Do u see a better gamble in the fur market for next year or does your crystal ball only show the past

LOL.....this was no surprise to any trapper paying attention to the market. There's a reason that there was twice as many skunks in this auction, ain't no crystal ball required. Gotta strike while the irons hot.

Neither.

Just played this game over the years.

The trappers that realizes good fur sales are the ones that put fur on the market annually.

Everyone else is just sucking hind teat.......

Why do they skip lot numbers during bidding?? For example sometimes they bid on lot xxxx215 then skip several lots then bid on xxxx230 ??

There are strings. Multiple lots with the same grade, split into smaller lots because few buyers want 1000 skins. So they offer 5 lots of 200 each.

Thank you !!

The only money around me is opossum ,squirrel, skunks.
I'll be picky on raccoons.

Well that was very disappointing. I averaged $6,64 on my red fox. I would have done better selling at the local PTA auction, especially when you consider I wouldn't have to pay a commission, shipping fees or drumming fees.

I don't think I'll be sending red fox to Fur Harvesters again.

I remember when otters got sky high and we all wondered what they were being used for. Chinese were the buyers and I heard they were being used for: A. Helmet liners for the military. B. Swaddling blankets for babies. Never heard the actual truth which was prayer shawls for Tibetans.

Everything’s always a secret.

I was told they burned them after being used in some type of ceremony.
I had 82 otter in one of those years and I averaged $140.00 on them.

They burned them in big piles after the Dalai Lama said it upset him to see the pelts of endangered animals being used in the prayer shawls. That was the end of the hot otter market.

And of course we all wish he could have or would have distinguished between the threatened Asian claw otter and the abundant NA river otter.

Don't bother to taxidermy skin your skunks for next year. This skunk market anomaly is all about the tails. Pay special attention to fleshing the tails and properly stretching them. I bet FHA is already on top of this for demo's.

Yes, when the auctioneer is saying "mine" they have an online bid. I don't belive you can bid live, but I could be wrong.

It's my understanding that they've used whitetail deer tails in the past & are finding that the hair isn't as long in them anymore, so they're trying skunk. It's a new thing for them.

There are 3 ways to bid at a FH auction

- live in person. You are actually in the room and can raise your hand to bid.

- on line bidding. This happens a couple of days before the live auction and is all done a computer. Once online bidding ends, those bids are “frozen” and transferred to the auction stand. Once online bidding ends, those bids can not be raised unless you make arrangements with some one in the room to bid for you,

- leave a bid on the auction stand. This was a popular method before on line bidding. Say you wanted a small lot of red fox. You call or email Kenny or Howard or some one like that, tell them the lot number and what is the max you would pay. They put it in the auctioneers catalog and it is treated like an online bid. In order to bid that way, you would have to register and be confirmed

Back in the day skunks were sold as Hudson seal or maybe It was Hudson sable. But then truth in advertising went into effect and then it went back to skunk. And that pretty much killed the skunk market.

Averaged seven , two years worth but it wasn’t many skins. I would tend to agree.

Probably not, by the time most trappers find out skunks are hot, it’ll be over…..lol. You mean some don’t properly flesh and pin tails? They just let ‘em dry?
Size don't matter, here’s a little select $89 stinker….

I put mine up like normal, just flesh it and board…..it’s no secret. Solid fisher board is nice for pinning the tails.



There was 2 bidders this time, I believe Mbcoonguys guy was one of them. Thanks Johnny!

That I did know, but I wonder if the deer tails were to brittle and the hair broke. A traditional Shtreimel Hat is a really expensive item, and if they wore out fast, it would be an even more costly hat.

Some local fur buyers have contracts to fill. Get to know your local guys and ask what they need before the season starts.