FHA Results Are Posted

For better or worse, the prices are posted.
https://www.furharvesters.com/results/2019/May/may19us.pdf

The only bright spot is rats and that is not that bright. Coon was cheap but not much of an offering, general consensus the market still sucks.

"1st section only" = not a true average.

Skunk top lot was $40.00.. I wonder what was so special about that lot!!

A Tman member had the top lot black bear at $410.00.

Typically we see beaver broken down into sections etc. $18 average seems good based on beaver prices of late but don't know what sections sold for what.
Otters are not worth much. $20 for an average otter!
Coons were about like they were in the last FHA sale. Mine at NAFA did considerably better based on section and grade. I have 1 coon and 15 good rats to be auctioned.
It is disappointing to see such very little interest in red, grey and silver foxes.
Does someone have a better grip on what central yotes are compared to easterns? Big difference in those sections. I know we don't have any Canadian Westerns here in WI

Bryce

True averages have meaning only to the accountants. If you take 100 coyotes to a buyer or auction and 50 are worthless but you get $100 each for the other 50 are you going to be mad at the $50 average for all your coyotes. As long as they say what's in the number I could care less about true average.

I wonder if coyotes will drop after CG announced their lackluster sales and their stock dropped 20%. NAFA will get blamed if yote prices slide.

I believe it's already started. Had a late collection of Ks coyotes that only avg 41 bucks. They were caught late, but coyotes held better this year than I can honestly say I have ever experienced. From what I sold last year and even last sale, they were off at least 20% or a bit more. For some reason, easterns have taken over everything but the best westerns. How weird is that. I used to get quite a few from here that used to grade eastern, but now that they are worth something, I don't have anything but centrals! Crap like that gripes me to no end. All I could wish for is that the grading would be consistant and not always in favor of the buyers!

When that Hippie TRUMP going to do something for the fur market? Aren't you guys his base, get on the phone to you local republican riding association and tell them to help us out. Especially you guys in Pennislvainia and Ohio who put him over the top. Doesn't Trump own a big share of the fashion industry? Plus he has all them Russian connections he can for shure help you out. Tell him stop being such a hippie.

Seriously?

I can do like the auction houses are doing and take the best 10 of those 100 coyotes and make the "average" look even better.

So, you, as a trapper, dont care about your true average?

I guess those 50 worthless coyotes didnt take up any of your trapping and fur handling time?

Your idea of of "caring about a true average" and mine are two totally different concepts.

If you only total up your best stuff to get an average price it is NOT your average....it is the average price paid for your best stuff. This is what the auction companies do. They only added up the 1st section stuff. They didnt include the "50 worthless coyotes"....lol. That's an average that means notthing to a trapper.

Whatever makes you feel better.

Where do you get your info? CNN?

When trapping prime fur,how many are going to be junky/dmg half price?Not many.Likely shouldn't skin or send those.
Who wants junkers thrown in to skew the real avg of good fur?
Definitely the secondary goods should have a separate avg so a trapper who can half arsed grade fur knows what to skin and what to toss according to market trend.

You live in a fantasy world if everything is 100 percent in wild fur,lol.

But what about those grade 2s? Those are not junk or badly damaged? Many are just slightly off color or minor leather blemishes. It appears the auctions houses dont include those in their 1st section averages because it lowers it...making the sale prices less "impressive" looking to the producers

I have never been able to understand all this concern about averages, one way or the other. I catch X amount of fur and want to get the best price I can; so in that case, yes I am pursuing the best average per say. And at current prices it is a total waste of time to handle a pelt that you KNOW will have very little to no value. However, it is simply nuts to throw out lesser value furs to make one's average price higher. Using the 100 pelt analogy if I get $2,000 for a twenty dollar average I would not throw out the bottom 20 pelts because they brought my average down. No matter how much or how little they bring, it is still extra money in my wallet above and beyond what I received for the other 80.

I feel exactly same way...but the auction houses like to make it look better than it is by averaging ONLY the grade 1 pelts.

Not saying 100%-there are several grades in sec 1 fur,and several in sec 3.Sec 3 can be worth skinning in certain species and market conditions,but only if you know what they are selling for compared to first section fur.
I can go over my fur returns for decades and I bet less than 10% would be sec 3 fur.
I remember a couple years sec 3 otter was worth as much as first section.Definitly worth skinning and shipping.If the avg was not broken out a lot of that fur likely would have been tossed.And vice versa.

How do we respond when someone asks us what fur is bringing? Do we ask, "Grade 1 fur?" Or do we say, " I averaged xx for my coyotes, xx for my coons, etc?

If you only want to talk about your grade 1 prices, then please disregard my comments...lol

I'll do it.

Section 1 is not grade 1.

Section 1 includes grade select to II and slt damaged.

Section 3 includes damaged and grades III and IV

Carry on!

Maybe they produce section 2 fur in second world countries?

I wish the grading was consistent as well, but believe this, it's not always in favor of the buyers!

How much would the sale average change if it was a "true" avg?

I guess you can tell who saved the $10 on the auction correspondence.
Seems like most don't know the difference between sec 1 and 3 and grade 1 and 3.

They got websites, they got videos, they got trapper education, and yet I do it for nothing. Hopefully, another satisfied customer.

Heck, every day I see you wasting your time trying to educate.

Poor prices. Poor markets, maybe nafa sale well be better. I wonder if going hold line an not let better coon go cheap, like last sale

YEABUT...………. Nobody really knows that til after a sale or 3...…...

No CNN is for hippies, I very rarely watch news unless there is a forest fire. To boring it is. But Trump is a hippie keeping Marine Mammal Protection Act in place not helping trappers real hippie stuff. You white guys that live in the middle and get him elected over the Ney York and California Hippies that are still trying to get Hillary elected. You should be calling up your Republican reps and tell them that pay back time has come and gone and your cheesed off. Priminster Trudue did his part he got coyote prices going now its Trumps turn to do us a solid.

Everytime I tell people what fur is bringing, I always refer to the good stuff. It's inferred that junk is extremely cheap. Especially when I talk about coyote prices...good fur, no rubs, good color...anything else good luck.

I don't think their sales were lackluster. Revenue was up 25%, looks to me they spent too much money opening up their own stores across the world. They sold most of their product wholesale before opening their own stores. I think they are still using plenty of coyotes for trim, but that doesn't mean that they won't try and cut the cost of doing business.

Yall know what I meant. Section 1 is the best stuff.

Every time I tell people what fur is bringing,I tell them about the junk stuff.No sense getting the neighborhood excited.

Probably shouldn't post barn pictures. People don't need to know.

No foxes sold?

I would reckon very few. I got too many at Nafa with what I sent and what carried over. I figure very few will sell unless they fire sale them.

I was excited to see that the bear was top lot! I wasn’t able to watch the auction this sale so I was patiently waiting to see. I never dreamt I’d have a top bear. That gives me one or more for every species I trap except mink and skunk.

I said the same thing about yote prices softening when I sold mine in March and was told I was a know nothing ignoramus.

When it comes to species like wolves and black bears, the quality of the put up factors into top dollar pelts. Good quality fur plus top notch prep = top dollar.

Yes and pretty much all species I would think.

Good job Novatrapper, thats a real accomplishment!!

Congrats to Novatrapper on taking the time and effort to properly handle a nice bear.
Also congrats to the buyer(and all the buyers)that support our industry.

Was it a fall bear or a spring bear?
Congrats on the top lot bear.

Thanks for the info Guys.

Without seeing individual grades and prices it’s pretty hard to say for sure what the market is doing, pretty sure it isn’t softening

That was my skunk. I'm kind of in shock. Can't say I saw that coming.

Was it a striped skunk or spotted skunk (civet)? Did it have the feet on it?

It was a fall bear, caught November 2. It was very well furred though.

They moved 77% of Otter at $20 average

My question for you guys who only ship top fur is what do you do with the rest of it???

My low grade stuff stays in the woods.

Same thing the auction house does with it. Give it away or burn it.

Guy groenwold in China Post yesterday, say not much going on, at fur stores. Is that normal or is it early, I was amazed on his Facebook vid of all fur shops for blocks

Number1. Section 1 is not top fur. Some of it ain't worth shipping. Section III is mostly real poor except maybe dg1 stuff.

Most of the real bad stuff does not get skinned. No point in it. Some of the better damaged stuff I will spend extra money and tan and sew with.

Some years I'll pull color and size that ain't worth shipping.

I'll give you 5 section 1 species that ain't worth shipping currently. Ermine, otter, mink, and red fox, fisher. There are probably more.

"Prior to the start of our auction we received well wishes and encouraging messages from most of the world’s auction houses as we most often always do days prior to our auctions. At times like this when the market is struggling it is so very much appreciated as we all are in the same boat. However the evening of our auction we started receiving messages from a great many of the buyers that had already arrived here in North Bay. The message was the same, a document released from a competitor stating that their offering the morning of May 23rd had increased on several species. In particular MUSKRAT had increased from 90,000 to 208,265 and raccoon had increased from 252,000 to 424,694 in just 12 hours. This was sent to our buyers the evening prior to our auction. In both cases the quantities more than doubled and questions of where this volume could come from was paramount as this much volume was not even produced the past few years. The timing of this tactic was not well received by the great number of buyers forwarding it to us. "

Is this something that occurs routinely or a new marketing technique from that competitor?

Dave

Dirt,looks like some fur is coming out of storage, Dealer lots I would imagine. That's alot of coon in this market, what a deal.

The technique that says " come to my sale next week where you can get them cheaper". Price dumping has happened.

A bunch of dealers didn’t just come up with 200k coon. I think I know what’re they came from but I’d be called all kind of names if I say so I’ll just keep to myself

Everyone knows, heavy, pale coon are in demand!! Some one must be trying to cash in!

Lol, somebodies doing something alright

Do I smell a fire?

. Not funny. But maybe I doubt they drop limits and just free sell everything though. This is one of the nicer coon selections I’ve shipped . A market that makes you glad you have a real job. Lol

. No one will be mad where? Mink ranchers?

Well let’s think, who can come up with 200k coon when there aren’t hardly that many produced currently.

Sold catalog is available at FHA website.

Thanks dirt. Thinking they haven’t updated accounts. I had 5 in lot 116 showing as unsold in beaver but the catalog says otherwise.