Has anyone sent any to the FHA auction and did it sell ?

I'm interested to know as well.

I heard a rumor that the #1 castor was valued at $50 this sale. About half what it had been valued at in past sales. I think they were still holding the bulk of last seasons #2 that they didn't sell last year.

See Groeny was paying twenty-five this weekend in Georgia.

I heard the same rumor Beaverpeeler on the castor. Time will tell here shortly. I also heard that a European country bought a bunch of Castor the last sale that had lead in the bags to add weight. I think they will take that into consideration on their next bid on Castor of any grade. That sure would make the market fall off from the get go.

Castor…it’s what lure is made of in down markets!

You'd think thats something that the graders would catch if they individually grade the castors.

luremakers are pretty happy right now. course it will be a few years before they realize that profit. My castor is staying in the freezer for now. Didnt have much this year anyway.

Don't know if there was any truth to it but my understanding was that years ago during the castor gold rush that the auction houses routinely X rayed the castor to look for lead.

If they did it before, I would think with the risk involved they would continue the practice. Maybe someone got lax , but the loading of castor and ginseng has been an age-old practice from what I have seen and heard from local buyers and the end destination in the Far East..

If you watch the WFSC beaver video theres a section on castor and them catching guys cheating on castor.

I TOLD YALL!!!!!!
when I posted that castor was gonna drop to 25.00 a pound 2 weeks ago.. everyone said I as full of it.

I might be full of it but I got my finger on the pulse of the fur market and some hellacious contacts...I KNOW what I'm talking about when it comes to the fur and castor market

Just saying..

Cathryn,
Did y’all hang on to your beaver until now?

Looks like I need to be on the lookout for castor for Appleroad....there is an ounce used to make every gallon in my inventory not counting the lures that use it in their formulas

Nothing is marked as sold yet but castor usually takes a while.

Jerry Still has his beaver..hes actually still putting them.up.

If you have any he can market them when he markets his.

Pm.me.if interested.

You'd have to get them to wv

Like the boy scouts dropping a pebble in each aluminum can before crushing them.

Don't be surprised when the price of catsor drops to10 to 20 dollars a pound straight and starts there nxy year. Not so much since there's not a demand but there's so much backed up because people.couldnt get it out noon t he country and since Pakistan..a.huge player in the castor market...got in trouble and can't deal in castor right now the market is at a stand still.

Once things get moving again and the back up of castor lessons it'll go up again..and then.itll.get.flooded again because everyone and his brothers gonna be after every beaver that moves so there will be more castor to sell so then the castor market will drop again..till the price of beaver hides drops. Imo

Cathryn, it was actually a better outcome for castor up at North Bay than what we had been expecting. The higher grade castor sold 100% for up to $95/lb.

Even though I have swore many times that I would never again ship castor to FHA, I may reconsider that stance since my section of castor tends to run heavy to "western select". Even if I get assigned 25% shrinkage I would still be way ahead of prevailing country prices.

Do you think the old time beaver trappers had castor festivals like they have rocky mountain oyster or ramp ones today ? Asking for a friend

That lead weight thing reminded me of the walleye fishermen cheating on their fish. Our great sportsmen of the US......jk

Nope. I don't. My bet is they just took enough castor for their own lure needs. As it is/was, they were challenged enough just to find enough pack animals to haul around those 90lb packs of dried beaver plews.

I saw where some castor was bought on speculation. For 10.00 a pound.

Jerrys holding his

Extra castoreum that trappers didnt need for lure back in the day was most likely traded in the country for many uses.Even today castoreum is highly valued for its many medicinal applications,both internally and externally by the FN.
.

I watched Gary Groenewold offering to buy castor
this past Saturday April 22nd, 2023 for @10.00 a pound
at his fur buying stop in Adams, N.Y.

Some trappers sold to him, others balked at that price.

It was about 50/50.......... Sold & No Sale.

My castor is still in the freezer.

w

I wonder if FHA made them whole on the weight?

Almost a year has passed since i posted this, and I can honestly say I'm sorry I was right, this time.

I'm planning to ship some to FHA and see what happens....since people are giving it way anyway what is there to lose?

But I give Cathryn her due on the castor thing. She had it pegged.

Sent my beaver pelts to FHA, but my castor is in my freezer.

Bring up a thread nine months old ??

A thread that at least has interesting content, and still relevant unlike most of them on Trapper Talk.

Hey everybody ! What's the price of castor oil now ?

We'll see come March. I sent 4.5lbs

generally the lure guys only buy it that being the oil
as for castor 100$ kg for pale castor = whiskey flavour stuff

ready to buy for $75 a pound.

Are you buying castoreum Kosoi?

We're on the way as we speK to see the Boss and sell castor.

We're officially crossing into NC now.

I have been paying $25.00 as of 1/1/2024

For what grade?

Did you fill all of the Boss mans orders for castor ?

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?

2/3 of my castor was graded 1 western last sale. The #2 didn’t sell. Can’t remember the weight but I think it was around 1.5lbs. Receipt says 10 #1 western for $7.28 = $72.80CAD. So I should’ve kept it?

aI know I shipped 10lb of the best castors I had an use the rest for personal use at the time prices were really good the little bit that did grade 1 I didn't get much for an the 2 didn't sell intill a later date an at what it brought I should have just kept it Let me get back to you on exact prices an weight/grade I'll get the receipt when I get out to the shop just not happy with it they were all nice big well handled castors the best of what I had

You should have trapped more beaver instead of those mangy looking wolves

I asked the question about what it might be valued at this time around and that was his answer.

He would if he could, but the drought has effected the beaver population. Besides think of all the next years beaver crop he is protecting.

So you sent in 24 oz, and 1/2 sold and the rest is turned to sawdust by now
economics 201 the next level

shake your heads guys and gals, the beaver castor is the last to be graded and delt with, cause nobody like to do the job
you are lucky if and order comes in and 100 pounds has to be graded out, ie #1 western, then the rest just sits there

We are in a pretty significant drought here. I don't see any shortage of beaver. Of course we are the land of 10000 lakes.

I watched castor sell for 30 a pound last weekend. I'm here to tell you I've sold more lbs of castor over the years for that than higher

Nope, I'm glad you are testing the FHA market because I know you will provide an accurate assessment of how it turns out. There are not many good options out there right now.

I hear ya. I need to learn but the guys doing beaver courses don’t really know anything though. If there was only a manual on beaver trapping like the ATA wolf one I’d be stacking them too.

Castor market has been tanked for 2 seasons now.

It stores well in the freezer.

Beaver catch is up here in Ontario, I am buying everyday.

The biggest castor buyer stopped buying last year, he bought most of the castor here in eastern Canada I believe he sold to the perfume trade in France.

I expect a bigger supply of castor in a market where only the better stuff is selling.

You can't be serious about a offical manual for beaver trapping I always felt the beaver pretty much told you where to set the trap

Na, it's a sarcastic remark referring to a different old topic...lol.

I'm only sending off to FHA the castor that I feel has a legitimate chance to grade western select. The rest I'll hold onto or use myself.

If you have a chance hope you get to see Rally do a timeslot at MTA summer on beaver. Ya your instructor was really good at catching some calves in a property he was not to be on.

You need to find yourself a lure maker who can buy your stuff year to year.

Sorry shakey jakey sarcasm is hard to read in text format lol

Sold all my castor to Don Wolf when he was still alive. Great guy! I believe the person who worked w/him is buying.

Just thought i would add an update to this thread:

At the ITA sale a few days ago all the decent castor (which was most of it) sold for $40/lb The biggest lot was 26 lbs.

If I would have known it was going to hit $40 I probably would have brought all my castor over instead of the piddly 44oz of fresh that I did bring...

Beaverpeeler pm me about your castor