I50 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



Sale by Tendee. 



This form of selling is usually adopted with standing 

 timber only, and aims at securing the competition which 

 exists in the case of auction sales, together with the 

 opportunity of withholding the timber if a good price is not 

 offered for it. The owner usually announces that he does 

 not bind himself to accept the highest or any tender, and 

 this condition very often ends in no sale taking place after 

 all. The success of sales by tender depend greatly upon the 

 class of timber and the quantity offered. If of first-rate 

 quality, close to good roads, and offered in moderate lots, 

 competition for it will usually be keen. If, on the other 

 hand, it is awkwardly situated and of indifferent quality, 

 bona fide tenders are often only made by one or two men 

 who have arranged between themselves what they are going 

 to give, and agree to divide the timber between them if they 

 get it. If in too large lots, again, it limits tenders to men 

 with the necessary capital, and thus reduces competition. 

 Like auction sales, it is very subject to rings, and if all the 

 tenderers work together there is little prospect of a fair offer 

 being made. 



The chief objection timber merchants have to tendering 

 for standing timber is the uncertainty of the result. There 

 is often a strong suspicion that the owner or agent does not 

 intend to sell at a fair price, but invites tenders merely to 

 draw purchasers into a revelation of their own ideas of the 

 value of the timber, and use the information thus obtained 

 in some other direction. After making a more or less 

 careful valuation, which probably involves time, trouble, 

 and expense, it is an unsatisfactory termination of the 

 matter to the tenderer to find that no tender is accepted, or, 

 if one is accepted, no statement made as to its amount. 

 When the tenders are opened in the presence of all parties 

 concerned, this suspicion is doubtless removed ; but there may 

 be good reasons for not adopting this course in all cases, 

 especially when the highest bidder happens to be a doubtful 

 individual. 



One advantage of selling standing timber by tender is 



