Quote:
Well, thank you for giving me a break anyway.
Nothing I say here is pointed in any way at you either, so don't be giving me a hard time.
I'm just trying to give a view from both sides of the auction block.
I try to be fair and honest in all my dealings, at the auctions and otherwise. I've told more than one dealer to get the **** outta my sale barn and not come back. My reputation is worth more to me than the money I might make dealing with those few losers. This is just my view from the prospective of an auctioneer.
I never said that all auctions are ran well, just that the ones that aren't won't be around long. I've been to a few that made me sick seeing the condition of the animals, the way the employees treated the animals, and to be honest, the quality of buyers and sellers would make you wanna puke. But if they are being run like that they need to be shut down and will be sooner or later. Animals sales are regulated more than any other type of sales I know of. And the fines for not complying with the rules and regulations are unbelieveably high!
However those are the exception rather than the rule.
Do sick animals get sold at auction? Of course they do sometimes, just like at swap meets, on
ebay, and sad to say I'm sure it's happened right here on my beloved BYC at some point. It's a fact of life that some dealers are not good people, good breeders, good caretakers of their animals and just all around bad folks to deal with. And I also agree that you can't trust many sellers... in ANY selling sitiuation. However I stand by my opinion that "Most" livestock auctions are ran better than the ones you've seen and some of the others I've heard mentioned. At least there are regulations, health checks, veteranarians on staff, and other security things to give you some protection. And MOST dealers are at least doing the best they can, although there will always be some who do a better job with their animals than others. At the really big livestock auctions better than 90% of the people you will see selling and buying are doing it for a living.
It's all a matter of knowledge, trust and common sense. And I personally think this goes for both buying at auction and buying from private breeders.
First; Knowledge. Know your animals you're buying. Study them, know what you want and know what to look for when looking for signs of problems with that animal. For example a cattle person could glance at a calf in a stall while walking by, never even stop, and tell you more than I could about that calf if I rubbed all over it's body, looked up it's nose and checked all four hooves and asked it it's name. I'm not a cattle person, I don't really know what to look for, while the cattle person might buy and sell hundreds of head every month and has done so for 50 years! If I was going to buy a cow at an auction, I'd have one of those cattle people who I knew and trusted go with me and I'd listen to their advise and either buy what they told me to, or go home without one.
Second; Trust. Find a dealer you trust. Ask this person every question you can think of, then when you're done, ask them to tell you about the things you should have asked about but didn't know to. Find a REPUTABLE auction. Talk to the auctoneer and ring help. Talk to some of the old geezers that hang around every auction in the country just hoping and praying they can share some of their tobaccoo stained wisdom. If anything doesn't feel or look right... walk away. Don't look back. Better safe than sorry.
Third; Use common sense. (I don't know why it's called common, because it doesn't seem to be) If an animal is selling too cheap - 99 times out of 100 there is a reason for it. Maybe those other buyers know something you don't? Goats are bringing from $60.00 to $75.00 today and then there's one that's only up to $22.50? Hummm, I wonder why? I might not know why myself, but I do know I don't want that goat or one of the packers would have already ran the price up to at least just below the going rate. Again, common sense.
There is a monthly swap meet / animal sale type thing near here that has been there for over 100 years, never been a month it wasn't going on since it started in the late 1800's. I know of 1 dealer there that is NPIP and she's a young lady from Tenessee who sells waterfowl. There are around 200 people selling every kind of animal you can think of there. Lots of them packed into cages so tight they can't even turn around, most with no feed or water in the cages. You want to get sick critters, go and buy there not knowing any better!
Now I don't mean to or want to start any fights or arguments. I'd like this thread to be kept open because I think it can be very educational to those who are new to auctions and might be thinking of buying from one. I only posted because I haven't seen anyone else that had posted from the view of a person who is a professional auctioneer, animal breeder and a buyer. I just thought some few might be interested in information from a different perspective.
So everyone please play nice!
I get in enough trouble as it is without getting into trouble trying to help.
