I got my first FHA check. The fees were a bit of a disappointment. The commission, tumbling and magazine I understand. But there was no explanation for the “express fee”. Would somebody explain what this is? There didn’t seem to be any description of it on the check

Guessing that is the shipping fee. $11.00?

I’m not sure. Waiting on their explanation. $12

Teacher,
Yes there is a flat shipping fee, please refer to conditions of sale. For my shippers it is a flat $12 bag fee/shipping fee. Typically we only collect this on fur shipments that are valued/sell for greater than $100. And there is no limits of bags.

http://furharvesters.com/conditionsofsaleUS.html

Hope this helps explain.
Ryan

Thank you, RRuhl.

Now, please tell me how many pelts go into a bag? I shipped mine via Speedee Delivery in boxes I provided as I didn’t have FHA specific shipping bags. They went to The FHA agent in Ramona, SD.

Pelt count will vary per species. For example your section of coon would be approx 40-50 coon, 25-30 coyotes 35 beaver and so on.
How you ship them to an agent does not matter, bag or box. The agent is then responsible for getting the fur to our office/warehouse (I personally deliver trappers fur to Wisconsin office) some truck it - which all costs money.

Doesn't FHA charge a per pelt price? like .05 cents per pelt for rats and a different price for larger pelts.

No, we do not.
Flat $12 shipping and handling.
11% commission
Tumbling fees for fur-out pelts
C.i.t.i.e.s. processing fees
Magazine

I believe that about covers it.

Okay. I can accept that.

This was an experimental year. Coyotes went for $3 more at FHA than what we got here. I doubt I would have gotten $5 locally on red fox so that was a wash, too. My low end (early) coon would have brought the same or less. But I do know scraped and dried coon were topping at $12 locally, since I sold some to a local dealer. And the local buyer has just 3 sizes: small medium and large. None Of the coon I sent to FHA were smaller than 2X according to the grading sheet. The one better coon that sold was $23 which is almost twice what was being paid around here. There is hope the next sale or private treaty sales between now and then will see substantially more than I would have gotten locally. All things considered, it’s been an interesting experiment.