One of the tremendous benefits available to WCOA consignors is the ability to lower reserve prices during the auction. This unique feature allows consignors to be flexible so that they can immediately respond to bidding patterns. To protect buyers, the reserve cannot be changed once the reserve has been met.

Due to current economic conditions, we recognize that sales prices can vary significantly. Many breeders are currently accepting less now than they were a year ago for a variety of reasons. Consequently, we do not encourage using auction results to gauge alpacas’ values.

Understandably, many spectators are curious about auction results. It is important to realize that auction results can be highly subjective. Many online auctions disclose the “reserve” price as the sold price, when actually the reserve was not met because the consignor simply repurchased his/her own alpaca.  Another trend is to display a “Buy It Now” price. We feel this deters bidders from participating because they may choose to not pay as much as the “Buy It Now” price for a given alpaca.  Therefore, we have chosen to avoid the “Buy It Now” pricing model.

WCOA strongly believes in respecting the privacy of the consignors and buyers that use our auction service; therefore, we do not publish final sold amounts. This information is confidential between the seller, buyer, and WCOA.  For this reason, we also do not publish the status of the reserve being met on the auction site.

Upon closure of the auction, we will notify the consignors and buyers if the reserve has been met. If it has not been met, the consignor can engage us to broker a sale with the bidder(s) at no extra cost to anyone. This is a free service WCOA offers.

We hope the alpaca community agrees with our philosophies. Please suggest comments to info@wcalpacas.com