MT sale

What the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) does a $2,127 bobcat look like?!!! A snow leopard? LOL

It's a classified AD!

Looks the same as the $2,835.32 cat at the Nevada sale. Maybe not quite as nice.

Top bobcat at any western fur sale is all about EGO. Probably at least a dozen other cats at the sale that were just as nice. This happened to be a single that was well handled and it caught the buyers eye. Nothing special at all.

Just curious, are the highest dollar cats from several trappers? Or does 3-4 trappers tend to have caught all the high dollar cats?

The high dollar cats can come from any one that traps in an area with high dollar cats. Trappers in those areas are very secretive where are actually trapping.

… good to see cats getting hot again!

It will be interesting to see if those high cat prices trickle down to the central and eastern cats. That would be quite a shot in the arm for those casty belly blah back cats that some areas produce.

I had a $25/rat at NAFA!

Geography, and genetics create what we call the quality of the cat. The trapper just has to be lucky enough to be in the right area, and then get his fur on the right sale. A lot of variables have to cross paths to make it all work out.

There are perennial hot spots that kick out top lot type cats every season, and there are surprises that show up from far flung corners of the west that are true outliers according to regional quality trends.


I will say this, all the top lot style cats have some geographical characteristics in common.

Day 2 avg was higher according to sources.

Subtle. It was a Princess Bride reference

So we have a $2835 cat at Fallon yesterday for top lop. George is a sharp cat buyer, the best in the world. He is in business to make money. It's all about the merchandise he is buying IMO. There is a lot more meaning into buying top lot than ego.

Slick pan - if you think George is going to sell that top lot cat by itself, you need to think again. That cat will go in the same lot as all his other select western cats and will sell for at least $1,000.00 less than he paid for it. But he will make up that loss on the other select cats in that lot that he paid $1200.00 to $1500.00 for.

George will buy 2000 to 3000 cats this season. A $2800.00 cat won’t affect his overall average one iota.

Go ahead and tell me I’m wrong. That’s fine. I stand by what I said. You and I have locked horns before. This won’t be the last time.

Have a good evening writing your rebuttal.

Never thought I would see cats average over a grand a piece on a sale. Wowza!

I know in the past Fallon gets cats shipped in from other states which in general will bring down their average. I wonder if they just didn't get any (or many) lower grade cats sent in this year?

Wissmiss is spot on with her words, I've been at actions like this before and it's always comes up why a cat goes for such.

It's always advertising for the buyer happens every year even when cats are not high there is always a top cat bought by one buyer or another.

They all rub shoulders and I thing it's just a game form them to take turns on, bit it does matter how many cats are there and it's a western auction.

Yes the cat is usually more spotted with a nice clear belly and a nice sized one, but it really is just advertising, doing so keeps that buyers name out there, they don't need it, but they like it !

That's what I've seen too Gritguy. Been to a lot of auctions with the western buyers.

What is the next cat sale?

The next western sale is Saturday February 28th in Prineville. That used to be a very big cat sale but not so much any more.

Then it is Idaho Trappers in Glenn’s Ferry. That should be a big time shoot out thanks to all the promoting Rusty does. However, I think prices will be lower overall, especially if they figure all bobcats into one average. Idaho tends to get a lot of shipped in fur which means cats can come from every where and anywhere.

Nevada doesn’t do much in the way of shipped fur, so most of their cats are “local”. Maybe a few from Arizona.