Rusty, thanks for all you do and have done over the years. We will be patient and understanding (most of us anyway).

You're just proof positive that some people are never going to be pleased. You could have shown up and helped out, but you didn't. Hindsight is 20/20. The way oregon is going, won't be much need for a fur sale over there when they make everything illegal.

For what? Throwing stones from a glass house? Always funny when the ones who don't show up are the loudest voices to complain.

Hey sneaky, calm down man.

Nancy can be a little direct with comments, but mostly she is trying to be helpful with suggestions for improvement. Maybe a little frustration showing because she's a seller too. That improvement is needed is a given and Rusty will tell you the same.. Nancy put in her dues over many many years at the OTC sales and has a wealth of knowledge about how a sale can and should work.

ITA is ideally situated to grow in the future but you don't do that without listening to your sellers and buyers.

Nice to see that one of my haters has the courage to make his thoughts public. I’m surprised there aren’t more. Hey slickpan - where are you hiding???

Sneaky - for your information I have put in thousands and thousands of hours helping at trapper fur sales. And not just Oregon. Many sales I was one of the first ones there and one of the last ones to leave. How many hours have you helped at fur sales??

I'll vouch for sneaky helping out Nancy. He was there volunteering.

Growing pains.

The important thing is things are processed and the trappers are paid.

Those of us without skin in the game can wait a few days for results.

"Nobody is to important not to deserve a kick in the pants on occasion to get them moving".... "George Patton to COL. Gaston Bell" when third army was rushing to relieve General Anthony McAuliffe at "The Bulge" in Bastogne when McAuliffe replied "NUTS" to the German demand to surrender. Push any slowpoke......That said 49er is right, we'll all find out the results soon. I'm sure Rusty is on it, and nobody works harder. An all volunteer organization sometimes can move very slowly.

Rusty and ITA crew, Thanks for all the hard work and time you have invested.

wy.wolfer,
I agree, but it is pretty much a no win situation, if ITA cuts George off because he is fiddling around (I remember one year where he went to lunch instead of turning in his bids and Rusty had to send someone down to the restuarant and find him to get his bids) the sellers are going to be upset because he is such a big buyer and pushes the prices, and they will end up with less money for their fur. If they give him extra time and the sale runs over and they have to leave to go to work Monday morning, they are going to be upset also. Not sure of the solution, maybe start the sale a day earlier. I suggest running the grease and miscellaneous on Saturday and doing the long hair (fur out) stuff Sunday, with starting the sale a day earlier, but that would make it hard on the sellers that work all week, also.

To give George his due, this year I think he was going as hard as his health allows. Yes he took time off to do the live auction, but he needed the break from standing on concrete and he had his helpers going over numbers and catching up while he was doing that.

WissMiss,
I am absolutely not a computer person, I can barely get on here and post. lol So I hesitate to comment on computer programs, but I agree that it doesn't seem to work very well. Also it does not flag tie bids, so they have to manually go through and look at all ties and then get the buyers for a coin toss. They tried to alleviate that by having a meeting with the buyers and requesting each buyer end their bid with a different amount of cents. Looking at the results they may as well not have bothered, just at a cursory glance I could see four of the cat buyers with only two different ending cents. Although they specifically requested the buyers not to end their bids with .00 because that is the most common ending for all the random people that are eligible to bid on stuff that doesn't need a fubuyers license, or that buy a license there just to bid on two or three items they want to take home and hang on their wall. Again they may as well not have bothered, several buyers turned in their bids ending in .00 anyways.

Watching with baited breath

I sometimes scratch my head at what buyers are looking for. Beaverpeeler brought some admittedly red coastal cats with dark bellies, but they were well furred and well put up. And they were getting lower bids than flat haired, greasy, stinking, poorly furred and poorly put up Kansas and Oklahoma cats (which also did not have bellies worth writing home about).

I haven't seen any numbers, but just from what I overhead from furbuyers while shagging fur I don't think anyone who sent rats there is going to be doing handsprings of joy, but otherwise I think it was a great sale, with an unbelievable amount of fur, I know I was ecstatic with my prices. It has gotten big enough that there are going to have to be some changes though.

I like Rusty so I hope he does not take any comments I might have the wrong way, but I think the main issue on this particular sale was it was just way too much fur for a 1 day sale. I doubt buyers had enough time to evaluate fur as they would have liked. In particular, fur that was not cats didn't appear to get as much attention as a normal auction would.

Like Bearcat said, multiple days. OTC in recent years made sales two day affairs with cats on Friday and all other fur Saturday. We trappers knew this about a week in advance and could plan accordingly.

The ITA sale(s) have a lot to recommend them. I like being able to sell wet goods (skulls, feet etc) which is no longer allowed at OTC sales.

So a little better computer system and planning....like Nancy said: it would behoove ITA folks to check out other smooth running western sales. And of course, there is no such thing as a completely trouble- free sale for any of 'em.

LOL, bearcat...I was already bracing for bad news on my cats when I asked the Greek buyer Pavell about what he thought of them. One word "difficult". But I had the same thing happen last year with 8 of my section of cats. Showed them at Prineville and offers were very low (many under $50) Slightly better at K. Falls but I no-saled them there too. Sent them up to FHA and most went for over $300.

So luckily Frank (FHA agent) was there and we got them bagged up and I'll try my luck at the June FHA sale.

One more thought on the ITA sale last week. Had a lot of time to visit with various Idahoan trappers and they are a fine bunch of people. Especially enjoyed yakking with bearcat and Randy Shuff who I have been dealing beaver tails for years and was finally able to meet.

Sounds like I should be glad I only sent a sampling of the black muskrats to test the waters.

George isn't going to live forever.

ok, so Nancy wants to hear my negative opinion of her post. I am sorry to disappoint you Nancy but I don't have one. It's pretty clear that the Glenn's Ferry sale had way to much fur for one day. Nevada had 1200 cats spaced over two days. I am surprised that that the organizers were not more prepared to handle the volume especially after having larger sales in the past. As far as computer printouts for the sellers sooner, that also is something that could be improved. If the sale continues on the pace it has been somethings need to change otherwise the buyers and sellers will not be as present as they are now.

Good post Slick.

George isn't gonna live forever. But then, don't forget, none of us are.