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.

Probably just semantics. Grade may be the same, but more fur goes into the better grades when the market is hot for that particular item. At least that's how I've been seeing it over the years.

I think peeler hit the nail on the head. The grade stays the same when it comes to the wording - 3X I-II A-B - but the pelts that go into that “grade” depends on the grader and the way he sees the pelt. Grader X says it is an A-B when it comes to belly color. If grader Y was working that group of pelts and he thinks the belly is a B color, that pelt would go in a different grade.

The grade on paper is the same - the pelts are different.

It is possible, that depending on the market, the grader is told to be very tough on belly damage (on muskrats). The “grades” are the same - #1, vsl, sl, dam, bd - but where the pelt ends up can vary.

Hope that makes sense.

That's exactly what you folks have been going back and forth on this entire thread.

The grade never changes but the skins that make a particular grade do.

The graders are people too, each having a slightly different eye. But there’s not 30 different graders sifting through the marten or beaver. Keep in mind, during the first auction of the year, the people got full time jobs, a trapline to run and an international auction to sort out. If drop off deadline is early January, that’s when things start really happening.
Depending on what the big buyers are looking for, some might be slid into another lot, but the grade of that fur didn’t change. Have your fur info in front of you and watch the auction.
I believe this was mentioned above.

Not how it works.maybe with single pelts two different graders may see it a bit different but when it goes into the pile if it doesnt match it is very obvious that it belongs in another pile down the table where it does match.
The intense lighting on the lotting table makes any mistake in placement obvious especially in the colour grades.Sizing grades are also consistent although sometimes different size grades are lotted together for the sellers and buyers benefit(to make an attractive sized lot).The size grade of each pelt is what it is though.
As far as slt dmg grades on beaver being broken out I personally dont think it should be done.As a tanner and furrier myself A slt dmg pelt is worth the same as a non dmg pelt to me since a small repair before blocking is a couple seconds work in the big picture certainly not a 10 or 20 percent drop in the value of the pelt all other things being equal.
The breakdown of SSL at nafa was laughable,and just a marketing thing.
There is some good grading information in the NAFA series from flowage to fashon as well as in the fur bible.
Grading and sorting are two differnt things but entirely related,The sorting process depends on the initial gradings,ie sizing colouring weighing and dmg grading.
Once the sorting of the pelts starts skins get moved around and placed where they obviously fit with other skins that are the same.

And we get the same old rhetoric from the FHA expert in Canada. I wonder why I even waste my time posting.

Over and out.

Not rhetoric at all.
Size grade sometimes can be a judgement call.Some trappers try to make a pelt longer by forming it narrower or gain a size grade on beaver by odd stretching.
Graders discount long noses and narrow pelts just like they bump up a wide stretched pelt one size grade.
They know from handling hundreds of thousands of skins what size grade that pelt belongs in.
Beaver that are odd shape are measured differently than the standard oval formed beaver.
I was there about 10 days ago and watched the beaver grader measuring some odd stretched beaver across diagonal.

Clarity grades on some species like marten are almost impossible to say when looking at one skin.
However when looking at 30 or 40 skins of the same colour in a pile it is easy to match the clarity.
Clarity grades in marten are often intersorted as 1 - 2 and 3-4 to make up big enough lot.
In the lower grades clarity is not broken out.
Very low grades may even have the sections mixed together since the demand is the same=low for all.

Not according to the Canadians

I think a lot of people posting dont know the difference between grading,intrsorting and lotting at the auction house.
Not surprizing since so many US trappers dont have much if any experience with the fur auction compared to Canadian trappers.
I believe only about 20% of US trappers market fur thru the intrnational auction whereas it is around 80% of Canadians who use the auction to market fur.

Boco - please enlighten those of us in the USA as to the difference between grading and inter sorting and lotting.

I’m sure it will be very educational. I’m very much looking forward to reading it. Thanks.

I have explained it as clear as I can several times in this post,if you havent picked up on it by now I expect further explaining will be futile.
In a nutshell a specific grade be it size coulour quality or weight grade will apply to a single pelt.The grade of that pelt will never change.(I have heard trappers ask if their pelts can prime up in the freezer after pelting,lol)
How these grades are intersorted into lots (or intersorted at all) can depend on many things in the industry-fashon trends-(uses of the fur),improvements in dying technology and current values of skins in the market,and numbers of skins in the house collection and the collection itself from year to year or early or late collections.