How are auctions working for you now compared to selling to buyer? One year I shipped was a disaster and would have never sold my pelts that cheap. Plus it took 3 years to get everything sold. Knew a guy who Groenwolds offered $100 each for otters ( years ago of course) but he held them and shipped to auction and got $80 ( ouch!!). By putting up your furs and shipping to auctions how many these days are finding that to be more profitable and a good experience?

Timing, luck, and the market. When market is hot, auction is good. When its not, its not. I havent shipped anything since NAFA folded. Really hasnt been much reason to ship anything since, Been selling at our state auctions.

I’m totally out of the loop on state auctions how many states have auctions. In Wisconsin what are your options

One can either do well, or really, really bad !!!

With shipping to an auction you are committed with no recourse to say No Sale !!!

Right now if you have certain species like Marten, skunk, or beaver
with a rising market you can be rewarded with higher prices,
but shipping fees, drumming & CITIES charges, & 11% commission
can really eat into any extra profit that you might gain.

Plus you might have to wait a while to get paid.

Really, it's hit or miss & over all, a crap shoot unless you're BOCO !!!!!

w

I know you said recent, but I've not shipped anything recently. This is a not-recent story.

I hauled a pile of coon to a local travelling buyer in IA. All green. It was December. He offered me significantly less than I'd been expecting. I hemmed and hawed a bit because I was counting on that money for Christmas shopping but didn't like the price. He'd divided the coon into 7 piles. $20, $15, $12, $8, $4, $1, $0. I was about to walk away when I decided to ask him if he would buy the better coon and let me take back the $0/$1 coons. I figured he'd say no, but he surprised me and said sure. So I sold him the decent stuff and took the junk home. I averaged $13-something on the stuff he'd bought.

Well I got the junk coon put up and sent in for the next NAFA sale. When the sale rolled around that pile of coon that had been valued at $1 or less averaged $14-something. More than my good coon. I was sick that I hadn't sent them all in.

But, as others have said, it's all hit and miss and just depends on the timing of the markets as well as if local buyers have a particular need for certain furs and are willing to pay for it.

It depends. If you just have a few pelts might as well take whats offered at your local buyer. If you have a good catch, time and money invested, many of the better buyers will come to you. Especially if you get together with a couple other trappers. Local buyer here likes to talk about "his" trappers like they are working for him. He is upset that trappers have been getting together to have a buyer come to them. I have known him awhile and never known him to seek out the buyer offering him the least amount for what he is selling.

He kept telling me he wanted to buy my western cats. (several years ago) So one year I showed them to him. Offered me a 90 dollar average. I told him I was sure they would average, after commission, 300. He began telling me about the poor quality. I told him 250 if he paid me on the spot. I shipped them to auction. NAFA. I got the 300.

You need to have a price in mind. Its your fur. Your not the buyers slave. A lot of variables go into marketing fur. FWIW the first year groney came to KS I sold him the first ten coyotes I had caught. He came early and thats how many I had dried. It was only ten so I took his offer. I had drove 40 miles one way to meet the truck. I have not sold him another.

The landscape is certainly changed. It is expected in a major correction. It will be interesting to see who raises from the ashes. We are in a pickle.

In this depressed market auction overhead is killer.

What happens when the “middleman” is buying at the auction?

Ship on a rising market, sell fast on a falling. The trick is being able to tell the difference. Easy to tell what you should have done after it's over. I've made the right guess and done really well both shipping and selling direct. I've also zigged when I should have zagged and got gooned. Bottom line is, if you have a fair amount of fur you should do some homework, explore your options and make a decision. You should have an idea of what you have and what's acceptable pricing wise. Don't sell willy nilly and cry how you got beat out of your fur.

You have to know what you have in terms of fur quality, what like fur is selling for, and put it up. There is no option if it's not put up. The quality of the put up must be very good. It takes research and paying attention to details. Most people don't put fur up due to time, lack of learning the process, and the equipment required to do it right as well as to industry standards.

Poor market or dropping, tan or sell to local buyer. Rising market, auction. Unless, local is within $5 of auction, which doesn't usually ever happen unless a big increase is coming. Strong market, local all day.

Local buyers already have set contracts before the season starts. If they deviate from the per animal average the contract calls for they place themselves at a huge risk. The exception is if the end user calls mid seasons and says I need more skins or skins are not available at the level needed to realize the full potential of the contract.

Taxidermy, skull sales, carcass sales, urine collection are also methods to increase price per animal. Your already handling the animal, two more minutes and you can equal the price per skin. I got into urine collection because of $20 coyotes. A $20 coyote skin becomes a $50 coyote if you collect 2 gallons of urine. On and on goes.

I’d like to think most of the trappers here put up their fur. GFW doesn’t take ‘em raw here. Maybe a few new trappers that may give it up after trying to move their raw fur, or learn to put it up.

FHA can be the highest priced middle man often. You start out -11%, drumming, + shipping + cities fees. Then you stand a chance of your fur not selling and sitting there for years and being dumped for less than was offered the first sale. To me State trapper sales is where it is at right now. The sales draw enough buyers to push the price of your fur. If WI does not have one get involved with the association and put one on. Every state association should have a fur sale.

I wonder if that's a distance/logistics thing or what? In the midwest I think they buy more green fur than finished, especially coon.

most state associations have at least one. We have 2 in ohio, used to be three but what used to be our second sale since nafa folded just doesnt get interest from sellers. Seems odd that wisconsin doesnt have one, do you guys have that many buyers there still?