So far nothing...it's all speculation on our part.

from what I have seen with guys buying they don't even look at put up or quality-just size-its unreal that holes etc.. don't even matter. Obviously Boco your fancy stuff at FHA should do better than the average Joe. But honestly I bet we will see a $60-65 U.S. blanket average just for 2XL/3XL size across the board-all grades in including the junk. The selects will more than likely be valued at $70-80 or more. My price predictions are before deductions. The buyers that are after felt beaver are going to be aggressive for limited goods on this first sale-especially the ones that don't have the ability to buy green like GFW and one other guy down south of us does. If you have a decent size run of beaver-you'll do well at the auction I am thinking.

Last year on the second FHA sale my best beaver (heavy brown super blanket in the 3rd lot) went for just $6 more than a 65" bit full of holes light wt that I had on the sale. $46 for the former and $40 for the latter.

No question that northern beavs are much better than southern beavs, but if I could calculate the average for ONLY the best from way down here, I could say that too.

Do the buyers at the auctions have scales? Isn’t the hatter market all about the weight of the pelts?

Maybe WissMiss can enlighten us, but I know they have a few pelts representative of each string to look at, touch or whatever. My guess is that buyers focusing on felt can guess within a few ounces of what those beaver weigh.

Wondered this too. All these beaver are hatters. I've never had a buyer pull out scales....in 40 years.

At the auction they dont sell by weight-they are sold to the highest bidder.Like BP said,the show lots are available for inspection-the high end garment makers will know what grade they want to bid on and every other user right down the line will know what grade suits their use.
If there is a bunch who want them they bid against each other and the price goes up.and if no one wants the junk that they get from time to time, after offering for several auctions,they get burnt.

Darn close to the mark here!! There are years worth of coyotes sitting all over the world, a repetition of the coon market, and they are still hard to sell a decade or more later.

After they all rot away the market demand will pick up again.

Beaver market is getting interesting.

I hope you all weren't in a hurry to sell or at least held some back.

I don’t know, people in the “ know” said sell early! Mine are up in north bay.

Mine are still on the boards and still swimming under the ice lol.

The June sale should be a rocket.
Never sell too much early on a rising market.

Sell into strength!

It got legs? How far is it gonna run?

“You’re only as good as your last sale”

Follow the bouncing ball if you have had a bit of fur on all the previous sales to guage.
Plus be much better skins on the june sale.

It IS fun following that bouncing ball and the endless speculation about what will happen (or is happening) on the beaver market. As always, it all boils down to supply and demand.

We know that demand is solid, so the only loose end is supply. And to me that's what makes all of this so interesting. Soon FHA will announce how many beaver they will have on their first sale. My guess is that it won't be significantly more than last year's first sale. That could light a fire under the felt buyers to be a bit more aggressive. Now the unknown is how many beaver Groenewold (and any other smaller players) are collecting. I don't think they ever reveal numbers, but there was a rumor that they are easing up a bit on prices being paid in the southland anyway.

But yesterday's Malvern sale in Arkansas seemed to be solid according to reports.

Meanwhile I've hard rumors that via private treaty the major felt buyers are now at $24/lb. This will likely allow some of the country collectors (who increasingly are weighing beaver and paying by the lb) to pay up to $20 and still make margin.

It's all fun in this thing we call the fur market. .......Until it ain't!

Buyers like GFW will have to be careful "easing up on southern beaver". The northern harvest can't keep up with the felt demand. To continue to collect a sizeable amount of southern beaver.....prices need to at least stay at last spring's prices. Too much of a downturn and it'll stifle the trapping efforts that they're trying to increase. It's a delicate balance when there are so few southern beaver trappers.

Groenwold is buying less than they thought they would I don’t know what that means but it was stated.

Curious as to where you heard that? But if so that is a good thing to support solid prices going forward. I was doing some mental calculations a bit ago and to me it appears that beaver prices are roughly three times higher than what they were two years ago. Ain't that swell?