Is Farmers Weekly Classifieds worth it?

[Steevo]

Looking to upgrade my combine and have found a machine I'd be interested in purchasing so ready for my machine to leave the farm.

Never used Farmers Weekly Classifieds before as heard the horror stories on here about pricing, but wondered if it's worth a punt for a week in the magazine. I can't see any mention of magazine advert pricing anywhere on their website.....only the online adverts for £50 or so.

I've tried TFF Farm Classifieds but I'm not sure it has enough traffic from non-TFF members and Farmers Guide adverts whilst free take a few weeks to be published and so I could easily lose a month.

Can anyone give me an idea of FW advertising cost please?
Do trade sellers pay a similar rate to private sellers? (i.e. is it worth me placing an advert via a dealer rather than FW direct)

A few hundred spent on an advert could(!) be well worth it if it adds a few thousand to the value of a machine compared to trade-in price.

 

[7610 super q]

It would be interesting to know the success rate for the various forms of advertising available.
As you say, if it sells, it's money well spent.

 

[Banana Bar]

I’ve advertised very occasionally in FW, very expensive and not very successful. TFF and Farmers Guide is good. Never used Agriaffaires but use it for buying.

 

[oil barron]

Farm autotrader has the best searchable website from a buyers perspective and seems to get the volume of items for sale. FWI seems to be going backwards. TFF is now a waste of time. When you search you just find a bunch of stuff for sale from years ago, doesn’t seem to get any quantity of new stuff anymore. The multiple different host options and links to pictures that don’t work makes the hole thing very frustrating.

 

[Cowabunga]

Farm autotrader has the best searchable website from a buyers perspective and seems to get the volume of items for sale. FWI seems to be going backwards. TFF is now a waste of time. When you search you just find a bunch of stuff for sale from years ago, doesn’t seem to get any quantity of new stuff anymore. The multiple different host options and links to pictures that don’t work makes the hole thing very frustrating.

Ads should expire when around six to eight weeks of age, unless specifically renewed, so that the area doesn't fill with dross. They could either be marked as expired or, to avoid clutter, actually be automatically hidden or deleted after time expired.

 

[Martyn]

Iv put something recently on the TFF clasifieds but even when i put in manufacture and discrption desnt seam to come up. I thought private bits came onto private machinery thread autamticly but dont seam to know. Real shame as sold a couple of bits very quickly on the old set up.

 

[kill]

Farmers Guide is FREE to advertise in with a picture.

Farmers Weekly will normally get a very good response and will normally get machines sold if priced correctly. I would always put in the magazine as well as online tho.

 

[fergie35]

Ads should expire when around six to eight weeks of age, unless specifically renewed, so that the area doesn't fill with dross. They could either be marked as expired or, to avoid clutter, actually be automatically hidden or deleted after time expired.

100% agree with this. Adds should automatically expire and be hidden unless the author makes it visible again, IMO this should be a very short period before it expires, to encourage people to actually only relist items that are still available.

 

[No5]

Sold our combine earlier this year. Contacted Farmers Weekly about an advert and they sent the following prices,

Standard Package:
1 week magazine ( 1 Image and up to 30 words)
4 weeks Standard Listing
Standard Ad slot on the E-newsletter £350 + VAT

Standard Plus Package
2 weeks magazine ( 1 Image and up to 30 words)
4 weeks Top Advert
Standard Ad slot on the E-newsletter £445 + VAT

Maximum Exposure Package
2 weeks magazine ( 1 Image and up to 30 words)
Unlimited advert until Sold
4 weeks homepage as advert of the advert
Premium Ad slot on the E-newsletter £650 + vat

Ended up just putting it online for £50 for 4 weeks.
Plenty of free ads available on facebook, farmers guide and tff.
I think the right price is more important than the advert as we started at too high a price (thinking people would haggle it lower) but got little response. A lower price with little or no price haggle got much more response. Remember, its only worth what someone will pay for it, not what you think its worth.

 

[Steevo]

Ads should expire when around six to eight weeks of age, unless specifically renewed, so that the area doesn't fill with dross. They could either be marked as expired or, to avoid clutter, actually be automatically hidden or deleted after time expired.

But with the option to renew advert....so you don't need to type the whole thing out again.

 

[SilliamWhale]

I don't see your combine for sale in the Classifieds @Steevo

 

[bobajob]

Iv put something recently on the TFF clasifieds but even when i put in manufacture and discrption desnt seam to come up. I thought private bits came onto private machinery thread autamticly but dont seam to know. Real shame as sold a couple of bits very quickly on the old set up.

Oh, Don’t criticise the advert system on here!!, I think the same as you and I said it in another thread last wk and the owner more or less said I was a bit thick because I didn’t understand it!!

 

[Happy]

Oh, Don’t criticise the advert system on here!!, I think the same as you and I said it in another thread last wk and the owner more or less said I was a bit thick because I didn’t understand it!!

I found the old classifieds on here far easier to navigate than the current one.
Going by the number of views most items received on here I’d be surprised if the success rate for sellers is that great.

An awful lot of machinery gets sold on Facebook farming pages these days.
Sold a combine and a set of tractor wheels there recently. Both sold within 2 days of listing them.

 

[steveR]

Used TFF on a couple or 3 occasions, most recently a tractor which went to Poland Preloved was good for smallholder sized machinery which doesn't address Steevo's question I agree!!

I agree that the TFF classifieds section is not as easy to use as the old site and it it is just not intuitive, or possibly just doesn't work as well, but the end results were fine for me.

Autotrader is the best place to search for kit, but I found it rather expensive a couple of years ago selling machinery.

 

[Steevo]

I don't see your combine for sale in the Classifieds @Steevo

Oh! That’s encouraging!

 

[Steevo]

Sold our combine earlier this year. Contacted Farmers Weekly about an advert and they sent the following prices,

Standard Package:
1 week magazine ( 1 Image and up to 30 words)
4 weeks Standard Listing
Standard Ad slot on the E-newsletter £350 + VAT

Standard Plus Package
2 weeks magazine ( 1 Image and up to 30 words)
4 weeks Top Advert
Standard Ad slot on the E-newsletter £445 + VAT

Maximum Exposure Package
2 weeks magazine ( 1 Image and up to 30 words)
Unlimited advert until Sold
4 weeks homepage as advert of the advert
Premium Ad slot on the E-newsletter £650 + vat

Ended up just putting it online for £50 for 4 weeks.
Plenty of free ads available on facebook, farmers guide and tff.
I think the right price is more important than the advert as we started at too high a price (thinking people would haggle it lower) but got little response. A lower price with little or no price haggle got much more response. Remember, its only worth what someone will pay for it, not what you think its worth.

Been quoted exactly the same today by FW.

Also the option of:

Machinery Package:
1 week magazine (1 photo and up to 30 words)
4 weeks Basic Listing Online £200 + VAT

This didn't seem frighteningly expensive to me....and worthwhile value if it sold the machine. I can't really see the value in the £350 package at that rate - £150 to upgrade from Basic to Standard online listing....and an ad slot in the newsletters.


Certainly more attractive than the rates some of the larger dealers are paying for full page adverts. I found this print rate card from 2016 online.

http://assets.fwi.co.uk/sites/1/Classified-Rate-Card-2016.pdf
http://assets.fwi.co.uk/sites/1/Property-Rate-Card-2016.pdf
http://assets.fwi.co.uk/sites/1/E-News-Rate-Card-2016.pdf

 

[KennyO]

Oh! That’s encouraging!

What are you selling?

 

[Steevo]

What are you selling?

CX820 - 20' cut.

See link in my signature below.

 

[David.]

Link is inactive for me

 

[KennyO]

CX820 - 20' cut.

See link in my signature below.

Link not working for me either. It also doesn't show on phone unless you turn to landscape.