| By Frank J. Buchman
“Cost isn’t as important as how valuable it is.” Yes, there are always limits on what can be paid. Problem’s one doesn’t always get what they’re expecting for the expenditure. However, buying the lowest price doesn’t make a purchase wrong. Paying the highest amount definitely doesn’t always make something the best. Going the middle road can be a good option. Generally, there are any numbers of opportunities in-between Still, in reality the decision often comes down to “What’s it worth to you?” Our closest dealings have been with livestock purchases. But also when buying real estate, and personal property, most recently new vehicles. Reflecting a half century, the best horses have on several occasions been the most inexpensive. Like we’ve recently quoted to a couple of horse traders: “A hundred dollar horse can be worth thousands.” Conversely, “A horse costing thousands can be worthless, at least from usefulness perspective.” Just because something has a high asking price doesn’t mean a thing. Nowadays, the internet’s overflowing with horses for sale. Most of them are overpriced for what they can do. Everyone is “the best prospect.” Everything’s a prospect until proven there’s little or nothing that can be accomplished with it. By the same perspective, a seller might as well ask any ticket. P.T. Barnum insisted, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Somebody’s likely to make the purchase, even be just plumb happy they paid a high price, regardless what received. “A fool and his money soon part,” even if costly thrill. Repeating, when the price tag’s unbelievably low, the first question’s always: “What’s wrong with it?” There could be a quirk, illness, travel problem, but not always. Maybe that’s just the opportunity we’re all looking for. In merchandizing more than a thousand horses, and purchasing likely half again that many more, there’ve been ample trading experiences. And, we still don’t know anything about the business, really. Point in proof comes from the time a really top barrel horse was priced to us for: “Five.” He was a great horse, but that was a lot. Scratching our head, we repeated: “Five.” The seller nodded: “Five hundred.” (Not $5,000.) We couldn’t write the check fast enough. Reminds us of Proverbs 3:16 “The value exceeds all the cost.” Yet Proverbs 5:1: “Be attentive to wisdom learned by costly experience.” +++ALLELUIA+++ |
