Every 6-8 weeks, my barn manager leaves a note on the bulletin board "Bring in your wormers by month/date." I panic. I visit the two tack stores in the area. Often they're out, so I have to go online. I go through the same routine when I start to run out of supplements. Or when Harvey makes use of the "breakaway" feature of his halter. You get the idea.
I've used Valley Vet Supply, Country Supply (now horse.com), KV Vet Supply, Dover Saddlery, and Jeffers Equine. Which online horse supply store is cheapest? I often wondered, but never took the time to figure out. Until now, that is.
Well, this weekend I did some comparisons, using a sampling of five products that all five companies sell. The products used were Cosequin joint supplement, 700 gram container; Miracle cribbing collar; Leather New 32oz.; Zimecterin Gold; and Endure Fly Spray. I included costs of shipping in the comparison.
The detailed results are in a COMPARISON CHART of results. Here is the executive summary...
- MOST EXPENSIVE OVERALL: Dover Saddlery (highest price on every product; 11% over avg. price for all products)
- LEAST EXPENSIVE OVERALL: Valley Vet (10% less than avg. price for all products)
- HIGHEST SHIPPING PRICES: Dover Saddlery
- LOWEST SHIPPING PRICES: KV Vet Supply
- HIGHEST PRODUCT PRICES: Dover Saddlery
- LOWEST PRODUCT PRICES:Valley Vet
- WORST CHOICE FOR HEAVY ITEMS: Jeffers Equine is the winner of the brain-dead shipping fees award. Shipping costs for a $9 32 oz. leather care product was 15.27!This is off-scale compared to other companies, I'm thinking their shipping calculations may be in error. See chart for details...
- BEST CHOICE FOR BIG ORDERS: Valley Vet offered lowest prices for each of the five products, PLUS free shipping over $60. KV Vet Supply and Country Supply offer free shipping over $50 and $49, respectively
I hoped to include a more expensive item -- Wintec 500 saddle to be exact -- but KV Supply does not sell them, and I wanted to include only products that all companies had. I did get the prices for four of the companies: Country Supply (horse.com) had the lowest price at $423; Valley Vet had the highest price at $459, with Dover close behind at $457. See the chart for more info (it's at the bottom)
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Thanks for doing this comparison. Wow, I knew I was paying higher product prices at some, but didn't know how much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing the research, the information is really helpful.
ReplyDeleteTry Country Supply at www.horse.com. I've never found anyplace cheaper.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing this. I just got in a shipment from Country Supply this week. I tend to order from them, Valley Vet, and Schneider's. I occasionally buy my supplies from the local feed stores to keep them in business, but even with shipping it is still less expensive to order over the Internet.
ReplyDeleteI *love* American Livestock supply. Their prices are about the same as Country Supply and the like, but their FOB cutoff is higher... I've ordered Corta-Flx from them at a lower price because they ship it for free as opposed to the 3 lb FOB charge that Country Supply, VV, and KV Vet use.
ReplyDelete