Fur harvesters auction

Just finished listening today's sale. Imo rats were a mess. I've never seen them skip through lots like they did. Beaver seemed hit or miss. My otter did well. Seems like they were doing a speed contest. I heard "sorry" to many times.

Probably the lots they were skipping were part of a string. If the first lot has no interest, why bother with the rest of the string.

Yup,

Skip quickly ahead on the muskrats so they can fire sale them later by private treaty.

Wish they would get someone else to auction the muskrats cause Downey suxs at it !!!

Walleyed - are you ever happy with anything FH does??

Maybe you should apply for a job there so you can straighten the place out!

Sure. walleyed desires to become the skipper of the Titanic! Northern New Yorkers would rather take command of a canoe.

Day two results


https://www.furharvesters.com/results/2024/June/jun24usDAY2.pdf

Who said "sell early and sell often"?

ouch

the top 6.70 was paid for the black rats the other rats no where close to that price

There are better places to sell your rats than at the auction house in my experience. It pays to check around and develop contacts and buyers. I think a lot of people send their fur there because it's easy and convenient for them.

Thanks

I would sell my furs else where if I new the auction would be worse but no-one is going to know that. I average better at the auction than I would selling my fur locally.

Not really, Not Lately.

Last time I was happy with this Auction was when Alex Shieff was still in charge !!!

w

Pretty simple better rats they are holding. Probably thinking low numbers of ranch mink will eventually make better rats more valuable then the 3,4 bucks they could sell them for. imo

Walleyed - if you remember Alex Shieff running the sales, you must be really old!! Wasn’t he in charge when they had to shut down……

Alex resigned from OTA when the board of directors hired a management team
who had no business running a fur auction due to no experience in the fur Industry.

Their mismanagement of OTA led directly to OTA going into receivership & belly up !!!

Alex Shieff then went to work for the predecessor to NAFA/HUDSON BAY CO.

I'm not THAT old but I've been shipping to OTA/FHA since 1977.

Used to send my fur by Greyhound bus to Buffalo/Niagara Falls to a Ontario/Canadian
Customs broker agent who sent it on to North Bay.

Alex Shieff had the whole transaction procedure setup to get New York State fur shipper's
bags of pelts across the border before the traveling fur agent process was setup
in the early 1980's.

I've been around the block with OTA/FHA a time or two over the years.

w

That would be me. But what do I know??


I just know Jerry averaged 34.00 for his beaver across the board a little over a month ago....all in..even the footballs.

The declining felt market is definitely affecting the beaver prices..the hot hot beaver markets done cause now the buyers know they can buy Beaver pelts for a cheaper price than they've been paying in the country.

May have finally came to fruition. Poor advice throughout the selling season tho, imho.

A pullback will take some pressure off the resource as we prepare for the next advance.

Yikes, sales in the country were better on most items. I hope not too many smalltime dealers had fur on this sale that they bought at trapper sales.

These sale results really suck when you consider that these totals are all 1st section goods. In other words....as good as FHA could make it look on paper.

I was on the res and found a lot of cans and bottles.....It was a good day.....

Our joke for marking set with beer can for years,,,,,,"old indian trick"......

I was happy with what I sold there so far.Marten auction was pretty lively.
Cats tomorrow.Looking forward to that.

When do they sell castor?

PT after the fur auction. Castor does not do well at live auction. It’s been tried.

FH has a number of private buyers to sell castor to. Usually happens within 2-3 weeks after live auction.

I predict the select grade will sell well. Standard grade will struggle and most likely not sell. imo

Thanks wissmiss!

Looks like cheap fertilizer.

Another disappointing sale. Is there a pattern here?

7 different lots of beaver and my account shows only 1 sold... That's a real bummer.

1/3 of my better beaver didn’t go. But isn’t the 2nd auction not as good as the first? They’d stop at 40 and move to the next string. And sometimes, it’s just luck of the draw as to which string your fur winds up in. Still got 4lbs of castor in North Bay……another 4lbs in my freezer which is where it’ll stay for now…..I think lol

After everything, I figure I still averaged 35ish for my beaver without counting castor. The fur took a hit though…haha

Definitely not the "rising market" I was hoping for. I averaged $32 something on my beaver but only 70% sold. Sold six otter for like a $23.00 average and 2 were selects. I had one 3x rat that missed the wrapping party go for $2.40. My weasels did good but were all selects.

That sale should help draw in more trinket buyers. Country buyers should have been there buying to get their average down. The buys are happy with that sale.

Did they sell any mink? My two late select roadkills show unsold. I almost sent a bunch.

Mink today, but I think their schedule got screwed up. The coyotes went yesterday but were supposed to go today I thought. They were flying through the fur yesterday so maybe they had time to get the coyotes in? The single item auction like wolf & bear takes long

Yup, wild mink today. Right after the ranch mink.

They made an announcement yesterday during the sable auction that there had been a request (not sure by whom) to move the coyotes to yesterday after the raccoon. They asked in any one objected and no one did. They then surveyed the buyers not in the room and no one objected. So a bit later they announced the coyotes would sell on Sunday (yesterday).

I doubt it made any difference. The auction was over about 5 PM eastern time, which is very reasonable.

That can't be !!!

BOCO promised us that the sale in June would be a barn burner
for beaver & marten and that the market would continue to rise !!!

w

Not impressed, so far.

Muskrats overall (only the low end sold).......2.41. That statement just doesnt sound right to me, maybe putting lipstick on a pig? Kind of like an appraiser telling me good rats are worth 10.00- they aint worth nothing if they dont sell.

Good news bad news, the bad news is prices for rats are cheap and the low end was what sold. The good news is the low end is what makes up the majority of my catch. I thought prices would inch up a little but no go. We as suppliers are being conditioned to accept low prices and be happy about it. 5 to 6 dollar coon and now rats at 2.50. Hard to get to excited about this fall. Famous last words " maybe next year".

Nimzy, Ask someone who held their beaver and shipped them their opinion on the advice of selling em early don't hold em till later in the season..I bet they'd say it was pretty good advice.

Next season the start off price in the country will be about 15 average Tull someone gets th e market reestablished.imo

The felt guys are not gonna be paying then pound price they we're this season..why should they when the auction house just showed those buyers that they don't have to pay those prices.

Some.of the country buyers that have contracts may still pay a little over the market that was just established to get the beaver to full their contract but they won't be paying what they paid this year..my guess is they'll Stat off at least 5.00 back a pound, if they're even buying by the pound next fall, which is iffy.

They may go back to buying beaver on the grade all together since the bottom fell out of the market.

Just my .02 based on conversations I've had with some big country buyers with huge felt contracts.

Jerrys hoping for a 25.00 average next year but figures it's gonna be closer to 20

Also, you guys tha shipped your fur..dont be surprised if your grade goes down on what you have left at the next.auction( pay attention to.your grade from this sale to the next)
With the lack of storage for fur at FHA its gonna happen. And has happened.

I was told before this sale hatter market was down so it didn't suprize me how things went...

Well for my product it is almost always 10% less. And wallah, marten were 10% less. Who would have guessed? Not Boco!

The late sale the Auction is looking to clear out. They almost always drop the limits 10%. They are far more motivated to move it in May or June and many buyers have already spent their load at earlier sales.

Just to wake up the old discussion. This is why you want them to sell PT at or above FEB, MARCH limits.

Hey w

Dec 2020 I got $10 each for frozen weasels. That was the year of the weasel me & pard got 60+. Most years <5.

Well, I'm happy that I sold all my beaver this year on the association sales. WIth pelts, castor, oil sacs, skulls, carcasses, I averaged just over $45 and still have 90 oz's of castor in North Bay. It's disappointing that the good beaver market didn't stay around a little longer but if you've been trapping long enough you come to expect these things. I think some of us (certainly me) got spoiled by the fur boom years of the late 70's and 80's and thought good prices might last forever. After that whenever something went up we thought we deserved to get a good 4-5 year ride out of it before it dipped again. But it never lasts.....

This^^^

And in the past several years, those good demand years have lasted less b4 it bottoms out again for that species.

"Beaver will shine again" and again!

But the auction didn't let my beaver go below 40, someone said something in the back and the auctioneer said "no, we're friends but I can't do that. I've got 20000 other friends out there too"
What if these bever that the held sell better PT? The Boco bashers'll have the ole foot in mouth problem......lol. One can only hope, time will tell.

I spent the morning in a dr office and totally missed the wild mink. I had over 350 in this auction. Did anyone hear how they did? I'm concerned how quick they are rushing everything except cats. Those seem to be doing very good.

Wild Mink 11,726 100% Northern
Central
$10.66
$9.82 $13.50

Strangely odd that the FHA auction video footage has already
disappeared from both the FHA website and on YouTube.

Why would it disappear so quickly when it was just posted ?

w

Because it was streaming live and it’s now over.

This.

I was hoping for a bit more on the mink but 361 sold at 100 percent.

Glad to hear it Ack.

Kinda cool to know my mink were 3 percent of the entire sale.

The youtube postings were recordings that were still available
the next day after the initial posting. they weren't streaming live then.

I'm guessing that I sold 100 percent. I guess I will find out in a few weeks. I have apparently been banished to the good ole days of patience. No login still. Anybody know what 3XL-2XL marten sold for roughly in U.S. dollars?

If I read it right I had 51 top lot mink.

Hopefully they put it back up. Last year they did but cut out the $750 beaver auctioned at the very beginning and everyone called me a BSer.....LOL

When do PT sales happen? Any thoughts on whether any beaver will move PT? The majority of mine did not sell.

Congrats on the mink, ack. I'm no mathematician, but that's not too bad.

Around 80 bucks USD.

Can't complain here, we had 3 bobcats sell for $1378. One was a smallish female too. Got $600+ for 1 bobcat.
1 unsold beaver and 2 coyotes sold, $18 on the coyotes, lol.

Both of the ones I sent too. I have always gotten a lot of top mink. Don't know what's so special about them.

So, when do I sign up for MinkU

When were the coon auctioned or were they auctioned...?

How much did the top lot mink fetch? That would be cool to know your mink were 3 % of the entire mink sold.

the coon were auctioned on Sunday

Is anyone else having difficulties logging into their account? I have been locked out since last Thursday and I have not seen anything from FHA describing issues.

Thank You

I had to re submit my e mail as per request and then got in right away.

We are special. No, I am not using a phone. The FHA website is not requesting me to send an email when I try to login.

try clearing your cache

Top mink was 13.50........seemed to be alot that went at that price

Various, non-descript mink & other fur bearers
have been known to become shape-shifters
at times when a certain size or grade is needed
to fill or round out a need or requirement at FHA.

This can ultimately result in the shipper's benefit
but not necessarily in the buyer's interest !!!

Does anyone have day 3 results ?

The results are on the web site.

Day 3 is the same as day 2

It wasn't yesterday.

Click on the (Day3) not the( June 17)

Got it thank you for that

Beaver on this sale: I guess sold folded in half and frozen wasn't too bad after all.

Central bcats didn't continue to move either....

Man marten were terrible !

Better prices in Fairbanks in February

If i remember right somebody posted that they got 70 for males and 45 for females from probably Bill in February. Then there was a discussion.

You made the right move selling froze on the grease when you did. You could have paid freight to get them to the sale and sold SOME for less, and the rest would still be sitting there. I can't say I have seen a lot of people bragging about their averages. That tells you something.

Beaver sold prior to an auction PT have thenpotential to bring more money than thy might at the sale.

PT sales, for any fur, rarely if ever sell for more than the pelt brought during the auction.

Fur buyers aren't stupid if they stay in business.
They're not gonna pay more fur pelts..of the same grade...(that facts important),..why would they when they've seen the price they've just went for on the auction..

Alot of time PT sales are dumps for selling lots of.pelts.fast..when you don't have adequate storage available, that also has a bearing on the sale.price.

Occasionally a fur buyer or broker will need a given amount of pelts to finish off a contract and may pay a premium for the hides.needed to finish out his contract but that's rare

Don't be saying that.

You'll get OCOB all wound up !!!

After all, He predicted a Barn Burner Auction Amid a RISING MARKET !!!

Nothing but crickets from him now !!!

w

What country were mink buyers from

I've hit it about as good as possible two springs in a row....for deep South beaver.....to Groenwold.

I was hoping this FH sale would be good again.....the snowball effect will occur.....and will be completely melted b4 it rolls all the way down here by next spring.

I had good prices on this sale,very happy.
Some big prime beaver were held back which is the way to do it,not give them away.
Once all the beaver sell I will post my avg.And no doubt it will be a good one from the prices on the ones that sold.
FHA has always looked out for the trappers after all its our auction house.
After doing a quick comparison of grades that sold,it looks like the beaver did a little better on this sale than jan,so taking into account that this is a june sale,it indeed is a rising market for beaver.Downey is a sharp cookie,he knows the market and the buyers well and knows when to hold the upper end to protect the grades.

Atta boy Boco! Stay positive!

Well its all there in black and white on your auction receipt.

Jan 1x good dmg $38.28 cd
June-1x gd dmg $39.77 cd

Jan 1x sel br $51.48 cd
June 1x sel br $52.10 cd

Same with other grades that sold.
So taking into account that the summer auction sale is historically 10% less than a winter sale indeed the beaver market is rising.

W17 and Dirt,

I've said it quite a few times on here, but just in case you missed it, FHA has NOT been the place to market Alaska marten, for quite a long time now. When you adjust for the FHA deductions, they haven't even been within $10 USD of other outlets, most years. This last sale would be almost exactly $25 USD net below what I sold my entire collection for, to an alternative buyer. If you are sending FHA marten, you are highly likely to be missing out on a fair bit of value. If you have marten to sell next year, PM me, and I'll pass you some info.

Now that's trappers helping trappers^^^^^

From the report, the beaver should have averaged in the low twenties over all. That is for the 71% that sold, minus commissions. Some how that does not look like a rising market. Guys got more than that for froze beaver folded in half all in and sold 100% and no commissions. At trapper sale beaver were in the high 20's and low 30's 100% sold all in.

It all depends on what the 29 percent that didn't sell consisted of

That 29% wasn't felt beaver.

The 6 beaver of mine that didn't sell are on the higher end. They were all 3X-2X. If they sell where they should it will bring my average back up where it should be. I am a proponent of FHA . I think they are looking out for the trappers. With that being said, if my average doesn't go up I would have been better selling to the truck. Time will tell.

Who bought all the mink?

Correct. 73 average back in Feb

Agree T4E ! Will do

Bill W in FAI has been consistently better lately

June auction's never were that great in the NAFA days so from looks of things id not panic just yet.

Some dealers have orders on marten and they are sold privately.Several reasons for this.Buyers don't want the hassle of dealing with FHA.It can be more complicated for them to buy there not to mention the expense.

Thought about this too^^^.....from the NAFA days.

Hope that's it.

It was a really strong cat market again.Mink has finally seen an upward movement.Beaver will depend on demand but they are continuing to film Yellowstone,some other western series and movies.I would expect the hatter market to hold its own for a while.

What the heck is wrong with red fox still!!??

4%on the hatters and 1% on the good stuff, I would call that flat at best.

https://www.furharvesters.com/results/2024/June/jun24us.pdf

Looks like the felters appear to have their inventory at a desired level, so they’re not selling the good stuff at a cheaper price.
Now the castor….

There was lots of beaver moved from dealers to felters that never saw the FHA auction which probably hurt the late market.Bobcat prices/lynx cat prices were set in the country sales.There is a shortage of this fur in the marketplace.For now the production is a long ways off from the past.One of the surprises was the number of white fox sold.Possibly some were passed due to lack of buyer interest ?

Why do ya'll think the Central bcats only sold 21%? Past few sales the clearance was higher on the Centrals.

Seems if they wanted spotted bellies, they'd got those too.

The central bobcats were selling to the chinese market because of the cheaper price.FHA holds the line on bobcats. Typically the chinese buyer is about as cheap as it comes.They will work the FHA to drive the price down.They are very manipulative.

The bcat market must not be as strong as indicated or the buyers wouldn't have tapped out with the cheaper cats...they'd left there with those too.

Surely, FHA didn't set/hold the price minimums too high on these lower grades of spotted bellies when all the better cats sold well at 90% to 100%.

Just my opinion as I didn’t have any skin in that game...but it does indicate an obvious buyer stopping point exists even when goods are available.

Read CLOSELY what I wrote.There are two different markets for bobcats.The better ones go to the Greek/Italian market for jackets.The Chinese buy the cheaper ones for trim.

Yeah...I read that the 1st time. So, I guess the Chinese struck out with cheap bcats at FHA this time. Their garment market must not be very firm or they'd left Canada with more than 21% of those cheaper cats.

Or, they called one of the country buyers to get what they needed.....like GFW.

Swamp Wolf,

You pretty much nailed the current trend in many species. Many bulk buyers from all over the world are transitioning away from the auction process, and all it's additional commissions, fees, etc. and placing orders DIRECTLY to large scale buyers, who can acquire the same products with FAR LESS overhead expenses, thus in MANY cases keeping costs down for the overseas buyer, while also returning a better price to the trapper, all due to the country buyers/ collectors acquiring the furs without the additional overhead that FHA charges in commissions and fees. FHA is still a good option for many sellers, in some regions, if they don't have shipping fees that would hurt the overhead, etc. to ship that fur to a different marketing option. I'm glad some trappers are still supporting FHA, since I want to see them stay in the game. I currently don't market any fur through FHA though, since they aren't even kind of competitive with other options, for any of my species.

I think you have been doing just fine marketing with GFW, versus what your actual net profit would have been, versus shipping to FHA, even BEFORE figuring the shipping costs to get that fur to an FHA receiving agent. I suspect no one is pulling the wool over your eyes, and you are already well aware of this.
FHA sometimes sounds like a better alternative, UNTIL you do the math on tumbling fees, sellers commission, CITES fees, shipping cost to get your fur to an FHA receiving agent, etc. and all of a sudden, your net return PLUMMETS!!! On the buyers end, the buyers commission, packaging fees, travel costs, lodging costs, etc. drive up their overhead WELL above actual gavel price. That big chunk of $$$$ between trappers net returns, and buyers ACTUAL price paid per pelt, not just posted gavel price, is the window of space that good country buyers can jump into that niche, if they can obtain the same quality of fur, in bulk, for a smaller percentage of the cut than FHA takes. It is working well for some country buyers.

GFW is tied in with Chinese buyers and they would save money buying from him.You would have to ask him what percentage he sells to the Chinese.Also take in consideration the Chinese economy is on a downward slope.So there is less demand for these goods.

Like you.....I sure hope that FHA holds it together (unlike NAFA). The more competition for wild fur...the better.

This southern fur isn't nearly as marketable as northern pelts. I'm just glad there in ONE buyer that is interested enough to come this far south to get it.....GFW.

I've considered shipping bcats to FHA, but I think I'd be better off allowing GFW to move my few cats. After all, they have made it convenient to market our fur down here and paid prices for these beaver that they didn't have to pay this far south the past 2 seasons.

Swampy, you were killin it with GFW judging by 5he receipts you showed a while ago. With all those fees, not sure why anyone in the states would ship across the line. Only thing I hate about GFW is everything’s a +&*/=$#- secret!

Anyone know what country bought all mink

I think you guys are smart in recognizing that the long term survival of FHA is in everyone's best interest. Even the southern guys that don't ship there. I watched the prices being paid for larger beaver ( I think he took some liberties with smaller beaver this year) by Groeny both last year and this year. There was a significant rise. No way he does this without the FHA sales coming up. Unless you market yourself, the day when there is only one significant buyer, will be a dark one for all of us.

Will do.

There are only 2 main buyers for felt. When one has enough inventory for the year and lowers the price, the 2nd buyer won't want to pay up, consequently the price drops. There appears to be a solid demand for felt, just not at the moment. "Sell early and often" was good advice.

Coon prices are just sad. The most fun and easiest which makes it hard to skin up and stuff just for 5 dollar average. Wish people would on purpose make it go high for a good average.

Do you,your family and friends wear fur in the winter.
The more people wear fur,the more other people see and admire it and buy it.
The very best thing trappers can do for the fur trade is to wear fur in the winter every time they go out.
A couple or 3 different fur hat styles go a long way when people see how good they look and how warm they are.
A nice otterskin and leather bomber style jacket also looks sharp and lasts for years.

Coon skin cap. No my family (siblings are younger and don't care for trapping) and my parents don't care for trapping either my dad just likes seeing what I catch. He Hunts though. If I would wear fur would it help?

yea run around down here in a coonskin hat during deer season which is from Oct. 15 to Feb. and see how it goes, lol.

Sure! People will wanna touch and ask you about it. Your buddies will want one next, and then you show em how it’s done.
Keep trapping them and get good at putting them up. You don’t want to learn on a high end animal. Then you’ll be putting them up even though they ain’t worth much, because you’re fast and good at it. Kinda like rats, ain’t worth much, but its quick and easy to tack on a few bucks on the check.

Might as well wear fur-you get shot down there whether you wear it or not.
Dont live your life sceerd.
If its too hot for a nice fur piece you can slap a 10 gallon cowboy hat on your 5 gallon head.That will help the beaver market.