Very nicely done. Just like being there. Except you didn't show the chaos in the inspection area that happens before the auction starts.

very informative..thank you

Thanks for the video. Reminds me of SAGA/FHA auction I went to in Seattle. LLL

An impressive operation for sure. They have had a couple hundred years in business to perfect it.

Cool video, maybe in May you could show us more bundles of the fur on the grading table to maybe see the difference in region grades. Also find the suggestion box and tell them to not start private treaty sales until after the spring auction, maybe that will make the buyers bid when lot is on the block. Instead of going back 10-12 lots and haggling over it every 2 minutes. This auction IMO had now flow to it, it was like they were price checking at Wal-mart.

Cool video. place is Uuge

Very Nice! Thankyou so much for loading this!

Thanks for the video. Keep up the good work , hope your martin were top lot.

I think that Jim's martin got out of their cages and flew around in the building. So they must have been "Top Rafters"
Sure glad they fixed their glitch with the feed after the second day with all the delays in the feed time.

The two gentlemen in the front of you sure took a lot of notes during the marten and fisher auction.

Thanks Jim.

Nancy I purposely avoid showing that as most buyers do not want to be shown on camera. On the May sale I will have Phil do an inspection of goods to show trappers, I know he will help me with that. He just had his knee replaced so I was not able to really give a detailed example.
Jim

I understand about the buyers not wanting to be photographed. Having been at numerous NAFA auctions, you make it look so calm and quiet. Wish there was a way to show what actually goes on during inspection.

Another interesting video might be a time lapse that shows the warehouse from the start of inspection until the last day of the auction. The grading tables coming down to be replaced by row upon row of boxes of ranch mink. And then the blue room coming down and replaced with rows of ranch mink boxes.

So many neat aspects of a NAFA auction that trappers don't realize. Thanks for sharing the auction with them.

We need to see the Private Treaty room , desk, whatever, where so much of our fur is sold before the auction is even over. I saw the sign.

What was Mark doing there Jim,buying or selling,lol.He didn't look too happy you were filming him.

I think Mark was plotting tactics for the upcoming sale in Helsinki. LOL

He was worried about the marten prices and clearances, he gambled big time last year holding back all their best and biggest marten and the market has dropped more than 25%. I would not want to be in his shoes this coming sale in Helsinki.

It is common for someone to come from the other auction houses to mark the catalogue, the fellow he is sitting beside is from SAGA one of their auctioneers Kevin, one of the main auctioneers from Kopenhagen was also at the sale. Too understand this each auction house marks the prices from the other so that they know how to better evaluate the goods. each lot has an estimated value marked in the auctioneers catalogue.
The evaluation marks are based on what you sold for last sale, what your competitor sold comparable goods for and what direction the fur market is going. Either up or down.
Let all hope the prices go up in Helsinki!!!!

The biggest and best just sold at NAFA for about what Mark turned down last year. I should know, they were my marten. Smalls and semis are headed south of the year 2000.

That was the problem FHA could not match NAFA February prices last year so gambled and held them now they are forced to sell, they should have taken the drop last year but instead have made their shippers wait a whole year.
The two years ago they had the better marten sale,
Such is the skin game.

I'm in no hurry. They can hold them another year, if they want. No different than all the guys storing them in their freezers.

I got a bunch of good ones there from last year too.FHA will try to protect the trappers intrests,but I don't think they will hold them again.

I am willing to bet they sell them all or as much as they can, this year they can play the blame game.
You may not be in a hurry but they don't run on love'
Last year they could have sold at these prices but would have looked bad, this year they can blame the other guy for the drop lol.

I thought we were blaming the mink ranchers.

Close, that's for the whole fur trade mess,
but for the marten NAFA smoked them last year because of the Korean buyers that came to buy the black mink, when FHA went too Helsinki, they could not match the prices so held making their shippers think they were protecting the trappers interest.
If they would have sold them they would have lost shippers and looked bad, instead they held them.
Now they can sell them telling everyone that the market has dropped and blame the other guy.
Either way their shippers have lost a year to get the drop, may look good but the reality is what it is.
I would have thought you would have figured this out?
In all fairness two years ago they had the better marten sale,

Great video, Jim. Appreciate you showing the ranch mink and ranch fox too.

I wondered how NAFA stole the Koreans. Baited them with cheap ranch mink.

Should have lots of money left this year after buying mink. Hopefully they can finish filling their orders for big marten in Helsinki.

P.S. I hope Mark was taking the Koreans to the nudey bar every night after the Auction promoting Helsinki.

Just shows you the strength of NAFA actually having a real marketing team and investing in the promotion of fur. If your marketing strategy is to rely on only the Russian market and riding on someone else's coat tails it ends up being the trappers who lose out.

P.S. I sincerely hope they do well, a lot of my friends have skin in this game.

Geez, you act like NAFA had a good marten sale last year. The only thing NAFA did good on was Heavy XXXL -XL not pale After that it was disaster. In May NAFA held the same ones FHA did. Of course, Sojuzpushnina started the collapse in Jan with their 30% increased offering. I give NAFA credit for the results on the large heavies, but if they want credit for the great fur market they are welcome to it.

Like it or not NAFA had the best Marten sale last year in February,
interesting that FHA doesn't even want to try and sell marten anymore in North Bay?
You are keen on knocking NAFA and ranch fur but your ok with FHA having to go to Helsinki to sell with Ranch fur!!

Price of marten tracks the price of ranch mink. So I should blame FHA? Who sells 10 million of them? I'll blame Kopenhagen too if it makes you feel better. Who is NAFA and Kopenhagen?: mink ranchers. FHA is not mink ranchers. They are just trying to sell a few (10 or 100) thousand from the ranchers that despise NAFA.

Did you not blame mink ranchers for the wild fur market problems that currently exist? I think it is fact. It is just reality.

I'm not blaming the WFSC( the 25% non controlling owners of NAFA) for the market problems. Actually, I gave them credit for $4 muskrats just the other day.

How does it benefit either shippers for either Auction to have a bad sale? I want them both to have good sales.

This recent NAFA Marten sale is close to the FHA sale last winter.