If you are shopping for 'ahi for New Year's Eve, just name your price.

You can pay $5.95 for bright pink chunks of big-eye tuna for poke (at Ishimoto Fish Market in Chinatown) all the way up to almost 10 times that for loin cuts of super-premium imported bluefin tuna (at Marukai — if there's any left; call first).

Thelma Nagasako peered into the case at Tamashiro Market, where they carry seven grades of 'ahi, and asked, "What's the difference?" "Size, color, texture, fat," the counter man responded. "Just a second," she said, and out came the cell phone for a protracted conversation with her husband, Walter, about which grade he wanted for the sashimi they're taking to the in-laws today.

Her choices ranged from "good" grade at $7.95 to toro — the cherry-pink fatty belly coveted by sashimi cognoscenti — at $24.95. For precut rectangular blocks of 'ahi, Tamashiro's price was $19.95 a pound. After her conversation, Nagasako, like many customers, settled for somewhere in the middle: high grade at $16.95 a pound. "Walter says his dad would know the difference if we didn't get the good quality," she said.

Most folks in the fish business seemed to be smiling yesterday as they discussed supply and quality. "Supply is very, very good and the price is not so pricey, so high, as last year," said Charlene Ishimoto, whose family operates Ishimoto Fish Market in the Oahu Market.

At United Fishing Agency's auction yesterday, shuffling buyers crowded around auctioneer Wayne Higashi, who was walking along the fish laid out on palettes in neat rows, mumbling prices in a steady rhythm, his eyes roaming the pack for signs that someone liked the number and was ready to bid. Auction manager Brooks Takenaka said the auction handled 125,000 pounds of fish (much of it 'ahi) Wednesday, 110,000 Thursday and about 100,000 yesterday, which is more fish than usual because fishermen are trying to meet the demand and make their year-end "bonus." "Supply is good, and prices aren't so high. It's a buyer's market this year," Takenaka said — though one reason prices weren't so high is that there were fewer super-premium-quality fish. The auction continues today and tomorrow before taking its annual three-day break.

"It's a win-win situation" for suppliers and customers, said Mel Tanioka of Tanioka's Seafood and Catering, where workers were busy cutting 'ahi block to sell for $17.95 to $29.95 a pound, depending on the grade. "I think everybody's gonna be happy."

Guy Tamashiro of Tamashiro Market said customers should be pleased because, if things continue as they have been, there will be plenty of 'ahi at the low end, $10 a pound or less today and New Year's Day. "Some years, that lower-priced fish disappears quickly," he said. Meanwhile, as always, he and other buyers compete mightily for the few fish worthy of top dollar. "You gotta be the first one there" to get those fish, he said.

A sign that Island sashimi lovers may be becoming more knowledgeable and finicky is that a number of stores were using Japanese terms to describe types of sashimi-grade 'ahi.

Abura, a term that means "fat," is used to indicate a cut that is particularly oily. It is not a section of the fish but a descriptive term, explained Takenaka. Toro, however, defines a section of the fish, the layer of fat that sits just inside the skin in the belly area. Chu toro is the place deeper within where the belly fat mingles with the red flesh; the character chu means "middle," said Tamashiro. However, he said that in Hawai'i, the terms chu toro and toro are often used interchangeably. Some toro is cut horizontally, so that the entire piece is belly fat. Some is cut in cross section, so that both the light-colored fat and the deeper-colored chu toro are included.

At Marukai, the membership store where many Japanese nationals shop, chu toro was $22.99 a pound yesterday morning and chu toro block was a whopping $49.99 a pound. And if you wanted to grate your own fresh, imported wasabi to go with it, those little green knobs of delicious heat were selling for $69 a pound; a package of three short pieces — enough to accompany a platter of sashimi — weighed out at about $11.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.