Why a $1.8 Million Dollar Tuna is Dirt-Cheap

This blog post is about a very misunderstood topic recently. Of course you heard about the tuna that was sold for a record $1.8 million dollars at the first auction of the New Year in Japan? That price of $1.8 million dollars set a record. It was the top story on all the Japanese networks, the Internet and even on TV and media across the globe: it was one of the top stories and big news all over the world. People couldn't believe that anyone would pay that much money for one fish...

This fish was huge but the chef told me that it sold for about ¥40,000 (about $454 USD)

But, my friends, that $1.8 million dollar price was dirt cheap. Those folks who bought that Tuna didn't really buy a fish, actually, they bought an advertising campaign. The tuna was a prop.

Lots of people seem to misunderstand this.

$390,000 for One Tuna Fish!? You Could Buy a Car With That!

Update from James B. Allen below

Yep. You read the headlines correctly. Well, it is actually $396,340 (USD) at today's rate. The first tuna auctioned off at Tokyo's famous fish market at Tsukiji sold for nearly $400,000; a new record!

This one is selling for 1/3 the price of the new record....

Jeez! How big is that fish?!

The AP reports:

A bluefin tuna from Hokkaido fetched a record-high 32.49 million yen on Wednesday in the first auction of the year on the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, commonly known as Tsukiji market, market officials said. The price for the 342-kilogram tuna, caught off Toi in Japan's northernmost prefecture, is the highest since 1999 when comparable data became available. It was well above the previous record of 20.2 million yen marked in 2001.





Maybe 2011 is going to be a big spender year after all.... Or, is that just because the government keeps printing so much money that our cash is getting nearly worthless!


So Like I wrote: $390,000 for one tuna fish? You could buy a car with that... OR, "How many cans of tuna would that make?"


Update from James B. Allen:


"Mike - check the exchange rate - you're off one decimal point :). 32.49 million yen is around $400,000 USD. Just shy of half a million dollars." 


Thanks to News on Japan

Tokyo's Famous Fish Market, Tsukiji, Closed to Tourists Dec. 1 ~ Jan. 22

If you plan on going to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo this year, I suggest you get over there in the next two weeks. It will close from Dec. 1.

Tuna's the size of a sofa

The Japan Times Reports:

Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market will shut out sightseers from its popular tuna auction area from Dec. 1 to Jan. 22 to ensure sales can be conducted smoothly, market officials said. The auction area at the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market will be off-limits to sightseers around the New Year's holidays for the third straight year. The measure was introduced in 2008 because activities such as flash photography by tourists disturbed tuna middlemen and because the area will be particularly crowded around New Year's due to an upsurge in tuna transactions. 







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