Buying goods at NAFA
A buyer may act on his own behalf in the auction room, provided that an account has been established in good standing with the auction house prior to the start of the sale. A buyer may also be represented by a professional fur broker acting on their behalf, who will subsequently transfer the purchased lots to the buyer’s account.
The majority of our product is sold through our auctions. All bids and quoted prices are in U.S. Dollars. All goods are EXW from our facility in Toronto and are subject to auction fees and packing and handling charges at published rates.
Goods that are unsold after an auction are available for private sale (subject to the same conditions of sale, fees and charges) through the Private Treaty department either in person, by phone/fax, email via the NAFA website.
The final price announced by the auctioneer (referred to as the ‘hammer price’) appears on the invoice. Auction and packing fees are added to the total on the invoice. The NAFA invoice does not include freight and broker charges, which are the responsibility of the buyer.
The Auction Process
Fur pelts are sold as a selected group bundled into a ‘Lot’. The number of pelts in each Lot is different for variety, depending on fur species, gender and size. A number of Lots of the same description will be grouped together as a ‘String.’ A String can be a single Lot, or several – there is no limit to the number of Lots that can be in a String.
In order for buyers to make an informed purchasing decision, each String must be inspected. Our graders randomly extract a small number of pelts from all Strings offered, and these are bundled to form the ‘Show Lot’. These Show Lots are on display and available for buyer inspection for several days preceding the auction. NAFA has porters on hand to help with the inspection process. Buyers mark their catalogues according to their assessment of these Show Lots and use this information to guide their decisions in the auction room.
During the auction, the first Lot of each String is announced and appears on the ‘Lot Board’, an overhead screen which displays all essential information. All bidding is done in U.S. dollars, starting at pre-determined values or limits and increasing by increments depending on the fur type and price level (once bidding of any species reaches certain levels however, the increments of the bid increases). Once sold, the buyer number is recorded by the auctioneer, as well as being entered immediately into the NAFA invoicing and accounts system from the auction stand. This innovation enables NAFA to speed up the invoicing and accounting procedures.
The starting price is determined by the auction house, which reserves the right to not sell below a set figure. Limits may also be set by consignors, who may indicate to NAFA not to sell particular Lots below a certain price. These Lots are called “Full Lots” and only contain pelts supplied by that consignor.
Buyers can pick up print-outs of their purchases and arrange for invoicing at the Buyer Services counter. Registered buyers can also create their invoices and view purchases through our website. Using these listings, buyers can verify their purchases and indicate how to invoice all purchased Lots using an additional form. As well, Shipping forms and Banking information are available.
Buyers who are represented by a broker can examine details of their purchases online through their registered account on the NAFA website as soon as they are transferred into their account by the broker.
Any errors discovered by a buyer should be brought to the auctioneer’s attention immediately, so that the disputed lots can be offered back to the room at once. Mistakes discovered later are harder to rectify, and are the property of the buyer unless the auction house is successful in placing the pelts elsewhere.