If you want to get technical, some shippers only pay a 9% commission.

Borrowing money from a bank to pay shippers is nothing new. Been happening for years and years and years.

The devil is in the details, no?
And I am indeed surprised re the borrowing to cover payments.

I see what you are saying., if the bank pulls the plug, game over?

Wiss Miss, Yes I would like an answer. But that fact is only senior leadership at NAFA knows this and all we do is speculate and I don't agree w/ your speculation and you think I'm off base. It really doesn't matter to me anymore... Isn't worth the time or effort and my skin in this is minimal at this point. So I will leave you w/ your opinions and keep mine to myself. Have a wonderful day and yes you are an asset to this forum thank you for your commentary...

yep

Yes.

livestock auctions are regulated by the Packers and Stockyards Act protecting sellers aka p&s

we should start a F&S Furs and skunks

I did not know that buyers at sale, don't pay for all the goods an only partial payment, nafa finances the rest ? I never did understand all the buyers transactions an oversea stuff, I only up on seller or shipper and an then I don't know alot, I pay 9 per cent commision as a shipper, there could be more stuff going on then knowen , with ranch fur trouble

Some buyers pay their entire bill by prompt date. Some don’t. I have no idea how many are in each group.

NAFA pays all shippers for everything they sell on prompt date. The money has to come from some where.

There are a lot of things about operating procedures at NAFA that many shippers don’t know about. I’m talking about how the sale operates, not any under the table stuff. The Conditions of Sale for buyers is 2 pages of fine print. The fine print is both literally and figuratively speaking. It is published in every NAFA catalog.. I would be happy to mail a copy to any one what would like to take a look.

Wissmiss,
There you go again bring facts into a good Trapperman debate. Dontcha know those just get in the way of rumors, lies, speculation and innuendo?

I thought the buyer condition of sale changes for every sale? Like the 0 down free storage sale?

And who can forget, the no limit sales?

The standard Conditions of Sale are always the same in the fine print.

On occasion NAFA offers special promotions. Like in 2016, if you bought at least 10,000 rats or coon, you got free storagebfor 2 years and you didn’t pay packing and handling fees if you paid in full by prompt date. That was a one time offer.

All the other basics stay the same.

Buyer side commissions don't change?

Buyer side commissions occasionally change, usually at the start of a new selling season. They are announced separately and the specific commissions are not included in the Conditions of Sale.

The C of S is a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. The part about commissions states something generic like “buyer will be responsible for all fees accessed by NAFA. These fees will be announced prior to each sale”. Or something like that. Actual numbers are not mentioned.

Wonder how much is bought by speculaters without actual orders, an keep in storage until later date with hopes of higher prices. Or how much is in storage by speculaters

Centuries. At every level.
When markets are good, the large local buyers are operating on borrowed money. They pay up front then wait to get their return HOPEFULLY at a profit. It is speculative in nature (anything in the fur business large scale is considered highly speculative) and the money rates reflect that. I realize that at current prices that a buyer could accumulate a large collection backed by a social security check, but that isn't always the case.lol.

The large suppliers of any part of the industry need credit to finance what they think they will need for business and then hope that business comes. If not their investment may set for years awaiting a return. Boxes of traps, baits, cage wire, feed, etc. Sometimes in desperation, hope, blind faith, stupidity, excitement or? they will extend credit to an entity (i.e. a new to the business lure maker with a hot product), hoping it will produce a return in sales to reward them. There have been several people/businesses all but disappear in the last few years because their hopeful speculation didn't pay off. People/businesses with good products.

When NAFA came into existence they bought/accumulated some of the assets of the old, original HBC to which they claim ancestry. This would be the Canada and New York operations, as HBC was a global, multi-faceted company with separate fur divisions in several locations. I suppose if you are using the same stapler and same logo you can make the claim you're the same, but that doesn't make it the "same business." A recent example is Redfield: Redfield-Oregon is NOT the same as Redfield-Denver by any measure. Moot point. When NAFA formed they were heavily dependent on the wild fur trade. The first few years they lost millions in the market. Skin prices were in free-fall, markets were closing, fashions were changing, speculators were fleeing the fire, investors/financiers were calling in debt, banks were saying "no more." From the other direction, mink ranches went out of business by the hundreds, trappers hung up their traps, fox "ranches" closed by the thousands. $1.50 coon and $20 ranch mink averages. In this mess, NAFA to their credit tried to build a business. While many were looking for a way out, NAFA was looking for markets, for example the Greece-to-Russia connection, China & some that didn't pan out. G was in China a few days ago; NAFA was there 30 years ago. At startup, NAFA (called HBC North America or something like that in the beginning) was the smallest of the "big" auctions. This would be around 1989 or 1990 or so. They immediately began trying to expand their offerings (and therefore market-share and income) by appealing to ranchers. Simple business math, not a love/hate thing. As an actual business entity, NAFA has existed for about 30 years. Everything then and now has been leveraged. It is the same across the industry.

I have done business with NAFA, I have not done business with NAFA. I hope NAFA can weather the storm.

FYI Hudson Bay Company still exist as a multinational company.

Yes, mostly retail operations. Also some joint ventures. A dime's edge to what they were.

Okay
So my son has to wait until the end of the month to get his measly $11.03 check for the best red fox he caught. The 18 others are still NS from 2017 season.
Then on top of it the bank charged his account $15 for the retuned check fee.
Is NAFA going to reimburse him his $15?
Bad enough they took out the commissions and all the drumming feeds for all of the fox and dont forget the magazine which is not worth $1 let alone what they charge.

Consider that a very cheap lesson at a young age... I lost all my childhood trapping earnings on a mink farm that I got to work for, for nothing but stink and free labor