bubble bursting

[Guest Vic]

Hi guys!

           Since that mouse crept into the house, threatening more and more of our

pigeon clubs with extinction, it has cruelly taken our future  generation of pigeon flyers into a dreamworld of fanciful technology.

                                                                 In these times of record autumn clearance sales, not to mention the Bird Flu, I find that the naiveness of the average pigeon flyer is beyond comprehension,   painting a bleak picture for the not too distant future.    Don't they realise that the prices of racing pigeons are still spiralling skywards, whilst pigeon racing in general is in an uncontrolled freefall, with

multimember partnerships coming more to the fore. Let's face it! the exorbitant prices asked, make a mockery out of this so called  "clothcap sport" of ours. It must be cheaper to join a posh golf club these days.

                                                                  But perhaps we are about to witness

the bubble bursting on the lucrative selling side of racing pigeons. Why? because

more of the dealers are joining the "£emming £eap", as each migratory bird sploshes down onto meres scattered throughout the UK. The proof of the pudding will be there, when our pigeon weeklies feel rather heavy (like some wallets) in a few weeks time.  VIc. :'(

 

                                                                        

[swilcox]

Hello Vic

 

Its true that things are going in the wrong direction, i certainly the last of a generation at my age!!!! How would you turn it around?

 

Stuart

[jimmy white]

hi vic kinda lost a wee bit with yor post vic ,so please excuse my ignorance, but as far as sales go[ and there will be plenty , as usual ]surely its up to the fancier whether he wants to buy or not , there are all sorts of fanciers, some are happy in racing , just for the sake of racing and enjoy it without pools or gambling etc ,,, there are others who would go for the big time stuff , but lets face it , it is completely optional , i see in one of your other posts duncan ferggy won 11 grand , theres andy who won over 4 grand in their yearling race this year etc , so to go for races like that you have to have he best possible pigeons [mind you you cant buy the man] so really the price of pigeons are up to the induvidual,who are not forced to buy ,i paid £200 for a pigeon which won £5000 and considered that a good investment, the cloth cap image of pigeon racing is long gone, and i understand that the fancy has lost members , but it doesnt mean to say its going down  hill, with a positive outlook it could be said its going up   hill , any sport you wish to take up nowadays will cost you a fortune and i cant see how pigeons will be any differant ,the good thing about pigeons are  pools are optional, entry fees for ordinary races are reasonable [ i,e their fare to the race point,[ and nobody forces anyone to buy birds   :)

[jimmy_bulger]

hi vic.

we as pigeon fanciers are what we are always striveing to improve, that is the (nature of the beast)

as for the price of pigeons they are worth what we want to pay for em whilst striveing to improve.

the cloth cap image is so self destructive as regards the public.its unbelievable.

i gotta be honest i nevers seen a pigeon flyer wearing a cloth cap at the kirkby marking station since old NAT THOMPSON, in the seventies.

jimmy

[Ronnie]

well as a newcomer to the sport i think i know the problem with members falling and not to many newcomers coming in.

Its all about advertising.The average person in the street knows nothing about pigeons or pigeon racing.the new members to the sport 90% of the time have had dealings with pigeons in the past ie: there parents or other family member kept them .So when your average joe public looks to a new hobby pigeons dont even enter his/her head unless they allready know of them from past dealing's.I only got into pigeons myself as an uncle had them and i was looking for something for me and my lad to get into together.Admittedly my boy only takes small interest at the moment(6 years old he is).he still helps clean out and realise's the birds need to be fed and watered and just generally looked after .Maybe if the press could get involved in promoting the prize money on one loft race's and explain how the winner was bred by your ordinary guy in the street and how he then race's in a local club against local people it would spark a new interest.

Anyway i hope i explained what i meant ok.People need to know about a sport before they can get involved in it.

[Guest slugmonkey]

I agree that exposure is the key, people just dont know enough about our sport to form educated opinions about it and the result is statements about birds the likes of which we constantly hear " all they are is winged rats " the next time you hear this statement take the time to explain our sport to whoever is spewing this crap and dispell some of the myths about pigeons, no one wants to appear ignorant and most people only know about pigeons what they have heard from uninformed sources. Take the time to try to enlighten these people you may find out how many animal lovers there are out there and maybe introduce a new flyer to the sport.

I also belive that you need  to look at the guys in the club who are spending this money on birds I am going to tell you the scenario in our club there are about 4 of us who regurarly ship about 40 - 50 birds per week ( let me say that before I break this down that I am not doing this as an attempt to pat anyone on the back and most of the other members don't even know this is going on ) we are allowed to ship 32 birds, any more than that and you have to pay extra per bird, most of our members ship about 20 dependant upon distance and weather, the way our system works you get 1 diploma for 20 birds so if these 4 guys ship 40 birds you have to look at it that they are 20 over average so they are responsible for 4 more diplomas they are also 8 over the shipping allowance which translates into a minimum of 8 dollars per week or 8 x 4 = 32.00 per week x 10 weeks or 320.00 dollars I and at least one other member also PAY FOR THE GAS AND BUY OUR OWN FOOD when we drive races so lets say thats 100.00 x 2 or 200.00 so far thats 520.00 our auction race had about 60 birds and brought about 3000.00 so the club take was 540.00 these same members bought 2/3 of the birds and donated quite a few more and several bought there own through the auction instead of nominating them so they cost more but lets just say they put in 360.00 thats 880.00 or roughly 1/3 of our yearly race budget we have 5 guys that drive races, would you like to venture a guess who 3 of the five are we also have to look at club expenses every week such as lead seals for manual clocks and rubber countermarks again for manual clocks (the electronic guys pay 10 cents per copy for extra sheets ) in writing this I am beginning to think maybe its NOT the spirialing costs but the guys who are still living in the days of 75 cent gas that are causing the problem instead of complaining about this why don't these guys step up to the plate, buy 2 more auction birds this year,  Drive a race, fly MORE birds on MORE races, take the little snot nosed *expletive removed* next door to the club with you and buy him a soda and let him handle some birds, then maybe you can gain some insight into what is really killing our sport!!!

I should also state that I realize that everyone dosen't have the time or resources to be committed at the level that some of us are, BUT because I am commited at that level don't criticize me I am not on here starting topics about how the AVERAGE flyer is killing our sport

 

P.S. I am NOT launching this as a personal attack on anyone, only on an opinion  that I belive is WRONG this dosen't mean that you arent allowed to belive it though.

[jimmy white]

thats what im trying to say if the media saw all these one loft races and the money involved, im sure they would forget about the snotty nosed kid [who has to start somewhere] its the snotty nosed adults that act like kids that are bringing the sport down a level instead of trying to bring the sport up a level, in front of the publics eyes

[jimmy_bulger]

i think if we get down to the nitty gritty the powers that be ie: all the unions of the uk should put up some serious funds, for a high profile and sustained pr drive to recruit and educate not only the younger members of the public but also the older ones to.

if the older ones where more educated about this sport they may not be as reluctant to let ltttle junior build a pigeon loft in theire lovely back garden.

jimmy

[jimmy white]

i think thats excactly what i was trying to say  

[jimmy_bulger]

i know jimmy but some times we round the house to get there,lol

[ALF]

OOP'S SORRY I THOUGHT THIS WAS A THREAD ABOUT THE ENGLAND FITBA TEAM ;D ;D ;D ;D :P :P ;)

[Guest Vic]

Hi Guys,

            Just returned from a bit of fishing, thanks for the replies, everybody to their own beliefs by all means. I may sound like a bit of a doomist to most, but I really am concerned about the lack of new blood entering this wonderful sport of ours. I have raced them for 50 years this year and my comments may appear pessimistic to some, but Iv'e seen the good years  when clubs in Liverpool boasted 100 members, which some Feds would be proud to boast these days. A club with 20 members nowdays is considered a big club. How times have changed! Without doubt, unless we have new blood entering, there will only be one or two clubs in most cities within 5 years.   Yes Jim,  Nat Thommo,  not forgetting my old mate Mick Mullarkey were two of the last cloth cap brigade, God Bless 'em.   Vic