the paper it is written on. I KNOW it is a different world and unless an agreement is in writing, and money has already changed hands, etc., etc., etc., etc., that I don't have a right to complain.

But that doesn't mean that I am not saddened by this...and nostalgic for a former time when more people believed that if they *said* something, it was their word, and they would honor their word.

Okay, off the soap box now.

Cannon_Farms · #22 10/30/10, 03:48 PM

did you make sure the goats got sold?

Kshobbit · #23 10/30/10, 04:03 PM

Perhaps he would still sell you the doe since you had already made the deal??? I would think selling one older doe would not affect his sale of the herd.

CaliannG · #24 10/30/10, 05:06 PM

I did not call back to verify that they were sold, no. However, I traded a couple of e-mails back and forth with the wife the next day, and I am pretty sure that if she had been available, she would have been offered.

And yes, Kshobbit, I DID ask about that...the guy told me, "I DID ask him if he would be willing to leave the one doe out for you, but he said no, he wanted ALL of them. He's transporting them to Mexico."

Now, I happen to know that if he had refused, the guy would have still bought the rest, but maybe the seller didn't know that. The buyer has been buying up dairy does, preferably herds, all over Texas for a couple of months now, and taking them to Mexico. How the seller knew this man is that he had replied to an ad when the seller had put up his in-milk stock about a month ago, and bought all of the does that were in milk. I do not know WHY the guy is buying dairy herds....maybe someone in Mexico is trying to build a 1000+ herd of dairy goats for a new dairy down there.

However, I know that he has ads for every city in Texas on Craigslist, and will buy ANY kind of dairy doe, dairy crosses, etc. For what, I wish I knew.

Now, the seller may not know this information. The reason I know it is that a friend of my mother's has been having health problems and two months ago, saw this guy's ad on craigslist and called him...she ended up selling her herd of Nubians X's to him. I remembered his name....and when the seller of this doe I wanted mentioned the name of the person who was buying his herd, I knew it was the same guy. He still has ads up on craiglist.

~sighs and shrugs~ The point is that the seller COULD have let me have that doe. The seller didn't have to do it all this way.

However, that didn't happen.

~smiles~ However, I think I'll be alright. I have been looking around at herds close to me, and trying to see what might be available that is somewhere near my price range, come spring. I'll have to wait two years, approximately, for babies, but it might be worth it. If I get a doeling of nice lines, DH would have fun showing her through the summer. So maybe it will be a do-it-yourself project.

Instead of buying a CH doe, we'll just have to make one.

I can't afford Hull's Alpines $800-$1000 doelings, but not everyone is so pricey, and there are some good lines in Texas.

chamoisee · #25 10/31/10, 12:00 AM

Yeah, it does suck. Just tell yourself that the doe was probably infected with CAE or CL.

CaliannG · #26 10/31/10, 12:05 PM

~laughs~ chamoisee, that is EXACTLY what I have been telling myself! "It's probably for the best. She likely had Johnne's disease, or Brucellius, or some other awful thing. The Lord was just looking out for me!" ~smiles~

Kshobbit · #27 10/31/10, 12:56 PM

Just wait you will find a beautiful Alpine doe that is bred to a champion buck and price so you can afford her. Have you checked Oklahoma? They used to have some really nice Alpines in Oklahoma.