.................and with a much lower selling commission, I might add.

The ND Fur Takers board wanted to put on a sale to put money in the trappers pocket. I would bet you can not find a fur sale that had a lower commission. Many charge the buyers also, like FHA does. NDFTA did not charge the buyers anything.

FHA also gets a significant quantity of southern fur, Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana. Where do you think a lot of the Central coyotes come from, and western beaver, they also used to sell a lot of "coat" coon.

Is North Dakota Fur Takers still having a sale this year?

" I have been employed in this business from the fur auction end since the early 1980s and as a trapper earlier yet. The first real crisis I personally witnessed in this business happened in the mid-1980s when the Ontario Trappers Association (OTA) went through a major shift in new directors being voted in at the annual trappers convention. Out of that the new board hired Price Waterhouse to develop a new management platform for the OTA fur sales service. When the dust settled, it saw Alex Shieff resign after 20 years at the helm as captain of a real success story, OTA, which he played a major role in building.

( Somewhere in this story I believe OTA auction went bankrupt?)

A multi-tiered management team was put in place with people being hired with no history in the trade. It was during this time of great unrest and turmoil that the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) formed Trappers International Marketing Service (TIMS) and set up a warehouse directly across the road from where Fur Harvesters Auction (FHA) remains today.

TIMS hired away many senior graders, managers and agents from OTA which made our situation even tougher. As well, at the time we were in a depressed market with prices and clearances at unhealthy levels. The end game of the subsidiary company TIMS was to put OTA out of business. As reported in the Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 11, 1986, when TIMS’s newly appointed GM, Ron Lancour (trapper ron), was asked by a reporter, “Why not set up the subsidiary in Toronto and leave North Bay the Association?” he replied, “If you’re going to be in competition, what better place is there to locate than next door?”

Goodbye TIMS and HBC

Well, that was 35 years ago and TIMS was a flash in the pan and was dead and gone in a few short years. Actually FHA bought most of their warehouse equipment as well, and I recall many of us here rolling carts and bins of equipment down the road from their warehouse to ours prior to TIMS closing down forever. Shortly after this, for the first time since HBC was incorporated in 1670, its name ceased to be associated with wholesale fur trading. While the Toronto location of the auction house remained the same, the name was changed to North American Fur Auctions (NAFA).

In the 1960s there were eight fur auctions in Canada: HBC, Dominion Fur Co., Soudack Fur Auctions, Edmonton Fur Auction Sales, Western Canadian Raw Fur Auction Sales, Canadian Fur Auction, Saskatchewan Fur Marketing Board and the OTA. Some were forced out of business but many were simply swallowed up by the HBC to become a subsidiary or affiliate forwarding agency for that corporation with all furs being auctioned in Toronto.

During the 1980s and up to 2005, Canada was home to three remaining auction houses. In 2005 the late great Ted Pappas, owner of Western Canadian Raw Fur Auction Sales, decided to hand his business over to FHA leaving only two companies standing.

During the past 35 years we have seen markets rise and fall and troubles come and go. As of last year, FHA is the last remaining fur auction company, not only in Canada, but in all of North America."

Mark Downey

(There is a new ranch mink fur auction company in the U.S. called AME)

I wish somebody somewhere would write a 20th century history (and now 21st) of the fur business in North America. Fascinating study to me. Maybe when Mark retires (hint, hint) I'd buy a dozen copies for friends.

Who is the last man standing(company) FHA. They may not be perfect. No business is, if you know anything about business that is obvious. But I think they try to do the best they can. The majority of trappers sold to and still sell to the middle man esp. in the US. For them its the right decision if they have small amounts of fur and do not want to work on getting the final profit. I remember a large buyer that had an issue with NAFA. He called them out on their business practices not to long before the shitn hit the fan. They banned him. Best thing that ever happened for him. He is still in business and they are gone!!!

I am no longer on the board, so I can not say 100%. I have heard second hand talk both ways.

A good book to read is the one by Ralph Bice entitled "Fur-The trade that put Upper Canada on the Map".
A lot of great history there from way back in the early days and how OTA fur sales came about.

Is that upper pic with the string of marten you Boco?

In my younger days,lol.

Yep NAFA made a bad business decision and cost them everything and also cost a lot of trappers money I was fortunate

One foot in the grave and the other on the banana peel would sum this industry up. Lingering post collapse.

Part of the great reset.

Were you the narrator in the old videos in the other topic about relocating beaver?….hahaha.
I’ll have to get some fur bags from Winnipeg. I’ve got an account set up over the phone but she said it’s not active until I drop stuff off. She said she’d mail me some bags & stuff but that was months ago. Wife works in the peg a couple days a week but I ain’t sending her to that area…..literally on the wrong/bad side of the tracks.

Do you think he knows about the history of the Seattle Fur Exchange or HE Goldberg?

I have wished that someone would interview Irwin (Goldberg) before it's too late. That interview would either need to be a book or a three part magazine article.

Dirt, that is so funny! I was just getting ready to post the same pic! Good one!

In Alaska they have what is called the Bushmailer. It is like a newspaper filled with mostly advertisements targeted to rural Alaska. H.E. Goldberg always had a full page ad listing his prices for tanned skins. I used these prices as a basis to price my own tanned skins. I don't think I was alone?