Opinions please on my CL ad for sale of rabbit meat!

[Comet007]

Hello! I am a little nervous, but I just posted my first ad to try to sell some of our excess rabbits that will be ready for cooking school in January! Any opinions on how I worded this? Hopefully I won't bring the crazies out of the wood work, we do have a very strong Slow Food Movement in our area. I think that I am pricing these pretty cheap - basically an estimated $10/lb processed weight for organic rabbit meat.

RARE! Organic-Fed Meat Rabbits for Sale - $25


We have a limited supply of organically fed New Zealand rabbits for sale for $25-35, based on live weight. Live weight will vary from 4.5-5.5 pounds. They will become available January 9th-16th, and will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. Please call/email/text now to reserve yours today!

Rabbit meat is an easily digestible all white meat, lower in cholesterol and fat than any other meat, as well as higher in protein!

It is almost impossible to source organically fed rabbit meat, as it is quite expensive to feed rabbits organic food! We believe that it is worth the cost to create a sustainable food source that is free of GMO's, chemicals, antibiotics, etc.

Our rabbits are humanely raised and fed a strictly organic diet of Modesto Mills organic rabbit pellets, organic hay, and organic seeds, herbs and occasional treats. We do not use any antibiotics, hormones, etc.

For those who may be interested in rabbit meat on a routine basis, I will be putting together a "first call" list of customers for future rabbit sales. We have new rabbits available about every two months.

Please call/text or email to reserve your fryers today, or for more information.

Thanks for any advice on this!

 

[Homer]

As I've posted in other places here I don't list a phone number in my ads. It seams no matter how careful you are C/L does bring out the crazy's...With that said are you selling live animals? I ask because it's getting to the place where you can't sell processed rabbit in most states without being FDA approved. :shock: Might want to check on the laws in WA.

 

[ckcs]

Looks great to me. I sell pet rabbits and put my number in my ads, never had a problem. However I would be much more concerned if I were promoting meat rabbits and would likely leave it out.

 

[MaggieJ]

I think your content is very good, but purely as a matter of style I would get rid of the exclamation marks. To me, they make it sound like you feel you have to hype the product -- and the kinds of people who appreciate organic products are already sold on the idea. Just a thought.

 

[Ramjet]

I think your content is very good, but purely as a matter of style I would get rid of the exclamation marks. To me, they make it sound like you feel you have to hype the product -- and the kinds of people who appreciate organic products are already sold on the idea. Just a thought.

Same thing I thought .... from the first word "Rare!"

Keep it simple .... the people who are going to be interested in that meat don't have to be convinced.

 

[Comet007]

Thanks for the input! Exclamation points are what I get for writing an ad at one in the morning when my pain won't let me sleep!!! oops! Though I will keep the word, rare, because in almost a year of looking at rabbit ads on our local CL I've never read an ad for organically raised rabbit meat.

I wondered about putting the phone number in, and I do think I will test it out for a while. Several other meat rabbit ads in our area list numbers, and I've seen the same ads with numbers over the period of several months so it suggests to me that people don't have too many problems.

We will be selling them based on size groupings by live weight, not exact live weight, because we don't have a certified scale. We are hoping to sell them live, but if needed then DH will show them how to process the rabbits, or dispatch them when the buyer is on site. I know in this area we can't process without a license, and I know we can't put the meat into a frig/freezer at all and then sell it. I think people offer to process as a favor, but don't charge for it.

I'm really hoping that we can get just 6-8 people who want to buy a rabbit or two every couple months, that's all we need/have to sell. We're breeding three does every two months (roughly), and holding one back for breeding, then we'll eat about a dozen and just would like to sell any surplus. The plan is to keep the best for breeding, then sell the best remaining to others and process/eat the smaller buns ourselves. This way we can build a good reputation for quality and size of the rabbits for the money.

 

[Schipperkesue]

Is there a different word to use other than 'rare'? I know what you mean but it is not a word that gets me excited about meat. Limited supply? Unusual? Scarce? I don't know...none of those seem suitable.

 

[Comet007]

Is there a different word to use other than 'rare'? I know what you mean but it is not a word that gets me excited about meat. Limited supply? Unusual? Scarce? I don't know...none of those seem suitable.

That's a good thought - I do use "limited supply" in the body of the ad. I scoured online ads and the most popular for organic rabbit meat seemed to be "gourmet", but to me that's about the cook, not the meat! Saying "scarce" is selling by fear of loss op opportunity, so you're right, it doesn't seem suitable.

 

[Schipperkesue]

Is there a different word to use other than 'rare'? I know what you mean but it is not a word that gets me excited about meat. Limited supply? Unusual? Scarce? I don't know...none of those seem suitable.

That's a good thought - I do use "limited supply" in the body of the ad. I scoured online ads and the most popular for organic rabbit meat seemed to be "gourmet", but to me that's about the cook, not the meat! Saying "scarce" is selling by fear of loss op opportunity, so you're right, it doesn't seem suitable.

I do like gourmet. How about Gourmet Quality?

(BTW, I too suffer from the overuse of the exclamation mark. We live in an exciting world!)

 

[Comet007]

The only problem with using "Gourmet" is that it implies that non-organic rabbits are NOT gourmet, which I don't think is true.

 

[JohnMc]

The only problem with using "Gourmet" is that it implies that non-organic rabbits are NOT gourmet, which I don't think is true.

I would check your State's rules on use of the word `organic`. Some may require you have a certificate to use the term. It means you have been inspected, the feed has been inspected, and your overall facility has no offending items.

A better fit might be `non-GMO fed stock`. Anybody serious about the issue will know right off the bat what is implied by that statement. That gets around the organic issue as well. That would also negate the use of `rare` in your advert.

Just an opinion.

 

[Comet007]

The only problem with using "Gourmet" is that it implies that non-organic rabbits are NOT gourmet, which I don't think is true.

I would check your State's rules on use of the word `organic`. Some may require you have a certificate to use the term. It means you have been inspected, the feed has been inspected, and your overall facility has no offending items.

A better fit might be `non-GMO fed stock`. Anybody serious about the issue will know right off the bat what is implied by that statement. That gets around the organic issue as well. That would also negate the use of `rare` in your advert.

Just an opinion.

The law reads that you can market up to $5,000 per year of organic products without being certified, as long as you keep records of their feed and any medicine used and follow the other regulations as if you are certified. We will likely only sell 60 or 70 buns per year. Even so, I never actually say "organic", I say organically fed, then list what we feed them and that we don't use antibiotics, etc. Either way I think I am covered, and I am well studied on organic foods, so I can answer questions that anyone has. Very good point, though, and good for others to be aware of!

Plus, it IS rare to find organic rabbit - so I definitely want something like that in the title. Even "naturally" raised rabbits might end up eating GMO feed without the breeder even knowing that. Also, in my mind, being GMO free is just part of the puzzle, it doesn't address all the other things that livestock is fed or has administered to them.

 

[JohnMc]

The law reads that you can market up to $5,000 per year of organic products without being certified, as long as you keep records of their feed and any medicine used and follow the other regulations as if you are certified. We will likely only sell 60 or 70 buns per year. Even so, I never actually say "organic", I say organically fed, then list what we feed them and that we don't use antibiotics, etc. Either way I think I am covered, and I am well studied on organic foods, so I can answer questions that anyone has. Very good point, though, and good for others to be aware of!

I hear ya. Using the term non-GMO is just a non certifiable way to say organic without using the term. You can't be organic and use GMO based feeds.

I would be interested in your results on sales as you should be able to command a premium.

 

[Comet007]

I will post later when I see how sales go. It's kind of a bad time of year to start - just a couple weeks after Christmas! That might skew the results. I'm only pricing $5-10 more per rabbit than others in my area, so I'm hoping we sell all that we want to. I think that we would need to sell 8-10 kits every two months to pay for our pellets, since we pay almost $30/bag. That's my ultimate goal, is to make it so our feed costs are covered, then we are just out of pocket for our labor and love!

 

[Zass]

Hmm, maybe "hard to find" or "limited" for possible alternatives.
There is nothing wrong with the word rare. It brings to mind how I prefer my steak, but not my rabbit.

 

[azbowhunter]

Respectfully, when i see "rare" on cl, in my head i hear "bat spit crazy person trying to milk something for more than i know it's worth".
Around here, people think they need to use rare in their description, but in truth, it's very unusual to have it be true.
I think you're doing yourself a favor by removing it, and selling on the true merits of your product.
People who want what you're selling will ask you questions you already know the answers to.
Have an empty feed bag on hand, as well as a full one. It adds credibility to your story when you can demonstrate the nutritional offering, and people can see for themselves what you're feeding.
I always use the remailer system on cl top avoid the hassles of those self righteous turds that grace us all from time to time.
Protect your self, and your buns, and never bring anyone around your rabbitry.
If they question it, advise that you run a closed facility for the health of the rabbits.

 

[Comet007]

It might be unusual to have the word "rare" be true - but in this case it is. I haven't seen organic rabbit meat advertised outside of some of the "gourmet" product sold for $35/lb on some websites. As I mentioned, we're not even pricing our rabbit meat much higher than others are selling for locally - I just want to highlight at a glance that we have something a little different to offer. I'm a little blown away at how hung up everyone is on that one little word lol. I think after reading the ad no one is going to be thinking that we're trying to gouge anyone.

Great idea about the empty feed bag, I will have that along with receipts showing that we buy $300 worth of the stuff at a time. We were discussing today the issue of how to get payment and where to meet people for sales. I want to try to get prepayment in order to avoid flakes, but don't want to give our mailing address, since it is our street address. I think I might get a PO box in town, and we will plan to meet people at a local store for their first order. Then if people buy from us again we can let them come to the house, and even then, we do have a closed rabbitry so they would only get as far as our driveway. The last thing I want is someone messing with our rabbits!

 

[Ramjet]

It might be unusual to have the word "rare" be true - but in this case it is. I haven't seen organic rabbit meat advertised outside of some of the "gourmet" product sold for $35/lb on some websites. As I mentioned, we're not even pricing our rabbit meat much higher than others are selling for locally - I just want to highlight at a glance that we have something a little different to offer. I'm a little blown away at how hung up everyone is on that one little word lol. I think after reading the ad no one is going to be thinking that we're trying to gouge anyone.

When I see people add unnecessary things to an add title , I usually just skip it , thinking the seller is trying to overhype something that's .... not so rare to begin with. I treat them just like those Northerland Doris and Mani Loop adds we laugh at here ....

It's your add , do what you like ... but there might be something to it when several people respond negatively to it who would be in your target audience if they didn't have their own rabbits.

 

[Comet007]

Ok, but part of it is that people already bring something up and then the bandwagon takes off... Go look at just about any ad that is professionally done, and you will find "unnecessary" words. I have a wide sales background, so I am not so adverse to using catchwords in a title. There's a reason they work.

It's interesting, because I was doing some research on some of the smaller breeds of rabbits, and a couple ads with the word rare in the title caught my eye, because I was looking for something different. Sure enough, they were selling some of the breeds that are not readily available in our area. Frankly if someone is having a knee jerk reaction to a single word that makes them skip past the fact that we are offering organic meat, then I probably don't want to work with them anyway. We will only have so much to sell, and as I do in my business, I prefer to work with people who are easy going. Let's face it, selling someone homegrown meat is going to be all about trust and the relationship that develops.

I am far more concerned about the content of the ad. I want to have enough info to get people thinking about the value of the offer, without it being a book. Also, I don't want the ad to be too graphic so as to be needlessly offensive. Though someone who takes offense at eating rabbit won't like it no matter how I phrase it.

I've already had some response to the ad, though I still need to go take out those exclamation points! lol I will see how this ad does, and likely will try several variations before we're through.

 

[Ramjet]

Ok, but part of it is that people already bring something up and then the bandwagon takes off... Go look at just about any ad that is professionally done, and you will find "unnecessary" words. I have a wide sales background, so I am not so adverse to using catchwords in a title. There's a reason they work.

I suppose the disconnect is your sales background and my .... just give me the bottom line.

I get annoyed with sales tactics , think its stupid for people to buy a product because celebrity or athlete X says buy product Y ... and it increases the cost to the consumer.

Just give me a good product at a fair price and lets cut the silliness ....

I bought a new truck in 2009 , salesman kept trying to get me looking at loaded trucks "this one is only $36k" , I said I want a truck , not a luxury car .... take me to the fleet trucks , no power windows , no gizmo's or fancy paint , I don't even want carpet , give me rubber floor mats.
After we made the deal for just over $11k .... he says lets go over to the finance department .... Oh by the way , I'm paying cash.