I remember that. There was a time FH beaver and otter grading was spot on. What the catalog said is what you were looking at on the table. Bought otter once for a customer and never looked at a skin. He knew what he wanted by the words in the catalog.

That has always been the case, and in a falling or low market condition the grade really tightens up.

Yup, when buyers are hungry and figure on making a big profit quickly, they are not as concerned about a few borderline skins slipping into the better lots, and graders know this. Even the buyers will do this when grading themselves, because they are looking for numbers.

Depending on species and number of fur? Look at skunks. Market exploded and the next auction there’s much more grades, but twice the fur too.
Didn’t help with jerks like me sending in August skunks……lol

Yeah, they called that grade "Junk-skunk". LOL

But the grade never changes, just what makes the grade does. Some how that is changing the grade to me. The only thing the same is the name.

That’s what Northof50 said.
“The only thing those will be good for is buried for a wolf bait!”……lol
I thought he might be right, but I did a test. I sent them all in and promised to show my $$. The Jake skunks.
Lowest one was $22USD……so I’ll keep sending the M-XL…….”Js””. You know the Clarity grades, A,B,C,D…….they added a new one for my skunks…..”J”. Not sure if that’s for Junk or Jake?
Round here, they all make the “Jake” grade….

Baloney,different grades may be combined as part lots,but that happens all the time not just when demand is up or down.
A lot of the bottom grades are intersorted because there is no reason to break them out separately as they have the same value.
In the sec 3 even difeerent sections can be intersorted.
But the grade of the pelts doesnt change.
A pelt grade is what it is.