NAFA wild fur auction

was today and not a single thread about what happened today. Interesting..........

not much to talk about because everything was bought back. Stupid to have 2 auctions this close together, especially in a down market. They should split the difference and run routes accordingly.

wasn't pretty not even the coyote

Nothing is just about what happened with everything but coyote and they did not set the world on fire either. Should be an interesting NAFA Report.

they graded mine eastern all were 2,3 x not from the east from the mid west dec. yotes shot in south dak.

About the only good thing was I sold one of my beaver for $30.

QBD i'll bet the spin will be incredible!

LOL. I agree 100% !!

This was my first time using NAFA and I must say I like the simplicity of the process. I have a question though. I received lotting letters ( I think that is what its called) for my beaver, coyote, and muskrat but I never received anything for my foxes. Is that normal?

If you sent grey fox, wild silver fox and certain grades/sections of red fox - they were not offered on this sale. They are being held for the next sale - February 2019. You will receive a lotting letter on them on the first day of inspection. Which is about 7 months from now, give or take a few weeks.

It is too bad they did this but they did not have enough fresh goods to be put decent lots. Do they didn't.

For future reference, in the current state of the fur market, you should make every effort to get your fur on the middle sale. That is THE major sale of the year. The July sale (and the August sale in 2019) are clean up sales. The time to be buying not selling.

PDH.. what do you mean recieved? I have never gotten anything from them pre-auction in the mail. lotting letters are the grade of your fur with the lot number. I find mine online in my account. I have 13 fox on the auction . 11 are baught back. $9 bucks is the high one;-)

In the old days, I mean really old days, you would receive a lotting letter from the auction company a few days before the sale. I mean a real, honest to goodness, paper letter via snail mail.

I'm quite sure PDH is talking about his on-line lotting letter.

For future reference, in the current state of the fur market, you should make every effort to get your fur on the middle sale. That is THE major sale of the year. The July sale (and the August sale in 2019) are clean up sales. The time to be buying not selling.


Agreed I thought my stuff was gonna be in the May sale kinda ticks me off, if nafa don't want crap from are section don't take it, but don't fanagle crap they might not get no more of my fur at least from me! I did ok on rats nothing else sold I'll see about my coon on sunday! If my buyers was reachable id have never sent them to Canada in the first place! Oh well lessons learned!
Colt

Indiana always has a pickup route for the May auction. I just drive my stuff across the river into southern Indiana and throw it on the truck. Been doing that for a few years now. Fur gets on the May auction.

Nafa should only have one sale a year. More clearances and higher prices.

Other auctions should only have one sale a year too.

So you think 80 million ranch mink could be sold all at one time?

And we thought this whole fur marketing thing was complicated!
Who knew it was this simple?

My online account showed my other furs along with their grades and lot numbers. The foxes didn't show up in my account at all. Sounds like foxes didn't sell so I guess that's why.

I feel I am pretty lucky,,everything I had left from last sale sold,,,starting next year clean,,,unless they decide not to issue small checks again

Has Nafa ever sold 80 million ranch mink in one year before?

Can you elaborate on why the 2nd sale is better than the 1st. To me it would seem the 1st sale would be where buyers would be restocking inventory and maybe willing to pay more to do so.

I've attended NAFA sales for about 30 years. Since 1984. And I've seeen a lot of changes over that time in all aspects of how the auctions are organized and run.

My current preference for selling at the 2nd sale is based on the fact that for the past 10 years or so, the first NAFA sale of each season has been a "testing the market" sale. Limited number of species offered and with in those species only certain grades. 2018 was a slight exception to that concept but they still didn't offer all species and all grades. What is offered at a wild fur sale determines what types of buyers show up. For example, if NAFA only offers coyotes, fox and cats, the mink, beaver and Raccoon buyers won't bother showing up.

Yes, there are some wild fur buyers that will be at every sale no matter what is or isn't offered. They most likely live close enough to Toronto that a 7-10 day trip is easy for them to do. And most likely those buyers are there to follow the market for their customers.

But there are a fair number of wild fur buyers that want to be able to buy a little bit of everything and they can only do that at the second sale - when all species and all grades are offered in the auction room. Often times st the first and third sale, misc goods are offered via PT. That means first come, first serve. Which is great for the first buyer in line but not so great for the sellers whose goods are being sold that way. An example - there was a certain grade of a certain species that was primarily bought back at the May sale. Some of those goods sold, in the PT room at the July sale, for less than 25% of the May value. Were those goods worth what they were asking in May? Probably not or they would have sold. Are they worth more than the heavily discounted price they sold for this week? Possibly but we will never go.

Another factor is cost and time involved in attending a NAFA sale. Many of the smaller wild fur buyers are small business owners. They can't afford the expense or the time out of the office to attend every sale. So they pick the sale with the biggest and most diverse offering, which the past few years has been the second sale. It is like grocery shopping - you have a long shopping list and are really stocking up. Do you go to the neighborhood Mom and Pop store or do you go to Wal-mart or a large chain store.

Yes, there have been times when prices at the first sale have been better than at the second sale, but that is the exception rather than the rule. And there is never any guarantee as to what next season will be like. Even with that unknown, I would want my goods on the second sale.

I think I've rambled on a bit here but hopefully I've explained my reason.

So can we expect to see much private treaty movement over the next few days, for all the wild fur that didn't sell today?

I think there will be some PT movement. Not sure how much. Still a few wild fur species to sell - fisher, sable, Raccoon and lynxcats.

This is a no win situation for NAFA. Hold fairly firm on limits and not sell any goods or sell at whatever is offered and really tick off the shippers. NAFA only has so much cold storage and I'm thinking they are going to have a lot ranch mink to store.

The rule of thumb for coyotes around here has always been February auction. The guys here constantly tell me they get better results on it. My uncle told me they always tried to make the February sale. Personally, I too experience better results on coyote in February versus may.
This year I had a 1* grade med color 1-2 clarity coyote sell for $204 CAD in February. best I've ever done in a single skin
In may, I got my best ever grade for a coyote...Select grade dbr color 1-2 clarity. $180 CAD. my first grade coyote also got $180 may sale.I wonder if I hadn't gotten more for the select in February.
that is just my experience with coyote. I have been getting better results with them in the February sale.

Asked NAFA reps at one of our conventions, you can ship anytime and specify what sale you want them sold at (and I think FHA will do the same). Easy way to clear out the freezer! Caveat, your bags won't be opened/graded till just before the sale you specified.

Better check your account ,lots of pt sales not good. Nafa apparently don't aim to hold fur. It looks like a 40 percent off clearance sale to me.

Muskrat and coyote PT so far are as close to presale as the live auction was for me at least. No low ball yet. Your mileage may vary.

How can you tell if any of your stuff is saleing pt
Colt

PT is a sin!

In theory, that is supposed to be possible. It might work some times but I know of at least 2 instances where it didn't happen. First instance, the furs got sold on the next available sale. Second instance, the bag of beaver was lost for over a year.

If you think about it, around last receiving dates there are multiple trucks pulling into Stoughton and thousands of bags of fur being unloaded. Trying to keep track of one or two individual bags is not top priority.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Very interesting and helpful information.

are the raccoon selling today and what time?

They moved the raccoon to Sunday.

That way most of the buyers will have left and they won’t need to spend much time on them. Since there probably not gonna clear many.

They don't have many GOOD coon to clear.

Are cats still selling on Saturday?

Offered, yes. Selling? Probably not many in the auction. Other than the better coyotes, this one seems to be a bloodbath.

Wissmiss - great points on the 2nd sale of the season. To me, it's actually the first 'real' sale, where all fur is offered. Seems like the selling season has been pushed back quite a bit over the years as the fur market has struggled. When I first started trapping 15+ years ago I believe there was at least one decent sale before the 1st of the year, and the cleanup was in May, right??

Seems That second sale has gotten pushed back later and later every year. Used to be in March. That’s when fur was worth something though. I haven’t shipped to them for about 6 years now. FHA or the Rat Wagon.

anyone know what time the cats go

Still have over 50 pages of mink to go through, won’t be till around 5-6 this afternoon

I liked NAFAs new article posted about their 100% clearance on male breeder ranch mink in this sale. Heck I could get a pile of road killed pancake possum cleared for the right price

Does anyone know who sets and schedules the route dates ? Is it NAFA or the agent?

Bobcats are starting.......

The collector

I put just 5 coyotes in a account by their self, just to see how the grade and price came out. For what ever reason NAFA decided to sell those 5 Coyotes for less than half the value they put on the Coyotes,I will never understand. These Coyotes were valued at $37.00 each and sold for $15.00 each. Talk about not giving a diddly XXXX about your fur producers. They had at least 8 months o sell those Yotes before another auction. I have never seen NAFA get so reckless with my fur. I can stand a 3 or 4 dollar drop in price, but to dump something valued at that kind of money, is pure disregard for there producers. I had 3 other accounts that had a pretty darn good amount of Coyotes in each account. Only one of the accounts came up to and over value. all my accounts had Coyotes that was all seasonable and the values were such that I could have made money on the accounts. Why in the holy heck did NAFA see fit to dump these Coyotes at dirt cheap prices when they knew these Coyotes would eventually sell at Value or darn close to it.
I just can't wrap my head around the reasoning of our Auction Company.

yep me too, Don no clue I still can't believe it.I posted earlier it looked like a 40 percent off sale .They didn't have to do that it's almost like they are willing to loose money to run us off..

Don,any idea what's up with the graded and lotted otters that didn't even get offered I've never saw that before .

What time are the coon going to get bought back?

Other than the 2X and 3X sizes there currently is no known fur market for otter. Only 230 of all otter offered on this auction sold in the room, this may be one item that NAFA may be doing the shipper a better service selling at PT where they hopefully negotiate a better price. Other than the trinket trade there just is no market for this very attractive fur. Mostly because when you can buy a size 3-0 gold label ranch mink for $32 , why buy an otter that is not much bigger, costs three times the amount to dress, has heavier leather with a ton of cities paperwork, and a big cities charge for the buyer? Notice there are zero Grey fox being offered on this sale as well, no market!

that's not what I'm asking I have otter lotted with numbers not on the sale 60 + of them

Don,
Maybe trying to appease those that like high clearances and "want their money right away". I'm with you though, stick to the valuation or at least resonably close to it.
It does bring up a number of questions though.
How much discretion does the auctioneer have around the valuation?
Are valuations adjusted when it is obvious that lots are not selling at predetermined valuations.
Valuation can only be determined by what similar lots have sold for recently. With your coyote example, recent value should be obvious since there is an active market. But otter? How do you value them when no one is buying, even at discounted prices?

...are they lot numbers from last sale that didn't sell? but still lotted and not offer again on this one? might be given away PT to.

rat mast 1230 is buy back time

no these otter were fresh goods for July and were lotted with a presale value the lotting numbers are in the 600s they haven't been offered and no pt sales yet some are sel 3x I'm not fussing just would like to know what is going on with them I am not the only one

Maybe Terry could answer

It seems to happen every year to reduce inventory to make room for the new season and fresh goods.Whatever hasn't sold at the Feb and March sales,seems they push to sell at whatever dollars they can get at the summer and fall sales.It doesn't matter,you can ask about any rep from Nafa and get a "Story" why but never makes any sense.

Redfoxtrap2008 - I would suggest you call the NAFA office in Stoughton and ask what is going on. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation, but I can't think of one.


If Beav weren't in Alaska, he might be able to get a straight answer for you. He solved the mystery of the dressed muskrats at th May sale.

Still had almost 50 otter left for this sale and they sold 21 of them. All were XXL-LG with one being a 3 XL-XXL. Right at a 36 avg. These were on the sale.

Were those freshly shipped otter or Buy Backs from the May sale?

Average isn't too bad for today's market. IMO

From May sale Nancy, Had almost 130 on that sale and this
is all I got left. They didn't sale any of my cats on this one.

My otter are the same freash otter in the lowhundereds 1 in the 600 there headed but never even went up forsale?
Colt

After a short break it's on to the big money, raccoons.

had a few select 2x coons left over from prior sale, western nc, all bought back. will check back this evening for PT sales!

And they are near 100% Bought Back which is no big surprise.

sold a bvr for a buck and 2 coons for 5 dollars

So we will start the season with 3-350,000 coon between the auctions, plus I would bet production will be up a little next year. Probably 500,000 plus by the first sales. I’m starting to think coons may never get better. Depressing.

Trapperne, Your estimate isn't even close. Don't forget that unknown quantity of raccoon that were sold to "speculators" a few years ago that are still in storage. I'm thinking that number could be close to one million.
Ladies and gentlemen, the fur business for all intents and purposes is drawing its last breath. I went thru 1987/88 and this is much worse.

I agree with 4488 about the quantity of coon being held over. You have to take into consideration that Groenwald and Weibke and Zander and the other mayor buyers are probably sitting on Raccoon as well as NAFA .

I think no matter what the market, guys will always be out there trappping coon. Just something they do every fall/winter. Sort of like deer hunting or turkey hunting or fishing - you are out there with van if you aren't successful.

I’m fully aware there are lots of coon hanging around, I was just talking relatively fresh goods at the auctions. I guess in the bright side the auctions did sell 3-400,000 this year. Prices weren’t anything to get excited about though

Those stale coon will become more and more difficult to sell for speculators. With a sufficient supply of fresh goods arriving for sale each year who is going to want to purchase the stale goods for enough money to get the speculators/buyers to part with them? How will this affect the buying mood? This is beginning to sound like a bottom (hopefully). JP Morgan said to buy a commodity when no one else wants it and there is blood running in the streets. Maybe the fur market will endure like it has forever?? Lots of questions here!

Fur is NOT a commodity.

4488. Sorry but your wrong! Any time speculators get involved the product becomes a commodity for trading purposes.
Therefore a commodity.

Let's not argue semantics, fur is something that a furrier invests in for their own use, or an entity lower on the food chain speculator/buyer invests in because they think they can make a profit. The question I posed was, will someone be willing to continue buying? I think/hope so. This business has a track record, up and down as it may be.

Have no idea the percentage, but quite a few of the raccoon offered today were dealer lots. I do not think they are identified as such in the catalog but the big board shows names on some lots and sundry owners on others and others just show Raccoon. I figured at least some of the name lots were from a speculator that bought them at the fire sale a couple years ago.

If there is any demand in coming months, the buyers know where there is a warehouse full of about any size and grade they could possibly need. No need to tie up money for inventory until they need it.

Well don't send them buyers to Groenwald, he says on his web site sold out of some sizes.

Oil is rising-meaning Russia will continue to get more involved-wish us luck that the coon start to become more in demand.My area produces big heavy coon and we still do alright if we catch them when they are heavy and prime.Gone are the days of catching blue leather coon-they are either prime or I don't trap them.Any sows or yearlings get released( dog proofs)-catch them again in late winter/early spring when they really heavy quality.Works for me.

There is some movement on raccoon in the PT room already.

What is a 'Commodity'
A commodity is a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type. Commodities are most often used as inputs in the production of other goods or services. The quality of a given commodity may differ slightly, but it is essentially uniform across producers. When they are traded on an exchange, commodities must also meet specified minimum standards, also known as a basis grade.

Had 48 coons in auction , 24 sold for 2.90 average. Only SDA-SDB and smaller sizes sold. All larger sizes and Sel's bought back

Thank you Marty Raccoon are selling for a couple of bucks. Ranch mink sold for the cost of one weeks food in some cases, and almost all that sold did not bring production cost. If anyone can put a little whipped cream on this then have a nice snack. I am most likely invested more than anyone on this forum in wild fur (and btw,I try to avoid this forum) but it does reach a lot of wild fur producers. My best advice----quit producing.

That's exactly what needs to happen...but it won't anytime soon. Trappers are penny wise and pound foolish. Just look at the Canada Goose thread.

I sent a few pelts up for this year for the first time in 4 years. A fox I caught last year that looked surprisingly good for sitting in a freezer over a year, and some beaver and castor from a damage job this winter. None of it sold. I was hoping with the rising cost of oil things would start to move. Apparently not. When the economy crashed in 08 it fur for about a year and then popped back quickly. This is much more severe. Started with Crimea and then the dropping price of oil.

The first 2 years I cut back on trapping and sold hold my pelts having had them professionally tanned. Decent return but that market seems to have been exhausted. So I will just stick to ADC jobs until the fur market is back solid, if ever. I will trap coyotes on my place but that will be it.

Just as alarming is the way trappers and the fur industry have seemingly abandoned the North American market. Fur adds value to fashion and it would be embraced my many. But without a marketing foundation it won't move itself. Oh well.

Wow I had 1 xsm rat that sold for .60. My 54 2xl-3xl-1* rats were all bought back. It seems that there is not a real market for the bigger better grade rats at this time.

Bryce

......prayers sent......stop buying!

with the ranch fur production worldwide controlling the market, our wild fur production makes a very small difference in price in the overall scheme of things.

I certainly hope this changes soon, as I've been having all my furs tanned and selling them but as someone else said that market is now saturated too

For the last two years I was selling the tanned goods in less than six months, now I'm sitting on coon like the speculators are. Nice thing is mine isn't going stale but it cost way more per pelt

Time to find myself a new market I guess. This seasons pelts will be sold raw again, as I still have 50 + at tanneries and some beaver that still have to.be sent in (they are already spoken for) Guess the bad market finally caught up to me

But the bright side is ADC work is up and it pays more per critter

You gotta love trapping to keep laying steel this season, and I'll be laying steel

Private treaty...anything selling?

Sold 3 MD coon PT for 12 a piece , all in the same lot. Tickled with that

....quit producing will not solve the problem. it will not create any new markets, it will only result in over population of animals and large die offs with loss of habitat, if the fur market is going to survive, you will need china, Russia and big name endorsements from north america. niki signed labron james to a lifetime 1 billion dollar contract....and now they cant make enough shoes fast enough to keep up with demand at 200 to 400 dollars a pair....multi millions coming in on monthly basis. popularity sales will go far beyond what C and T could even dream of. CG needs to redirect its advertising IMO....but its there company!!! sometimes I wonder what there real agenda is?

Some one buying (well Buying might not be the right word) southern coons. Just sold 646 more for a big 3.17 avg. Glad to I been wanting to buy a new four wheel drive with my coon hide money.

Sorry to hear that bblwi. I had a bunch that were 3x I* that sold in the first lot after the selects again. I do have 2 xsm rats that weren't in your lot that havent sold. Should have just tossed them in the crockpot but I let a newbie skin them.

$4 average on rats here and I will try to put up several thousand more this year!

What are you drinking?

apparently not the same thing you are.

any word on marten/sable prices?

All the reports are on the CNTA forum.

JUL 2018 - WILD FUR CATALOGUE #3
SABLE 3XL-L HEAVY
2018年7月 - 野生皮目录 3
貂鼠 (加／美紫貂) 三加大-大号 厚底绒

- PAGE 目录页 1.01 -







LOT 把号
SIZE GRADE COLOR CLR
尺寸 级别 色泽 清晰
QTY 数量

PRICE (USD) 价格


433601 3XL-XXL *SEL PL 4
30
BOUGHT BACK

433602 3XL-XXL *SEL PL-XP 3
225
BOUGHT BACK

433603 3XL-XXL *I XD-DBR
57
BOUGHT BACK

433604 3XL-XXL *I LBR 3
18
BOUGHT BACK

433605 3XL-XXL *I PL-XP 3
95
BOUGHT BACK

433606 34
BOUGHT BACK

433607 3XL-XL SDA BR 3
294
BOUGHT BACK

433608 3XL-XL SDA LBR 3
212
BOUGHT BACK

433609 180
BOUGHT BACK

433610 94
BOUGHT BACK

433611 XXL-XL *SEL PL-XP 4
203
BOUGHT BACK

433612 XXL-XL *I PL-XP 4
85
BOUGHT BACK

433613 XL *SEL BR 3
220
85.00

433614 200
85.00

433615 200
85.00

433616 150
85.00

433617 XL *SEL LBR 3
237
85.00

433618 200
85.00

433619 200
85.00

433620 200
85.00

Why don’t you let the man have his opinions? Whether you agree or not.

I guess the bright side is they are moving???

Were these all sizes and colors?

....ok fair enough...i am done posting carry on.

I sold to the NAFA for three years bobcats and coyotes the best cat was 70.00 and the best coyote was 12.00. Last year sent to FHA cats got 100.00 average the best 180.00 coyotes average 52.00.

I sold a badger for $10 us. A fox for $20. Two beavers for a total of $30. Which I'm probably most excited about. In a depressing kind of way. 4 coons for $5.25 a piece. And 0 possums

my otter question answered.They lotted our fresh otter shipped to late for may separate in the 600s had there been interest in the otter left from may they were prepared to sell them.Although available pt he said they wouldn't sell them till after the May carryover was sold.More than likely won't sell till next February. at least that's what I was told.

I agree. They should have one less auction than they do too.

my fur was picked up march 17 and still didn't make the may auction.

Does anyone on here know why I never got a lotting letter for my red fox that I shipped to Nafa April 23? It appeared that they had enough lots that I should've been in a couple of them. I'm also missing mink but they didn't have better than II grade in my section and I caught mine mid november and the leather wasnt blue.

I have a bunch of Fox shipped about that time I called today they are in cold storage till January..I assume you're in the same boat also all my mink too

Curtisd I believe the shipping deadline for the March sale was March 15 at my Depot in ND it was probably earlier at yours.

I'm thinking that there are quite a few NAFA shippers that sent goods for the July sale that are having those goods held until next season. It sucks for those shippers but there is a perfectly logical reason for NAFA to do so.

With the May sale being late in the season and the July sale only 6 weeks later, the receipt of fresh goods for the July sale was rather low. With quite a few species - wild mink, skunk, possum, badger, grey fox, ermine, and some sections of red fox - NAFA simply did not have a large enough collection to put up decent lots.

Rather than just throw everything into one big jumbled lot or have lots with just a few skins in each lot, NAFA decided to hold those skins over until next season. They will be combined with fresh goods to be put up with other goods to make lots that are more attractive to the buyers.

Even though those shippers have to wait 7-8 months for their goods to be offered, I think it is the best decision and the one that makes the most sense.

that's probably right only another reason a July sale was a terrible idea for shippers and they knew that.

The July sale had nothing to do with wild fur. It's all about mink,mink,mink, etc.etc. There were some female and dgd mink that sold for less than $10. I believe the cost of skinning and fleshing is around $4. Then commission, shipping, etc.
The mink farmers may have to buy their own skins back. They can throw them in the trailer with the approx. one million raccoon that they bought in speculation a few years ago.

I agree with Terry. Until this glut of cheap ranch Mink gets through the pipe line, most wild fur is going to suffer badly. The production of ranch Mink is dropping, but not fast enough. After this season, you may see a large decline in ranch Mink production. In my thoughts the production needs to be below 50 million skins , even less won't hurt anything. 25 million would be a good production number until they get all the old stock out of storage. I remember a time that there was 25 to 30 million ranch mink on auction and at that time people was worried about the numbers hurting the markets.
I didn't check on numbers for this year but if the number was still 80 million or more, I see what is happening.

Anybody have castor move on this auction? Mine was lotted, but never sold or bought back...still a chance of selling?

I'm in the same boat as you Pass-thru my castor or otter didn't sell or show bought back. I'm assuming that it was never offered during this sale.

Castor is not offered on the open auction. It is sold privately, usually shortly after the auction.

Results should be posted before checks are cut.

Thanks for the info this was my first time sending castor in.

castor sales just posted to my account

It's posted to mine also now. Any idea on how they are sold now by the ounce or by the individual castor? It looks like by the castor to me thanks for any input.

They grade them and weigh them, and sell by the oz according to grade. The shrinkage always leaves plenty of room for head scratching.

NAFA sells cantor by the ounce. There are 3 grades - select, ordinary and shells. Some time they list them as 1s, 2s, 3s.

Selects (1s) are plump full castors that are dry to the touch but still flexible. Should not be dried rock hard.

Shells (3s) are empty castors, damaged castors and small ones that are dried rock hard.

Ordinary (2s) is everything else.

Castor is continually drying, unless stored in a freezer. Your castor may be dry when you shipmit, but NAFA will take a further reduction for shrinkage. Sometimes as much as 30%.

When you consider shrinkage and NAFA fees, there are usually better places to sell castor. Lure makers, state association sales and some country dealers. Check around before you ship next season.

Kind of the same deal as grading, 99% of trappers don't have a clue what real grading is. Castor is a hard product to work with, it continuously dries until it turns almost black and is worthless. NAFA handles it slightly different then FHA in that they have it in drying racks and you get what it is when they grade it out. FHA uses a straight forward deduction per shipment. Both methods work.
The buying customer does not want to buy 200lbs at a time that turns into 160lbs after drying.
I graded enough castor to know the stunts that some trappers pulloff like packing rocks or stuffing castor shells into castor pods to increase the weigh. Or ripping the castor out full of fat and membrane still attached or leaving the penis still half attached.
Not a lot of fun cleaning up moldy castor because it's was not dried properly.
Both auction houses have castor handling information on their web sites that explain the proper handling method for a reason.
http://www.nafa.ca/wp-content/uploads/Beaver-Castor.pdf

http://furharvesters.com/pdf/castor_eng.pdf

And as a matter of fact the auction houses set the price for castor that everyone else follows.

No offense Jim but I'll never ship another pound of castor again and I'll educate anyone that will listen to that fact.

None taken Steve, the point i am trying to make is that there is a reason it is sold and handled by the auction companies the way it is. Selling privately is an option for some but not available to everyone. The auction houses have a different customer base
There is a difference between selling a few hundred pounds to a lure maker or selling tons into the trade. I at times use all three methods depending on the time of year.
The auction houses for the most part sell into the trade not so much to small end users.
There is only so much that local state auctions and lure makers can use.
An experienced trapper will develop the best method for themselves. I honestly can't say I have been disappointed using any method but I have been known to store castor in my freezer till I find the right deal.
Without the two auction houses setting the base prices I know for a fact the private buyers would not pay as much.
Having options is good for trappers.

I am a pretty good option from Nov. 1st through early May.

Lol I made more money in New Orleans in the past 4 hours then this whole fur season. Go big or go home. Scared money don’t make money baby, (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) the old lady off leavin her in the hotel but she gone be real happy when she wakes up

I have been sending my castor to Don, no regrets!

Looking forward to 1978 prices again soon like coyote prices ignoring time value of money.

Did you make your money selling some of your finished critter products or stopping by Harrah's...?

Lol definitely wasn’t from selling coon tails on the corner, harrahs didn’t like me last night

On the NAFA wild fur auction results page, it list the total number sold and then the prices for each section. But, they don't break it down to how many were brought in for each section. Is there a way to find that out ?

The report I see shows the quantity offered.

That' s what I should have said. They show the total amount offered, and the % sold for each section. But they don't say how many were offered in each section. Is there a way to find that out ?

It shows the offering in each section via the catalogue

11.01- 11.05 RACCOON WESTERN NORTHERN 433901 - 433991 52 22915
52 show lots offering 22,915 skins