Man I can finally catch my breath! I took a load of stuff down Wednesday night and have been at the fairgrounds until Sunday evening. Waking up at 6AM every day to get things rolling and then staying until the wee hours of the night running security. Sometimes running security late at night with Andy Weiser, Clayton, JD, Hayden, Murdock boys and Josh means that it is extra hard to wake up the next morning. Ha ha. My liver needs to recover for a week.
Coyotes were not a surprise but some people were still upset. We did all we could to pull extra coyote buyers in but the price is what it is. George bought a lot of the coyotes but Jake's buyer bought my personal coyotes for $41 average. I had my early coyotes and rubbed ones thrown in the pile so my average could've been better if I would've cherry picked. Other coyotes were split between several other buyers; Ryan, Chris, Eric S., Klamath and Gary Schroeder. Moscow Hide and Fur bought the top coyote for $225. Bobcats that had A or A-B bellies sold better than last year. Brown bellied cats are still a tough sell. Jake with Rocky Mountain bought the top cat for $1228 and a lot of the top 15%. Wyoming Fur Trader bought another one of those cats that went over a grand. I helped load cats in George, Ryan and other trailers and I'm sorry don't have a better tally of what cats went where. 1/3 of the cats were from Arizona and New Mexico so that hurt the average as well. A lot of rough red fox, fisher, otter, and kit fox killed those averages. All of our normal buyers plus a couple new craft buyers were there. I didn't include all the tanned pelts and misc items because it would make this post super long. Craft buyers drove the red fox, beaver, otter, coon and lower end bobcat market.
I would like to give a huge thank you to all of my board of directors and our amazing volunteers. The help was amazing and people jumped in with whatever needed done. At one time I saw three different state trapping presidents packing tables. Our fur sale folks (Michelle, Bernie, Rob) that drove 9+ hours from North Idaho were amazing again. Annie was in the computer room for three straight days helping Rob. And she doesn't even trap! The demos were amazing and having Andy Weiser drive clear up to our sale to do a demo was incredible. It feels like a big family and I always think of it as a family reunion. I hugged Michelle goodbye and I was getting a little teary eyed when they left. This "family" of folks lowers their heads and does whatever is needed to get things done. We had two people come on Thursday to set up tables that didn't have fur and didn't come to the rest of the event. Just came to set up and drove home! Everyone supported the live auction and we raised over $6,000 at it! Plus it was a ton of fun. People don't realize how much work a fur sale of this size is. Weeks leading up to this event is spent trying to get as many buyers and fur in as possible. The "craft" stuff is kind of a pain to deal with but those skulls, antlers, traps, mounts and tanned fur pulls in extra buyers.
I want to thank the fish and game for tagging cats for two days and putting on the trappers ed class. Having them at the sale shows unity between the department and association. We hooked the new trappers ed graduates with a new trap and comped ITA membership. I'm trying to get a wolf trapping class set up for March sale.
I would like to give a extra thank you to my fiancé, Missy. She puts up with me being on the phone constantly for weeks before the sale and at the fur sale I am bouncing around all over for four days and never even say hi. Missy also cooks huge meals for the volunteers and late at night when all restaurants are closed we get a awesome tasting home cooked meal. You can all see why I am so fat!
We would love any support by bringing your fur to our March sale. We will have a sportsmen show at that sale (I was mistaken before I thought it was Jan sale). I have secured a band for Saturday night and have several lure dealers that will be there. I see some increased interest in rats and cats so I'm going to be pushing to get as many of those two items as possible pulled in. Keep those craft items coming and squirrel pelts, porcupine pelts, cased beaver, black beaver, odd colored coon are all hot items. I personally tried bidding on a red coyote with feet on and got way outbid. Skulls are hot as well and we could use some more porcupine, skunk, bobcat, badger, otter, and wolf skulls. If your going to mail in fur please don't wait until the last minute. I had several boxes of fur that had to be ran down to the fairgrounds after getting to my house late. Bank was closed today but will get checks deposited tomorrow and get checks sent out as quick as possible. Thank you folks! Rusty Kramer ITA President
Badger 44 $9.53 $58.17 98%
Beaver 173 $18.84 $37.19 100%
Bobcat 94 $261.09 $1,228.00 98%
Castor 51.96 lbs $69.15 $87.28 47%
Coyote 1178 $36.00 $225.03 84%
Cross Fox 9 $78.78 $86.67 100%
Deer Antler 244.4 lbs $12.41 $16.29 33%
Elk Antler 145.5 lbs $16.86 $20.02 100%
Ermine 141 $3.12 $4.00 100%
Fisher 14 $24.60 $39.82 100%
Grey Fox 39 $19.97 $30.64 100%
Kit Fox 11 $2.87 $5.36 100%
Marten 117 $35.00 $53.17 100%
Mink 86 $9.88 $20.29 100%
Moose Antler 10.5 $15.82 $15.82 100%
Muskrat 476 $3.77 $5.56 100%
Otter 53 $30.73 $50.25 100%
Raccoon 97 $10.81 $12.99 100%
Red Fox 337 $16.08 $52.50 86%

Overall looking better to me.

Marten,beaver,otter was'nt bad,cross fox was good,grey fox and bobcat wasnt too bad either not what is was a few years back we got spoiled for about 8 years on bobcat and coyotes.

The craft buyers sure make the results look good.

Awesome job Rusty for pulling it all together. You made it easy for everyone else to be a part of. The volunteers were great...many hands make light work for sure!

And yes, Missy's cooking is gonna cost you a few cats !!!

Really good to see the market for skulls, glands, taxi, etc. Always impressed to see how much extra that stuff is worth and how well it sells thru.

As always rusty and his crew did a great job on the sale. It is great to see how large the sale has become, how much more smooth it is ran and the better quality of handle on fur over the years. Great work, this has become one of my favorite sales to attend

I am surprised at the clearance of castor, must have been a tough grade

Or junky castor that people wanted last years prices for.

Some clarity on the castor thing would be interesting to me. Hard to tell what is going on so far this year in that market.

The beaver prices always seem to do well in those early Idaho sales. Delbert used to always recommend I get my beaver there. Never have.

I heard it through the grapevine that castor prices have started to fall. Perfumers are offering less now.

No clue on the castor question guys. I know nothing about grades and didn’t even glance at the boxes. All the big castor buyers were there though. I had other fires to put out. Rusty

Thanks for the compliment Chris. I’m finally crunching numbers and realized you bought a cat for dang near the top price as well. I didn’t give you enough kudos for that.

Thank you Rusty for another great sale. The demos were awesome and I learned a ton. It went very smooth from dropping off to the end. Thanks to all your helpers also behind the scenes.

Maybe I missed it but did you have prices on how raw skulls came out?

I’ll forgive you this one time

Might have to get Kosoi to market my castor for me this year.

Ha Ha I was thinking the exact same thing.I bet me and Kosoi would both make money on that deal

Here I am contemplating getting castor to Siberia and I haven't even been successful getting it into Canada! (Other than through FHA).

great sale rusty and crew thank you for your had work! as far as the castor question i put 30 pounds on this sale just in case a buyer showed up that was there last year that paid over 100 dollars a pound,( normally pays 10 dollars a pound over market value just to make sure he gets it)that gamble didnt pay off because he didnt show this year! so i no saled it and then bought almost all of the other castor there other than hulls so that being saids castor was 100% clearance other than what i took home.....hope that helps and i am looking for more castor

Hey Wallfur, thanks for the insights.