He had a bit over 25 pounds, and I was glad to get it. I use hundreds of pounds of it in a year's time.

I shipped castor last sale got hosed on it I'll never send my castor to fha again

Keystone, could you be more specific on the hosing part. Shrinkage? Price? No sale? What did it grade?

I’ve got about 18 lbs that looks like this that I’m planning to send to FHA. The hope is that a big % goes western select.

With your luck beaverpeeler,

FHA will probably grade those castors as # 3 Shells
after shipping charges & 11% commission is subtracted !!!!

walleyed

Better off to sell private from my experience. Then you know what you are getting up front.

I normally would agree 100% with you Bob, but prices are so low right now that the risk factor doesn't seem strong. In conversations with FHA they have a solid market for all the #1 western select they get in and the ballpark price is $100/lb US.

I don’t have faith in FHA I’ve been told on here the otters sold out from last year yet my account says otters unsold and I questioned Cheryl at the FHA and she said they are unsold so I don’t know what to expect.

I'll trade your castor for orange dip worms and SSS.

I just spoke to my FHA contact. He said #1 castor "may" hit $60 at this point. He said not to pay more than $35 # at this point. After commission and extra drying loss prices could be less with that factored in. You know how the markets go. It is anyone's guess or speculation from here on in.

Jalstat I also asked my contact about the otter, and I was told they are sold out from last year.

Checks will be mailed out for the otter after this next sale.

I had a conversation with Mark Downey a couple of weeks ago and he was the one that suggested that western select grade would be in the $100 range. Of course very very little makes that grade and it has to be light colored like the stuff we have out here.

If they sold private treaty after the last auction they will still show as unsold until this upcoming auction. At least that's my understanding of how things work.

Thanks Bob I wish they would update the account. ADC I’d trade castor anytime for sss and orange tubes lol

Checks for sold otter will be mailed after this next sale I was told just a few minutes ago.

Country buyers and others are advised to stay in the $30 to $35 # price range to be safe.

? so if you had say 200 otter and they sold private treaty after their last sale you still not get paid till like april or may of this year ?

so you advertise the market for western select at $100 which nobody has and people ship their castor thinking they are gonna do good then after it sells they say your castor was not western select that's why they only sold for $40.then we had shrinkage ,drying time and etc. So in the end you prob. only got $25 .

That is about right or close to it, unless there are significant changes in the market demand.

The problem.is..say you have 10 lbs. You're gonna lose 25 % for shrinkage automatically....then all.of what you have left isn't gonna grade #1 so even if you do get 60 a lb for the #1stuff. Which you wont.. only 10% of that, At most, will probably grade #1 on
. So you'd be lucky to get a 20 or 25 dollar average..IF they sell it all..which they wont..then you'll have to pay 11% commission..plus shipping...you'll be lucky to get 20 bucks a pound..if they sell.all of it..which again..they wont

Then you have to wait for your check which may or may not come - I can understand consigning certain species as they have the top market for those items. But otherwise a small trapper would be much further ahead to just sell it at a local sale of a fur buyer unless you just want to say "well I sent my stuff to fur harvesters auction" and you want to see what it brings. They are pro graders at FHA. They are going to grade close and accurate for the most part so your junk is not going to slip by.

I don't have anybody willing to pay me $40/lb for castor out here so I guess I'll just take my chances. For the record, I haven't seen FHA trying to convince trappers that their castor is worth $100 lb. But I did see that in last March's FHA sale it went for $95

And finally, aren't you glad I'm going to ship some so y'all can laugh at me later when I come on here crying about it?