Actually the first trapper sales in the west were held by WSTA . Can’t remember the town in western Washington. Not sure when those started but my first sale was in 1972. They were held before that as an answer to Goldberg paying low prices. Ed Meredith and Richard Stewart were both very active in the organization. Bid readings were interesting, but I digress.

Richard Stewart from Washington, Don Nichols from Oregon and Gary Schroeder from Idaho got together and “started” OTC. Oregon Territorial Council on Furs, Inc. The idea was to form a regional fur sale company to benefit all trappers.

OTC was incorporated in 1973. Eventually they moved the incorporation to Oregon. Don’t remember why. Over the years, OTC has held sales in 4 states and countless locations. Nutria pelts were a real curiosity at the Miles City, Montana sale (eastern Montana). Sale was just before Christmas, either 1973 or 1974.

The OTC board of directors has continually changed over the years but Don Nichols has been the president since day one. He continues running the sales to this day with the help of his son, Donnie, and a great group of volunteers.

Thanks for the history, Nancy. I would have been 18 when OTC was incorporated.

I was in my mid to late 20s. Seems like a lifetime ago. Oh wait, I guess it sort of was. LOL

I started going to the OTC sales probably around '76. I mostly had nutrias which were starting to really take off price wise. At about the same time Goldberg started having buying stations up and down the I -5 corridor. Goldberg despised the OTC sales but I know he had buyers there (claimed he didn't). In the 80's I was getting more active as a trapper and used to attend four OTC sales a year. Albany, Prineville, Ontario and K Falls. Most sales were for multiple days.

Dick Stewart started working as a buyer for Goldberg right around 74-75 I believe. Chuck and I used to hang out at buying stations shagging fur for him with the hopes he would buy dinner. The three of us one time broke the Sizzler steak house Roseburg record for the most ribs ever consumed during their "All the ribs you can eat specials". They didn't seem all that amused!

I sold to Dick Stewart quite a bit when I was a kid, I remember the year I got my drivers license a friend of mine and I were coon hunting quite a bit. I was giving him close to half the coons even though it was my dog catching them all. He only put up a few of the ones he took and did a pretty poor job on them, we used some for pup training etc. and didn't bother with putting them up. I really didn't think they were worth anything (I wasn't following the fur market that closely, but they hadn't been worth anything last I knew) but I put up a bunch that I kept. When I took them by Dick's place and he gave me over a $20 average I about fell over, and was really kicking myself for giving all those to my buddy that he ended up tossing. Gas was right at a dollar a gallon then. He bought a lot of beaver from me as a teenager. Goldberg had a real bad name with a lot of guys, but there were other guys who wouldn't sell to anyone else, and there were those that swore by the Seattle Fur Exchange. I never sold on the Exchange because my dad and grandpa had both been burned on it, did sell to Goldberg once when he was offering good money on cats, but you better know what you wanted when you took fur to him and be prepared to pack it up and take it home if he didn't offer that. I much preferred dealing with Dick, even though he was buying for Goldberg most (maybe all) of the times I dealt with him.

Last I heard Dick's health was real bad.

I never sold furs at the auction in Rochester at the Swede Hall, but my uncle only lived a mile or two from there and I went to it several times as a kid just to check out everything that was there.

Just spoke to Dick a few minutes ago. He's still hanging in there and expressed some interest in going to the K Falls OTC sale later this month. BTW, he confirmed he started buying for Goldberg in '74.

Also, for those that don't know; Irwin (Goldberg) passed away in '23 at age 97.

Don’t you mean buying for Goldberg.

Thanks. Fixed it.

I was just talking to my dad today and mentioned that I'm sure Goldberg was no longer with us, but thank you, I hadn't actually heard of his passing. We were talking old fur buyers and a couple names came up that you might or might not be familiar with. Did you ever know Jim Harwick or Carl Wallace? Dad was telling me he remembered when Carl Wallace started buying bobcats, he was paying a dollar a pound for them in the round. He also told me that he knew Dick Stewart back when he was just a trapper before he started buying fur. I sold furs several times to Roger (drawing a blank on his last name right now) who used to buy for Pacific also. Bought my first brand new traps from him as kid, a dozen Victor 110s that I still have, when I rode over with my dad to sell furs to him. Before that I had always used hand me down traps from my dad or grandpa. As a kid I found it fascinating that you went to a scrap yard and wandered through all the scrap iron, aluminum and recycling and then upstairs it was a big room loaded with furs.

Good to hear that about Dick and hope he makes it to K. Falls

Roger Scheurer

Yep, that's him.

Roger was a good guy. Enjoyed visiting with him at Prineville every year.

Dick was telling me that he had just brought a load of fur into Goldberg and as a newly married guy was trying to figure out what to do next to support his family. His dad worked in construction and had 160 head of cattle. So he was thinking he would work for his dad when Irwin called. Come work for me, I really need help.
Dick has always said how much he appreciated Irwin taking him under his wing and showing him the ropes. Bought a truck for Dick, keys to both the warehouse and Irwin’s personal house where he occasionally spent the night. Plus gave him carte Blanche to write checks.

I never sold anything to Dick. He was too stingy.

If Dick called you looking for fur, you got a lot better price than if you went to him. As a general rule, there were exceptions like the coons I mentioned above.

Funny story about Dick from back in the early 80's (I've heard this story probably a hundred times from my dad, but don't actually remember it myself, being just a kid and not paying attention at the time). When you would bring a pile of cats to Dick he would look through it and pick out a couple of them with the words, "if they were all just like this," and offer a high price on them and a low price on everything else. One year my dad brought his cats to Dick and when he did that, dad sold him the couple high priced cats and packed the rest of them up. Then he sent them back with my grandfather, once again there were a couple of good high priced cats, and grandpa sold them to him and packed up the rest. Dad sent them back two more times with two other people, and each time there were one or two high priced, "good" cats out of the bunch, which he sold and brought the rest back. Four times out of the same bunch of cats Dick bought the couple "good" ones each time, before dad finally sold the lot of them.

As a general rule, I always went into every dealing with any furbuyer under the assumption that they were going to give me as little as they could get away with for my fur, and to take everything they said about it with a grain of salt. Kind of like dealing with a used car salesman. If you didn't know what your fur was worth and want you wanted for it, and weren't willing to jew with them to get that price, you were going to get burned. That being said, Dick was a nice guy who had time to deal with a kid and was always friendly and dealt with you like you were a man if you brought your furs to him, rather than talking over your head to your dad like you didn't exist, or patronizing you. I remember going by Goldberg's as a teenager one time, and he wouldn't give me the time of day, talked to my dad and acted like I didn't exist, even though I brought in 3-4 times the fur my dad did (not because I had caught it, but because I was skinning and putting up cats for half a dozen guys, under the deal that when I sold them I got half the money).

I never sold cats to Dick when they were high, because he wouldn't pay the prices, but I sold them when they were lower, and sold a lot of beaver, otter and coons to him. (well lots for a kid anyways, I don't think I've sold to him in close to 25 years)

I enjoyed talking to the furbuyers, and a lot of them I liked. But I sure like taking fur to an auction with a bunch of them, better than calling half a dozen of them and talking to everyone I know, trying to figure who is giving the best prices and who to take my fur to this year. It was nice to go to their places though and look through what they had, especially as a kid.

Yes, probably my choice of the old time fur buyers to deal with.

I went to a Goldberg buying station in Salem one time (late 70’s), with a stack of primo beaver. I’d known Richard) for several years by then. He gave me $40 average on those beaver while everyone else there was struggling to get a $20 average. As all trappers do, everyone wanted to know what my check was and I was proud to show them. Everyone’s jaw just about dropped. Richard let that go on for a few minutes and then stated to the whole room “that’s what happens when you put your fur up properly”! Beaverpeeler was a witness to that event. He was still a nutria peeler at the time!

Dick looked at my furs a couple times but Fred Hjort would beat him by a third more, so I quit bothering. Then I found SFE.

Wild fur at SFX!! Bruce you are dating yourself!!! LOL.. I remember the last wild fur auction they had when they dumped wild fur. Bargain basement prices because they just wanted in gone. Bought a bunch of raccoon. Thought the price was dirt cheap. Had less than a $3.00 average, all sizes and grades included. Sent them to NAFA. Market was so bad, I lost money!!! LOL

What year was that Nancy?