Just boxing up a bunch of marten to ship to FHA and I seen this news !

FHA marten update

Hmmm. Didn't think Russia was buying anything right now, other than war stuff. Unless they are SELLING, to fund the war!!!
Probably no sanctions on sable. Biden missed that one.

One of these years Mark will learn to write a date on those letters he post.

Hmmm .... maybe Santa will bring you a new set of reading glasses for Christmas.
It says Market Update - December 23, 2023

Well I read a post from the 22 Dec from them, so they have sharpened the pencil

Hmmmmm.

The sable and marten go to Europe(Italy mostly)to the worlds top fur designers.

Sold to Wivoda yesterday. He was paying $75 males and $45 females and was expecting prices to go up by spring.

Kids are going to hold theirs till spring, everything I'm hearing is that marten are expected to go up. Who knows maybe we'll get back to a $100 average

Last receiving date for FHA is January 14, contact
Joe Mattie in Fairbanks at 1-907-479-2562 or
Lynn Keogh in wasilla at 1-907-398-1803

Then to USSR via underground connections

Do you still put your female marten on a female board? If so, why?

I use the same boards for both. Most of my females are 21-23 and males 22-25.
Every so often there is a dink 19-20”

So then you had just about all 1X marten? Did you average just about $75? I never seen a fur auction house that separated female from male marten. Advertising by local fur buyers that they are paying less for female marten is just a scam. If you used the same marten board for all your marten, how do you tell a female from a male?

Been a while but I know I only had 5 or 6 boards back when I was catching marten. Didn't separate boards by size. I remember pulling the back down about as far as I could and pinning it straight across. Pinned the legs and pushed the belly stick up and one pin in that stick. Then pushed a piece of wood under the belly stick.
Seems like it was unusual for a male to go less than 24 and rare for a female to go over 23.
I sold to Dean and Joe M. As well to auctions. Honestly can't remember if Dean and Joe M payed less for females but I'm pretty sure the top price was dependant on size. Isnare, the marten may not have been seperated by gender but were certainly seperated by size, as well as color.

Here is a dominion soudak receipt from Feb. 1989

Here's a couple from Dean in 1990

As you see from your own receipt the Auction house has no female marten. Local fur buyers would advertise higher prices for males, than what would be expected at the auction houses. But like Bill W. he will only pay $30 less for females as he calls them. The local fur buyer drops the size from the auction houses by a inch or two and calls the females. That is where the fur buyer makes their money. But if you want cash and want to have money now, a local fur buyer is the way to go. Just realize, you are losing money.

If it sounds better he is paying $75 XL and $45 for L or smaller. 😄. And Definetly not loosing money as a friend has been sending his fur to fha the last 3 years and I have been avg higher than him and no commission. Granted that isn’t a straight across comparison of size and color between our marten. I know when prices were higher 7-8 years ago I was making more with NAFA and commission taken out then local sales.