The worst grade for beaver is gd dmg; the "hatter" grade. All the XXL gd dmg sold for $43 on this last sale. The previous sale in June of '25 those same beaver all sold @$16. So it looks like the hatter market is getting active again.

Taking it one step further, you would assume that all the XXL beaver of the better grades would have done at least as well as the gd dmg section. But that did not happen. Some of the western pale lights went for $26, and quite a few Slt dmg went for $40 even.

I'm going to guess that the 4-5 hatter buyers in attendance were waiting for their section (gd dmg) to align more closely to last June, which did not happen. The bidding started at $25 and it rapidly went up.

So....Just like out there on the river reading sign... I kind of like to look for sign on how the market is shaping up for next year.

.....So Boco, are those mink or squirrel tracks I'm seeing? LOL

Were the GD DMG you are looking at in the eastern heavy/semis? IIRC western beaver generally dont get weighted, at least not in the old NAFA system. The underfur just isnt as dense as the the easterns.

I remember back in the NAFA days a sometimes once you got past the top lot part of the catalog there was more price resistance to the SEL/1 grades and the SLTs ended up bringing more.

My son had 2 at the sale that were medium select heavy semi brown. Only brought 13 bucks each. Smaller sizes apparently also didn't fetch exciting prices. Not complaining just thought with that grade they would have brought a little more.

medium is only a 20- 25 pound beaver, he did good.....jk

Gd dmg is all in for sections at FHA

That just probably goes to show that it's probably the felt market pushing everything. Smaller sizes will be heavily discounted.

To me smaller sizes were always heavily discounted. As long as the felt market lasted last time maybe you should hope it is the fur market pushing the price. Since more then beaver went up in price, items that are not used in the felt market, I don't think it is the felt market pushing prices.

I agree with Robert. I think it's more the shearing market pushing the felt market.

LM.MED and SM prime beaver skins make beautiful blankets and fur articles.
The problem is they are much more expensive to dress those skins per sq inch compared to the larger sizes.
Same reason you rarely see those skin sheared.

Im going to start doing something different with my Med-Sml prime beavers, I think they’re worth more than what I’m getting.

They ran out of time/quantity to fill there orders and had to bid for the GD DGD stuff. Last year I did a fair bit of my beaver trapping in the winter and had a nice selection that went in, got a top lot beaver from the March sale. This year had a horrible bag of beaver to send in, most was from damage control work. Not as bad as your one chewed up beaver beaverpeeler but a couple were close. My averages for the March 2024-2025 sales are almost the same.

Think both you and Boco are correct, the garment trade set the price for the nicer pelts and the hatter bidders waited, once it got down to the end of the eastern sections they had no choice but to bid.



Couple examples below: March 2026 Sale
All prices CAD

1X RR XDK-BRN 54.00
1X GD DGD 51.30

Lg Select HVY-BRN 47.25
Lg GD DGD 37.80

LM GD SLT XDK-DK 21.60
LM GD DGD 27.00



The upper portion, nicer sections should still be selling for a better average in my opinion. Nice 1X + beavers should be averaging $100, 3X-2X $125 + CAD for the time, material and equipment required to harvest them. That's why I try to get paid twice for them.

Still do not see it as a long term market trend and it would not surprise me if the average drops back down around the $15-$20 USD mark for the next sale.

Down here in the South some of our nicest beavers are the LM's. Long long guard hair like you don't see on the bigger beaver. They make great blankets. Just takes 4 of them to make a 36x36 baby blanket

I'll be danged if I sell them for $8 at the auction

$1.40 U.S. per inch. Good luck! At least you have standards.

I agree with your assessment Saskfly.

I did find it interesting that there were 4-5 active bidders on the first string of blanket gd dmg and the winner took the first 8 lots only @43 and so on the second round he also actively bid and came out the winner and again at $43.

That kind of tells me he was hoping to get the next lots for less.

Auctioneer said under his breath "Well, that was interesting".

That tells me the buyer bidding against him either had a solid maximum price in his head he was bidding to and stopping, or he was intentionally bidding the one guy up, at least on the second round, because he knew that he would pay that much and he wanted to make him pay.

I agree, if they were paying more for the Gd dmg than for good beaver, the hatter buyers weren't bidding on the good stuff, waiting and hoping to get better deals on the junk. That happens occasionally in auctions, people come looking for deals on lower grade stuff and don't bid on the high grade stuff, then they get to the low grade and there is more competition bidding and the high grade is already sold, so if they have orders to fill they end up paying more for the low grade than the high grade went for. Usually only happens for one sale, next sale those hatter buyers will be bidding on the high grade stuff if they see the same buyers as they were competing against at the last back there again.

Ask AI…..she knows everything.

Watching the podcast there were at least four active bidders. It started at $25 so you know it took a while to get up to $43. The first bidder got all the blankets, and other bidder(s) picked up the next three sizes down.

And I agree with your thinking. Since blanket gd dmg went for $16 on the previous sale they were hopeful.

I pray to a different God.

Boca is not god,,,, close,,, but not.

FHA must have suspected some increase since they started last years 16 dollar beaver at 25 dollars