Why is it

[Guest]

Ive been racing pigeons now for 3yrs & still yet to break my novice status although turning from N to S this year & only sending to channel races,so it may take a whileto get my first win but it will come (patience is a virtue) Anyhow its getting near the sales time of year so i have a question in the last few years ive seen ads for entire clearance sales,in these ads the birds get rave reviews from various sources including the auctioneer claims like will fill a loft with winners these birds have won everything in last 2 years etc etc Now my question is if you were just an average fancier then managed to get a team of birds that win everything would you then sell up considering how may yearsand how much effort you have put in to reach your goal.Now how comes 9 times outa 10 these birds sell like hotcakes & make large sums of money yet it seems that you never here of anybody with a loft full of winners from these birds in fact you rarely here of any winners from these birds,so these then leaves a couple of questions such as how comes these people won everthing for a couple of years yet nobody else seems to do anything with them (is it cos this family of birds only fly well for the original fancier) ?

[Guest]

that just about sums it up lad ,in my experience the only way you will get breeders of winners is to produce them your self as very few will really sell you them

[THE PRIEST]

By my experience of going to clearence sales i have been quite supprised at how many birds have been in some of these sales. For instance one sale i went to the guy was a great flyer but only raced a team of about 20 birds and yet in the sale there was about 80 lots. So finding one or two good breaders from this amount of birds must be pretty difficult if not pot luck. From this sale i purchased 2 birds and have bred 3 club winners from them however the two i purchased were among the cheepest in the auction. I wonder if the realy expensive birds ever bred anything good. I suppose the other point is has the seller kept his best back for friends and relatives. I know of one guy who set his son up in the sport before selling up. Perhaps this happens on occasion.  

[Guest]

Not taking anything away from bird's performances, a win is a win, but auctioneer is there to sell the birds as quickly and for as high a price as possible, so there will be a lot of 'sales patter' in the advert.

 

The other point is there are winning performances and winning performances. In my area a few years ago, a fancier was selling on a pair he'd purchased from a well known SNFC distance fancier; in my opinion he shot himself in the foot by saying in his advert that these birds had bred birds to win in club and federation. If you are buying distance pigeons you are buying them to fly or breed birds to fly at National level, and the birds on offer hadn't done that. So the level of competition the birds achieved their wins in also has a bearing on its value, as is your desire to compete at that level.  

[Guest]

I'd also recommend charity sales. Fanciers usually give off their best here, and basically 'price doesn't matter' as it all goes to a good cause anyway.