To me it’s pretty simple. You live where you live and you catch what you got. Everyone that traps does that mostly. If I were down south I’d be hammering beaver right now as hard as I could. Everyone everywhere else can trap, not trap, market or not market their catch. A man can only do what he can do.

Don’t get weight confused with weight and section with section. Rookie mistake….lol
$280US is a decent price for a used copy of the big book. I paid $325CAD shipped…..it’s heavy. There was one sold at a local auction for 50 bucks. Missed out on that one.

Shakey please don't throw kilo's and pounds into it, then it would be a mess for sure. It is bad enough you bring up US and CAD

But Shakey that was only a few hours of overtime. That auction was at McSherry's and there will be a few more fur books coming up with a estate sale of a fur managers stuff.
MJM note that. Boco has never spent a working hour on the grading floor so saying PITCH FORK GRADING he has no clue.

But really that grading does work on coyotes because the holes are hard to find in the pelt.

Now does that fork have 3 tines or 5 or is it the Royals Royce type with 12 been awhile since I was on the floor.

Hogwash,the grades dont change the pelts are what they are.
What does change is the intersort that reflects market conditionswhen different grade,colours,sections,have the same value and no need to break them down,almost always low value fur.

You are the clueless one,I grade fur constantly It is a necessary skill when working with fur all the time.
As a tanner you see how defects weight etc affect the end product first hand.
You are confusing grading with sorting.

What changes all the time is the market base,

The grades remain the same but the market base reflects the demand.

What can or can not be pushed into a grade depends on how strong the market base aka demand is.

As a general rule the top grade sets the base with a 5% drop for every grade below it. Don.t include the fancy 10 skin show lot grade lot that is used as trapper bait.

A $100 base allows a normal drop per grade and a looser grade.

A weaker $50 base means things get cheap fast.and a tighter grade per lot

A poor $30 base means stuff will sit unsold and the grade will be really tight.

In todays world fine grading is much more difficult because the volume of skins is not there which translate into putting together skins you would possible put up on their own had you had the # numbers to do so.

In a hot market everything moves and the dance heats up.

When the demand changes everyone starts to scabble to unload the goods hoping not to be holding the lesser goods when the demand stops.

The recent coyote market is a good example, everyone was chasing Canada Goose until the goose stopped laying and the market collasped.

Lots of knockoff players bought lower quality goods until the demand for cheap knockoffs disappeared.

For awhile any coyote was a good coyote.

"For awhile any coyote was a good coyote."

I sure miss those days.

Judging by the quality of the best beaver at FHA today, I'd say a LOT of fur producers are sending marginal skins to the auction and selling the best, and the junk to buyers and crafters in the country.

The last receiving date was too early. I don't think trappers held their best fur back, those will be in the next load.

WyWolfer, are you looking on-line or did you make the trip?

Last receiving date was early. The best of the best we're just starting to get caught

Probably a fair amount of last spring's beaver hunt from the northern areas on the sale. May caught beaver wouldn't have made the 2nd sale deadline.

I’ve got a couple dozen in there from last spring.

The people running auction should be smart enough to float the last receiving date to the fur that is selling. When there is only one fur that is hot would that be rocket science? Kick the last receiving date back and a later auction when beaver/ rats are the main fur. If coyotes are hot fine make the last receiving date when they are rubbed plus put up time. What good is an auction with a small amount of the only fur wanted?

I doubt the last receiving date was ever a hard date.

I agree Sniper, but those guys humping right up to May 15th and have a couple hundred frozen skins in a freezer aren't going to get many (or any) on the June sale.

They were never considered. They can ship next year. It is almost like the ones running thing never trapped. Are they trying to beat NAFA's sale? Oh wait NAFA is not having a sale. Why don't they use the market to their advantage? Even Boco says that is the key.

Unfortunately there's more to scheduling an auction than when the end of last season for beaver occurs

We do not have a season. It is open year around. It has nothing to do wit the season, just the fur market. If a lot of the best beaver are taken after the last receiving date, why not roll it back?"