The commission is 8% at Herkimer, it used to be 11% at FHA, and I’ll have my money in two weeks, and I also had the option to no sale any items that didn’t meet our minimum price, I’m glad we have this sale, it’s a good fit for me.The difference in commission is $.60/ pelt.

Newfox, what you say is true about commission. However, you could have sold private sale to most all of the buyers present without going to auction, saving the 8%. One other thing, I’ll bet some of the pelts you sold, end up at FHA. But the auction is kind of a social event too.

I have not been to a local auction in many years. My beef with them in the past, was when there was large quantities of fur there, if you did not register super early, by the time my fur hit the auction block, buyers were out of money, and offered low prices. Maybe today with less fur offered it’s better ?

Well Squash, seems to me that somebody had to have their fur auctioned at the end of the auction. Makes sense to me that it would be last one through the doors.

At our sales all the fur is laid out on the tables and the buyers walk around and grade fur and when done submit their bid sheet to the office and the office compares all the bids and awards sales to the high bidder. I like it that way. The buyers have to give an enthusiastic bid if they know there are others after the same fur. Our commission is 6%

The other thing I note is Newfox got really high prices for his XL and bigger beaver but had a lot of smaller stuff to bring the average down. I don't know if the large volume of smaller ones is common back there, but for me 80% of my fur will be in the XL and larger category.

I had a lot of small ones because I cleaned the freezer, I’ve been sorting them out for a while, typically we don’t have to many small and medium, but some.

Wayne, this last auction wasn’t to bad they were done around noon, the one before that we left because after a couple hours we still weren’t even checked in.

Can't wait till Hinsdale next, I averaged $21 on my beaver pelts last year. That plus castor and I felt I did ok.
This years prices are looking a bit better on fur and less on castor so I'm thinking around the same payout.

Do they run it like a live auction like the old days, or sealed bids ?

Wayne, it’s a live auction, the lot of fur is put on the table with buyers all around and the auctioneer solicits the first bid, buyer that was awarded last lot gets to bid first, then hopefully up from there.

Well beaverpeeler, does it make sense to you that no matter how early you enter the doors, chapter members running the auction had already registered their fur ? Most likely the day before registration was open. Plus dealer lots were supposed to be last, but some small time dealers use to pay some trappers to register their fur so it would not be last. I guess a rigged auction would make sense to you ?

FHA March auction will tell if local auctions are best.

I want to know if I could vacuum seal frozen castor?

Kevin, you don’t have to vacuum seal castor, put it in a cool whip container or something similar.

I have it in a basement refrigerator freezer in paper bags now. I don’t mind the aroma but my wife might not like it. I even thought maybe a zip lock bag would work? Thanks

Sorry, I misunderstood the issues. That does put it in a different light.

Yep, I use freezer zip locs for freezing castor.

Thanks.

It kind of does make sense that those running the auction would register their fur early if they are going to be working during the open registration period. I wonder if it really makes much difference where you are in the order in these smaller half day sales. I've noticed at the big auctions it sometimes takes a few lots in before the bidding picks up.

Years ago, no one wanted to be on top of the list. You would get checked in and the top 8/10 spots were blank.

At our sales I'm chronically one of the last to get checked in because the morning of I'm still pulling beaver off of boards and it's a 3 hour drive. A lot of guys came over the night before.

Didn’t want to highjack the thread , just stated why I stopped going to local auctions. Maybe things have change recently ?

An old river rat once told me a guy could sink a boat with fish when the waters rising, must be same with rats lol. Now to fix the wood piece in center lol