Well the auction catalogues are coming together: https://furharvesters.com/auctioncatalogue.html

Once they are complete the trappers accounts will be updated and we can all eagerly see the grades we got with visions of fur checks like 2013 in our head.

Bottom of the catalogue page is the conditions of sale link for buyers, for those interested in the fur business a good read.

Cut this out for general info, when they purchase raccoon at 3 dollars it actually costs them an extra 2.50 in handling and .25 in commission fees.

Very informative post. Thanks for posting.

I miss NAFA

adds up quickly

Some of the handling fees do not seem to make much sense to me. Raccoons, $2.50, Skunks $2.00, Opossum is only .25 cents.

There are a lot of things in the fur business that don’t make sense.

$10.00 for a wolverine??

The biggest discrepancy is in dressed fur. $3.50 for a ranch fox. $3.50 for a dressed muskrat. That makes no sense.

I tried to talking to an upper level management person at FH about handling fees. I was told they were set in stone. Not negotiable. They will dicker with you on pelt price but not handling fees.

Handling fees are their bread and butter money maker. Take it or leave it.

Does FHA catalog update with prices throughout the sale that is public to see?

No. You be lucky, if you see results before next shipping deadline. This varies depending.

P.S. your personal catalog results should be updated daily, if memory serves?

So, a "handling fee", and then a commission?

Both buyers and sellers pay commissions.

So, $1.25 on a wild mink, and .65 on a ranch mink. I can see that if you use an agent for pick up, but what about if you deliver them to the depot?

19% plus handling gives country buyers a lot of room for error. Hopefully if prices advance to where they should be they can adjust that excessive amount.

The main difference between the auction and country buyers is that the objective of the auction is to create higher prices. It is an expensive avenue yet necessary for this market to move higher, imho. I believe if they succeed they deserve to be rewarded. I also believe the country market is content with trappers operating at a loss. And most trappers today may also be content that way, a sad situation really.

I don't know about you nimzy, but i would trap just for the pain and suffering.

Plus a drumming fee for some furs.

Funny thing is dirt, fellas put down big money to go hunting. Tens of thousands. Wildlife has become re designed to a liability. It has shaped into a sport. If you wanna play, you gotta pay.

The pursuit of trapping is difficult to define. A Commitment with long hours, intense labor and no money.

Nimzy invented that. He's Finnish lol

Some here should read the handling fee document. It states handling fee for purchasing from FHA.

And dont forget the cities fee!

This has absolutely nothing to do with how the fur gets to FHA,

The chart in the original post where your quoted numbers came from is what the buyers are charged by FHA that is over and above the hammer price when they buy fur at the FHA Sale.

Reading comprehension anyone?

The catalogues are gradually filling in. I'm guessing the raccoon will be the last one complete. I wonder who drew the short straw.

FH makes money on both ends of a sale. Both buyers and sellers pay commissions and fees.

If a damaged small muskrat sells for 10 cents. The seller gets 8 or 9 cents. The buyer pays 71 cents. FH makes 62 or 63 cents. Seems fair.

I know this is an extreme example. Would be much different if the item was a $500.00 wolverine.

Surprised how low the fur amount is at FHA, would have thought it would be higher after NAFA and with the climbing market.

I think they are not offering everything this sale. All fresh bobcats are being held for June. I didn’t see any low grade ermine.

Some items might be held so they will offer a better collection in June. Plus with prices going up, some trappers probably sold in the country to instant cash rather wait several months and gamble that the market will stay strong.

That was the point I was trying to get across. Some here have Fur Harvester Auction derangement syndrome .

No argument there from me. Same could be said for GFW, Barnes, Hough, Xander or any other buyer.

Difference of opinion is not necessarily a bad thing either.

But folks do need to pay attention to what is being discussed. Some seem to need a lot more detailed explanation than others.

Well grades are up, catalogue is published, online bidding starts 17th-18th and the main event is 19th-21st.



True first year I ever had a fur buyer come to me, after I told them I was sending to auction and still try and buy. Also had a Chinese buyer come out and visit before the auction. He was looking to buy but not my small offerings. Great guy to chat with and interesting to hear his take on the market. He is optimistic about the market and its climbing but way lower to start with, in China then I thought. Tanned Raccoons in the high twenty to mid thirty for the larger sizes, was one number I remember.

I see they have moved coyotes from day 3 to day 2. Day 2 (Friday) is going to be a long day for every one. Sable and ranch fox plus everything else (except the zoo and cats). Raccoons and coyotes are at the end of the day. Auctioneer might be talking to an empty room. LOL

Well day 2(Friday) morning is my auction, after that just a few mink expected to sell okay. Have a few raccoons and coyotes but figure they will not sell. Should have a good idea by lunch how much of the expenses I covered for the year.

You guys are really disappointing me this year. The lots are posted and accounts updated with grades and I haven't seen one person complaining. What's going on?

They must have been active with PT sales over the summer/fall. Over half my lots of old fur are in lots not listed in the catalogs which means they are already sold. I'm just happy they got some of it sold.

Schmattz

I see my grades are up now. My otter and bobcat must be going to the next sale, they are not graded.

Not sure about your otter but my understanding is that FH are holding all bobcats for the June auction. The bobcats on this auction are all unsold goods from the June 2025. With bobcat prices in the country at all time highs,they are attempting to sell the held over goods before this years pelts hit the market. Makes sense to me.

Plus, if they hold all the fresh cats for one sale, the put up should be better and they can hype up the offering.

Makes sense wissmiss thanks!

I was told by the American side depot that with all the hassle/paperwork of crossing CITES species across the border that they just would not have enough critters to warrant that by the January cutoff date.

Is it just me but it seems like the 1st major fur auctions of the year wither it was FHA or NAFA some major world event happen 5-7 days before the auctions ? War , stock Market collapse or something to put a little fear into the fur market right at the time of the auction. Seems to me like the last 25 - 30 years ?

Ditto martyrd, but mostly when I have skin in the game.

Well online bidding is open till midnight on the 18th. Those that registered as a buyer and made a deposit can see the estimates put on the lots by the auction house and the bids, I believe.

Hopefully lots of interest

On line bidding is open until noon on the 18th. 1159 AM. That caught me off guard a year ago. Now I pay attention!! LOL

Fair amount of on line bidding, especially in the dressed catalog.

A friend in NB said there were more buyers than usual for the first day of inspection (Monday, which was yesterday). They also said the sable grading area was a bit crowded!! Sable sell Friday, probably late morning.

I just noticed polar bear in the catalog. I’ll be paying attention to that, even though I think I’m stuck with mine.

Polar bear would sell very well IF (that’s a big if) they could be imported into the US. But they can’t.

Chinese go nuts for them. They can import.

Does the high online bid become the opening bid for the live auction?
Do buyers at the live auction have access to the online bids, know which lots have bids and which do not?

I think when he says "$35 is mine" etc, that's an online bid? Wissmiss will probably know.

Seems that system would lack incentives to bid online.

I hope FHA has someone other than Mr. Downey bidding the rats. He ripped through 150,000 rats in 5 minutes.

That is correct.

There isn’t much incentive to bid on line. There is an advantage in that it allows small buyers, such as myself, to participate in the auction without being in NB. Saves me not only time but also a couple thousand dollars in travel expense. It allows me to purchase (attempt to purchase) goods I can’t get in idaho, like wolverine, fisher and ranch fox.

If the buyers in the auction room also registered as on line bidders, they can see the on line catalog and know what the high bid is and the lots with no bids. They could have that file up in front of them on an iPad and follow each lot as it is sold.

I’m not 100% sure where the auction room bidding starts. I think I have it figured out but then one of the auctioneers does it a bit different. I think they are supposed to start with the valuation and go up in intervals from there. It is set intervals based on price.

$100.00 to $105.00 to $110.00 to $115.00. Etc.

If an online bidder has bid over the value, they are NOT supposed to start with that bid. They are supposed to start with the value and work their way up with bids from the room. Doesn’t always happen that way.

So if the value is $40.00 and the online bidder bid $50.00 but there are no bids in the room, the hammer price should be $40.00. Just like as if he is in the room.

Can you see values when bidding online?

Seems as the. Online buyer creates the value

The online bidding catalog shows values. That value is the starting bid. In most cases, the system will not accept a bid below value or more than 10% below value.

Value is listed at $20.00. You bid $15.00. Your bid is rejected.

Incorrect. Some one at FH creates the value. Same whether it is in the room or on line.

"will not accept a bid below value or 10% below value" Isn't that statement contradictory? It would be one or the other, can't be both, no?

I would hope that's the case. It'd be pretty crooked if an online buyer really wanted to make sure they got a particular lot and entered the high bid at 2-3 times the value. If no one bids on the lot, but the house took the online bidders highest bid......... that almost sounds like it could be legal trouble.

It can be both, depending on the item. Raccoon would be a species they would accept a bid 10% below value. Sable would be a species (at least at this auction) where they would hold firm to the value.

Another example is who owns the goods. Intersorts (trapper goods) are more apt to be flexible on the value. Dealer goods with shipper limits are more likely to be firm limits, no room to negotiate.

Thanks wissmiss, appreciate the clarification.

I’ve been a car buyer since 1999. But almost exclusively at dealer auto auctions. In the example above there are two different scenarios. If I tell an auctioneer to “go to $50” it should go down like Wissmiss said above. If I ask the auctioneer to “open at $50”, the opening bid should be $50 and not go lower whether there are lower bids on the floor or not.

(Using $50 as an example. Never bought a $50 car. lol)

I agree with trapset completely. Same dollar amount, just different wording.

What am I missing here?

The purpose of an auction is to sell to the high bidder unless the high bid is less than an established minimum price.

If an online bidder puts in a bid of $50 on a lot that FHA values at $40, they have exceeded the valuation. If no one in the live auction bids over $50, the hammer price should be $50, Sold to the online bidder.

Not sure at FHA. But at auctions I go to, if I tell auctioneer to go up to a particular number, he might start at the reserve # if it’s lower. If no one bids more, and reserve has been met I own it for the lower number.

In the other case, if I tell auctioneer to open the bid at a high number, rather than go to that number, he will open the bidding at the higher number and not go lower.

Open bid and go to bid can be the same number, but are two entirely different things.

Auctions are for the buyer too, lookin for a smoking deal. That why I bid at auctions……….unless it’s at a convention, then I get down right idiotic.

So....FHA says that those of us that sold marten in the country this year are going to really be repenting after this weekend. Whatcha think? True?

Online bidding thru FHA is NOT how business should be conducted. There should be live and simultaneous online bidding like most all auctions are done now. To do different is not doing justice to the consigner. The only current work around now is to bid thru an agent. I am not sure if you can bid live thru an agent or not ? Cost is more but if you are serious about business and not a dinker it's the only way to go.

The buyers I know send brokers. Some brokers buy for more than one client too. If I was an online bidder and really wanted said lot, I’d make sure I’d get it with a stupidly high bid.
Having said that, last June, what would someone have considered a ridiculously high bid for a lot of skunks? They may not have got it if they weren’t there in person……..lol

Sure hope so!

Live now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMO_obcR3dQ

I heard top lots being valued @$350...

Top lot sable valued at $350.00. Then drops to about $200.00.

Wolverine sale was bonkers. Lots of competition. At least 3 sold for over $1,000.00. Average should be well over $500.00.

Selling bears now. Badger, ermine, squirrel and skunk after that. A long day.

It pays well to take the time to taxi skin them wookies. I'll be skinning one at our AGM in April. Plan on buying it whole and keeping it.

Going to be hard to average $200 with valuation on my Top Marten at $200 without some serious bidding.

weasels and squirrels did amazing today at action

Click below to see the 1st day results.

Day One Results

Thanks for posting.

$11.57 average on ermine?!!

Well what do you know.....I got a top lot grinner ..that might be a first for me lol

Short supply - large demand. It was basically 2 buyers until they got to the smalls and a third guy jumped in. I would expect similar prices in June.

There was competition for that lot. Value was $3.15. Bidding went up by 10 cents until it got to $5.10. I dropped out at $4.00.

I can't ever log in to my account at FHA
I see skunks also sold 100%
Did they sell all skunks that got sent in or do they hold over some of those?

From the looks of the catalog, it appears they offered a full selection of skunks in all sizes and grades except for the IVs and damage. I’m assuming they are saving those for the June sale. Sort of an end of season clean up.

There was even a lot of just tails. 53 of them. No picture, so not sure what they looked like. They were valued at $4.00 but sold for a lot more than that.

There was strong competition for all sizes and grades. But prices have backed off from the previous sale in June 2025.

Thank you wissmiss

Does anybody know what central reds averaged?

Big day today,
6 of 7 species I shipped sell today,beaver otter rats fisher and a pile of marten.Heard thy moved mink to today also.
Cats romorrow,

Reds sell today

Okay, thanks.

First/Top lot beaver went for $220

Come on raccoons market let see a bump up and muskrats too

Solid beaver sale, damaged stuff was selling strong again. A few lots not sold in the higher end stuff but probably 95% clearance.

Top lot otter 40035 $82.00

Lots of competition for otter.

Otter appear to be selling for between 50% and 100% more than evaluations. Started off comparatively slow and picked up momentum fast.

That was a very good beaver sale. Even a lot of the medium and LM were $20+.

Well, it was certainly worth it putting up summer skunk.
When the beaver is strong, shakey is happy.
Everything’s looking good.

Well, they sold every otter. Prices were decent. Dropped off pretty hard for the smaller otter

Top lot muskrat 80008 $9.50

Muskrat average was not extremely high but they sold them all

I did some rough math on the Otter

4x-3x Otter Average: $71.18
3x-2x Otter Average: $54.84
2x Otter Average: $67.24
1x Otter Average: $59.52
LG Otter Average: $40.99
LM Otter Average: $34.01
MD-SM Otter Average: $22.14

Overall Average: $48.28

This is a 57% increase in otter average from last June's sale to now.

Of the Otter on the sale, 5.4% were 4x-3x, 15.7% were 3x-2x, 4.1% were 2x, 24.2% were 1x, 32.6% were LG, 11.3% were LM, and 6.8% were MD-SM

Anyone know what the drumming fee on long-haired items costs? Is it per pelt?

Mink are going strong! Lots of action at the top. $48+ pretty common

top lot mink $60

Sold two of mine for $58, bidding is strong, looks like 3-4 buyers trying to get on them.

I thought Mink was tomorrow?

Don't hate my 90 avg on 8 fisher. I wish the 13 I'm sending to next sale had been there this morning.

They switched it to today and dropped coyotes to tomorrow. Finishing up mink and heading to lunch, Sable after lunch.


The average on the fisher is decent but the bidding was not exactly hot, they seemed to be stuck around the $70 mark with only a couple of bidders. Your average is great at $90!!

$33 on MD-SM Female mink. Unreal!

Lots of species appear to be finding their footing. This is exciting!

Looks like they weren't lying about the mink market. Haven't seen these prices since the early 80's

Question: When are accounts being updated? End of sale or end of day? Thanks

Should be end of day, late.....

I was skinning a nice female mink in my garage in December and my brother asked me what I thought I would get for it. I told him 6-8 dollars because it was an average sized female. I got $40. How crazy is that.

I had 8 fisher. Looks like female fisher are back on top they brought more than the males. my best female brought $150, I avg overall m and f $78 .
Had 3 mink avg $56.

I doubt the next sale remains as good but if it does, I am happy that the females are back on top as the next group of mine has more of them in comparison to this group.

Early sable grades are on fire.

I was charged $15.91 to drum 28 red fox last year. So I'm guessing it's a percentage. Either that or it was a conversion from Canadian to US dollars.

Thanks for that info. I appreciate it.

Certainly not bad but I think I did just as well in the country. I had 6 otter, 3 put up 3 green, all 2X or larger and averaged 57.50. Do you know what the size cut off is for FHA between 3x-2x and 4x-3x?

Are these Canadian dollars

The sale is in US dollars

Any marten numbers yet?

For those that missed your lot, just back up that red line at the bottom of the picture of the sale. Hope this helps anyone in need !

No, they're USD

Marten selling now …. Very high prices
Heavy males mainly $200 -300
Semi males XL and up 180-240

I have no clue. They do some funky things on Otter sizing. Their website says that anything over 40" is a 2X otter. There's not even a 3x or 4x size listed.

I found some old forum posts saying the 3x and 4x sizes are the Alaskan otters that are much bigger than our lower 48 otters. If they have enough quantity they create a new size bracket for those otters. If not, they're thrown in with the 2X

I have no proof, but I'd bet the 4x-3x size is 46"+, the 3x-2x is 42-46", the 2X are 40-42", and the XL are 38-40"

Our southern otters are typically LG sized with some XL's and 2X's sprinkled in. I don't think our otters would ever make the 4x-3x size or 3x-2x unless you just caught one of those freakishly big ones.

Well at the 3 hr 31 minute mark the sable auction wraps up, you can see Mark Downey get all chocked up thanking the buyers and trappers for supporting the auction house.

on to the red fox

Will these marten prices stay for the next auction or is this the holy grail sale for trappers?

historical high on marten also fisher did amazing as well and crazy dollar amounts on good quality mink

You missed the bus. They will likely drop in June. That is the normal pattern. 10 percent for sure.

In a stable market the spring sale is normally 10% less than a winter sale.
On a rising fur market like now it is near the same and often higher.

check out FHA auction results 2012 and 2013 FEB/MAR compared to MAY/JUNE. The pattern is clear.