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They may also visit you (27-12-2019)

They may also visit you

 ‘Absolutely crazy’, fanciers said in the 90-ies when a National winner from Sint Vincent was sold for 65,000 guilders (appr. 25.000 euros in today’s currency).  Those were the years that very expensive pigeons were sold to Japanese.

 TIMES CHANGED

But times changed. To-day mainly Chinese and Taiwanese pay those extreme prices for pigeons. The traditional room auctions have become rare here. But in case these auctions are attended by Chinese it mostly goes like this: The Belgians and Dutch bid till a certain amount, then the Chinese take over.

And the prices that are sometimes paid? There is only one word for it: Crazy! When Daniels sold his National Ace for 400,000 euros, people could hardly believe it. Now that a youngster (!) of Hooymans was sold for 146,000 € and the National Ace from Verschoot for 1.250.000 € they will be less sceptic.

 CRITICISM

When fanciers hear about those extreme prices many are critical. Of course we all know that pigeons are not worth that much. Especially not young birds. How many of them, even from the best parents, will develop into a super bird? The professionals in our sport easily breed 150 babies a year. Is there a chance there will be 5 supers among them? If so, that would mean 15 ‘supers’ in 3 years’ time. Who has 15 supers? Therefore eyebrows are raised when in an auction even the cheapest bird is sold for much money. The champions themselves give the answer to this question by breeding 150 or more young birds a year. But it is a free world. Those high prices will hurt nobody and that they ruin the sport is something that I do not believe.

My guess is that in future even more staggering amounts of money will be paid for an International winner from Barcelona for example. If you are the lucky one to have an International winner or a super bird some advice in case you find buyers on your doorstep.

 FIRST OF ALL

Mostly those Eastern buyers are accompanied by a middleman (broker, translator). Better be nice to hem. Such a person can make but also break you. You should always realize that the middle man wants to make money. And you never know how he translates your words. There was this Dutchman who found 20% commission far too much. He and the middle man could not agree with the result that the Dutch could hardly sell any birds from then on. There was also this famous Belgian. He came to me, because he had a problem. For some mysterious reason he did not get clients from the East anymore, later he found out why.

A Taiwanese had asked a broker to buy pigeons from him. But he was sold out, he did not even have one bird that he could sell. This was very embarrassing for the middle man. How could he tell his client that he could not buy birds from the Belgian, while other brokers had bought pretty many. This was bad for his reputation and he might lose clients. So what did he do? He told fanciers in Taiwan that the pigeons of the Belgian were sick; Salmonella. Therefore het got no clients any more.

 DIFFERENCE

When doing business with Easterners 3 things are important. The eyes of a pigeon, the pedigree and the price. Of course every case is different.

Buyers may approach you

Or

It is you who offers a bird or more birds for sale.

Your position is stronger when there is a demand of course. In case you get more demands in a short period of time there is a chance your ‘strain’ is doing well over there and you can charge a higher price. Before doing business be clear about the commission to avoid misunderstandings or even a conflict. You can also say: ‘This is my price, I do not care about the rest.’ But then there is a chance the middle man raises the price so much that the pigeon is not salable any more. The name also makes a difference. An unknown name will get less money for his birds than a famous name, regardless how good they may be.

 PEDIGREES

Those stupid papers should never have been invented. Compare the pedigrees that Leo Heremans made in the beginning of this century with his latest and you know what I mean. Smart Leo realized soon that the paper should be as full as possible. What is written on it sometimes seems less relevant.

The color of the cat does not matter, as long as she catches mice.

There are some that get their pedigrees full by mentioning the results of THE SAME bird four times! Suppose there is this baby of a ‘super bird’ that won 10 leading prizes. Those prizes will be mentioned under the ring of the super but also under the name of its baby. Then it says: ‘Father won 10 leading prizes.’ The same information will be given with the father and the mother of the super. But now it says ‘son won  10 leading prizes’. It is also advisable to always have a good look at the results.

If a pigeon won, for example:

Orleans 230 p – 1st.

Orleans 825 p – 1st,

Orleans 2,200 p – 1st

Orleans 7,000 p – 1st , it is obvious that this bird only won ONE first. The others are doubles in Fed, Provincial et cetera.

 NAMES

If your pigeon has the blood of ‘fashion names’ in its veins, do mention it. Them, even if it is very little. To-day Harry, Kaasboer, v d Bulck and some more are trendy. Furthermore some foreigners get crazy when they see the same bird in a pedigree several times. It happened that such a foreigner asked me ‘do you have pigeons for sale that descend from say v d Wouwer.’ How naive. If I would have such birds and if they would be any good I would never sell of course. It also happened that I told foreigners that a bird that they wanted was not good at all. They did not care, as long as they liked its pedigree.