I’m leaving for the Futurity auction this Friday. No, I don’t plan to buy and have kept my checking account balance abnormally low just to prevent such a disastrously spontaneous occurrence. I also don’t plan to show – just to go to the Quechua Benefit auction and the main auction Saturday, then hop on a plane home on Sunday.
So are there valid business reasons to attend auctions if you’re not looking to buy or sell? I like to think so.
First off, let’s dispense with the obvious and trivial. Yes, at a nice auction (and Celebrity Sales always runs a nice event), you do get lots of nice free hors d’oeuvres and the wine and liquor tends to flow freely. They do, after all, want your inhibitions running wild and free and that can sometimes lead to some unplanned entertainment. And yes, it’s an obvious opportunity to network with other breeders. But first and foremost, auctions can be educational.
If I’m at an auction, I mark all the lots in the auction book that fit the parameters of my breeding program. For example, if I’m only breeding for full Peruvian whites and do not allow linebreeding, I go through all the pedigrees and mark those that fall into that. I look at each lot and assess it for conformation and fiber characteristics and mark down what I think it is worth and what I like or don’t like about it. I also compare related animals, e.g. animals from the same herdsire or dam, to see what characteristics I see in common for my own knowledge on the parents. Sometimes I also look at animals that don’t align with what I breed for just out of curiosity and to see if they sell for what I think they should. This is all part of the enjoyment.
At a combined auction/show event like the Futurity, the other plus of previewing the auction lots is that I can also scour the show pens for animals from the same herdsires to see how consistent they are. If you miss an auction lot with genetics you want, you can sometimes find a related show animal for sale. A win/win all around.
But let’s return to the original premise – that we’re there just to learn and not buy. Last but not least, an auction can give you an indication of how the market is trending based on the winning bids. And here I have to say that judging the market based on bids is only valuable if you’ve assessed the animal. After all, an animal that you assess at $30,000 that sells for $22,000 gives you a more pessimistic outlook than an animal you assess at $5000 and sells for $9000. But you can get the exact opposite idea looking at the sale prices in a vacuum. That’s why I really resist arriving at any conclusions just based on published auction prices.
So that’s how I’ve justified my trip to Louisville this coming weekend. Never mind that auctions can be outright exciting. That without the stress of having animals to take care of and show, they can be a lot of fun. That the mere possibility of seeing an animal I might not be able to resist produces a thrill similar to window shopping in Beverly Hills.
And that regardless of what I plan or don’t plan to do, my checkbook always comes with me to any auction.
The Pacablogger 