Auctions at Kopenhagen Fur
A total of five auctions are held annually at Kopenhagen Fur. Primarily raw skins are sold here. The skins have not yet been dressed or otherwise treated. The season starts with an auction in December, and is followed by auctions in February, April, June and September.
Each auction typically lasts 3-5 days. Approx. 3-3.5 million mink skins are sold per auction. This gives an annual turnover of nearly 15 million mink skins, which corresponds to 50% of the global mink production. Kopenhagen Fur is thus the world’s largest auction house for raw skins.
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Products
Mink comprise approx. 90% of the fur skins sold at Kopenhagen Fur. Fox, seal, chinchilla, sable, karakul, Rex rabbit, Nutria, finnraccoon and fitch are also sold. The mink skins originate primarily from Denmark, however, mink from Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland are received for sale at Kopenhagen Fur. The majority of the other skin types come from abroad.
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Grading
Approx. 300 people work from November to June, readying the skins for sale and delivery. According to type, sex, size, colour and quality the skins are sorted very carefully. The last process in the our grading system is the final grading which is of incredibly great significance to the final result. It is a fine-tuning of the individual colours while also constituting a check of the prior sortings.This unique grading system ensures that the skins in the individual lots are as identical as possible.
Inspection
Before each auction, the buyers have the opportunity to inspect the skins for sale. The inspection typically lasts for 4-5 days. It is an important part of the auction period, because the individual lots for sale are not displayed during the auction itself. The customers in the auction room have the sales catalogue only, including their own notes, to guide them in their purchasing.
During the inspection the customers see a cross-section of the skins only, the so-called showlots, which represent the many millions of skins.
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Sales
The skins are sold by auction. The auctioneer sells from a catalogue, which in addition to detailed information on the lots also contains the appraised value. The task of the auctioneer is to sell at the highest possible price and in general to see to it that the auction is conducted in a fair manner with respect to Kopenhagen Fur’s conditions of sale. A typical sales day last 8-10 hours.
Usually, 3-400 customers attend an auction, representing approx. 25 countries.