Another Not a warning (for koi enthusiasts).

[BooUrns!]

I just thought I would share an experience I had last summer as the ice is thawing on many ponds and some of you may be considering buying some nice quality koi.

I'd been on the lookout for high quality koi here in Alberta as there are a lot of low grade fish for sale at high grade prices. It is extremely difficult to find high grade fish locally at a reasonable price (I compare the size and price of fish for sale out east or in the U.S. to local asking prices and add a moderate amount of mark-up to ascertain what I consider reasonable).

Last year I was scanning the buysell listings for koi and came across a seller who was offering what he advertised as high grade koi. This individual was quite some distance out of the city on a farm on Highway 37 but I thought the trip would make a nice Sunday afternoon drive (we had just bought a new car and were enjoying it). I didn't expect to find anything worth purchasing and didn't really consider bringing any large sums of money. I've seen quite a few people claiming to have high grade stock only to be disappointed when I got out to see them.

So we went out to this farm and met with the owner, he was a large elderly german farmer who was keeping koi as a hobby in his retired years. He took us into a shop he had built onto his stable that held two swimming pool sized cattle troughs. I was floored as I realized he had some of the finest quality koi I had ever seen in person! His own personal stock was easily worth tens of thousands of dollars. He was selling smaller fish (under 12") to offset the shipping costs of the larger fish he was buying for himself. This suited me as I wasn't in the market for 24" long koi. We spent at least an hour out there looking at this guy's fish and horses. He had one or two koi that I had been looking for and I was interested in buying as well as some large polyethylene containers that he was selling for what I thought was a good price at the time. I hadn't brought any money since I didn't expect to see anything worth buying so I asked if I could return in a week or two to pick up the items I was interested in purchasing. He told me that he doubted that the fish I was interested in would still be there in a week's time. I had no choice but to leave that up to chance and told him I would call in week to see if they were still available before making the trip out there.

I called the next week and was told that the fish I wanted had been sold. I was disappointed but I still wanted to buy one of the 1200G poly containers so I asked if I could come pick one up the next weekend. He said there might be one left but I would need a trailer to transport it. I doubted this but agreed to call him later in the week so I could arrange to borrow a car trailer. In the meantime I called the manufacturer to find out the weight and rigidity of these containers to determine if they could be carried atop the box of a pickup. I found that the trailer was unnecessary and decided to contact the old german farmer to make arrangements to pick up the container with just my pickup.

Suddenly contacting this guy suddenly became very difficult. Previously he had called me back immediately if I called his house and didn't leave a message. After a few days of calling I couldn't reach him at all even after leaving a few messages. After another week had passed I called and got through. This time my conversation with this man was not so pleasant. For some reason, he felt it important to tell me that he had been irritated that I had come all the way out to his farm and had not made an impulse purchase. I had explained at the time that we had only come out to look at his stock and he agreed to this at the time. We had enjoyed our time at his farm and he seemed fairly pleasant during our visit. Now his tone had changed dramatically. He told me that he found it very strange that I would make the drive out there and not be ready to make a purchase. He said he was somewhat annoyed by the fact that I had not bought any fish. I found this somewhat bizarre that he would tell me this but I was only after the container at this point. I explained why I hadn't bought any fish then and was not upset that he had sold them to someone else. It was at this point that I realized that things had moved from bizarre to somewhere in the twilight zone. He admitted that he had not sold the fish I wanted and had lied to me because he was annoyed that I didn't buy them earlier.

I was somewhat taken aback. This was the most unusual business strategy I had ever encountered. I was truly baffled. I again explained why I had not purchased his fish at the time and attempted to clarify the situation. I told him he had some of the finest quality fish I had ever seen available for sale and I said quite clearly that I wanted to buy them. He still refused to sell. After repeating the previous events and even apologizing for not purchasing the fish earlier (I really wanted those fish!) he relented and agreed to sell me the two fish I was after.

I then turned the conversation towards the polyethylene container. I asked if he still had any of those left and he said that he did. I continued speaking to him on the phone explaining that I had contacted the manufacturer to find out about transporting them and had been told that moving them on a truck was possible. I wasn't able to finish my sentence before the old german farmer exploded on the other end of the line. He accused me of sneaking behind his back talking to the manufacturer (I discovered the reason for his tirade when he blurted out that he had received the containers from someone else who had been charged with recycling the tanks as they were no longer fit for usage as potable water storage and were supposed to be destroyed, not resold as he was doing). With his thick accent he blurted, "You’ve gone and screwed yourself there, no fish for you!"

I was completely blown away. I realized that I was dealing with the koi Nazi (Disclaimer: imagine Seinfeld’s soup Nazi, this has nothing to do with his country of origin or age)! I was still stunned but I managed to question his business strategy of not selling the fish he had for sale and he replied that it was his business to not sell fish to whomever he wanted! That it was it, I had just had a fifteen minute conversation with what turned out to be the koi Nazi.

Later in the summer, I purchased some nice butterfly koi from Henry and he referred me to a koi enthusiast based around Sherwood Park who had the same high quality stock available. I've noticed that this other seller has been developing his online website and has a bunch of new high grade stock available currently. I'm sure I'll be paying him a visit later this summer. I just thought I would warn any other unsuspecting pond enthusiasts out there so they can steer clear of this unreasonable fellow. His buysell ad is still running but has been amended to wholesalers welcome. I presume he is planning on refusing to sell to wholesalers as well...

[sharuq1]

Bizarre :boxed:

[Slough Shark]

What a strange person. Good that you found another high-quality koi outlet!

[Qattarra]

hummm....by-polar comes to mind lol

[Kayen]

weird indeed, but at least you found another koi place : )

[KoiBoi07]

hahaha...thats really funny. I called this guy to set up an appointment to come look at his stock with no intention of purchase right now. He told me that it was totally fine and to come out for a coffee and just look at his fish. Same thing, he sounded really nice and seemed like he didnt even care if I bought anything. Maybe I can use your experience to my advantage and maybe mess around with his head a little bit...we'll see how our "coffee" goes! Thanks for the heads up!