Idaho Trappers assoc. sale Glenns Ferry

Any of you mutts going? Since it's only 600 miles away I figured I might swing by for a day...bring a stack of beaver with me.

yeah....see u there beaver should do very well.

Who are you buying the beaver from?

You will do better than you did in Oregon last year. Unless the market falls out between now and Saturday which I predict you will good. Put a high reserve on them like some trappers do, then just toss them in the truck and head to the rat wagon.

1,250 miles one way from me. I think I am going to skip it this year!

I averaged $30 on my better XL's and Blankets last March at Klamath Falls. If I do better than that I'll be happy.

I will be there with a small collection of critters. Only 4 hour trip for me.

looking at their sale results for March 2023 beaver average last year was $27.88 with a high of $72.22.Pretty hard to tell prices by averages sometimes

Be there in March. Been good to us on our cats other than the covid year.

Especially when someone from another state sends 60 or 70 mediums to the sale.

If I want averages I only look at my fur check. Everyone's is always different, too many variables. And if you go and see how some people handle their fur you'll know why. Now I know with the felt market involved with a major part of the beaver sales last year, some handling skill were thrown out the window. I'm even surprised locally how different sections can have such a remarkable difference in fur quality and color. Then there's primeness involved. Everything from early blue hides to perfectly prime. Of course another variable that seemed to be out the window with the felters to a certain extent

Peeler, I am going to miss Jan. this year. First time in a long time. Why don't you wait till March, I would like to meet you.

Sorry I'll miss you Randy. Was looking forward to maybe catching you there.

Bp if you don’t mind take some pictures and post them of the sale. I really enjoy looking and other fur sales pictures .

Beaver skinning and fleshing demo

Lots of skulls and tails and misc. Those in the pic are mine but I wasn’t the only one by a long shot .
Quite a few beaver on the sale. Maybe 4-500 or so.

Bp, you make it to Glenns Ferry? If I remember right you have a tough time traveling in winter.

Western Wildlife Services

is that all the fur that's there? How many cats?

Looks like a lot of beaver. I heard not a lot of coyotes - wonder why!! LOL

Who all is there for buyers?

There’s quite a bit of fur. Didn’t take pics of everything. Took me 11 hours drive time to get here so I’m going to take a nap. Gotta say Randy does a nice job here. Has a bunch of volunteers who helped get all my stuff checked in and on the tables in record time. There isn’t a lot of coyotes or cats for that matter. Saw a small pile of civets. Fair number of mink and marten. Tons of tanned fur.

it will be good to have an accurate report for you because you understand. We will be able to see a better picture of the market. Take some notes if possible that would be helpful for everyone. Are they not grading fur now or is an earlier picture? Thanks for taking the time to keep us informed.

That was an early pic. I kind of got caught up with some other trappers and the bs sessions have kept me from my due diligence. There’s no vacancy at the only motel in Glenn’s Ferry so I’m 25 miles away in Mountain home looking for a bed. Might end up sleeping in my truck. The flea bag hotel here wants $80 Seems a mite pricey for what it looks like.

I would be willing to bet money that there will be a lot of tanned fur at all the country sales this year. Leftovers from people tanning from the past couple years that didn't sell because there's so much of it being offered. Keep us all informed on raw fur please, I'm sure we are all interested.

Makes sense on the cats as its a little early. More in March I would think. Also sellers watching prices before they consign.

A few more pics after my nap in the parking lot:

This side of the hall more of the coyote cat side.

This side more of the beaver. Piles up front are mine.

The ITA fundraiser auction:
Good ol’ George Kortum auctionaire extraordinaire! This guy is really funny and great at it!

The crowd bidding on stuff (tanned fur in background)

How many beavers are there?

The "Oasis" by chance? I think that was the name of that joint. I stayed there 20+ years ago and it was less than stellar then.

The schedule shows that buyers submit their bids tomorrow (Sunday) by 9:00 am. Sale results announced somewhere around noon and the sold fur shagged and fur that didn’t meet minimums returned to trappers. Trappers pay 3% of the top bid as a display fee. A bit higher than Oregon’s OTC sales.
I’ll spend the night in my truck and report how it goes tomorrow.

Side note: Was told there would be 18 buyers but I haven’t seen more than a couple. Hopefully I just didn’t see them. Who is there, (and not there) makes or breaks these things.

Thanks for the update! It's greatly appreciated! Hopefully all goes well tomorrow!

Nope. The “Hilander”

Dead of winter in Idaho and wearing shorts, lol. Gotta love it, good luck peddling them rodent hides.

Usually lots of craft buyers. They came with very thin wallets and hope to buy a few things to peddle. Lots of tanned fur - almost too much

Kortum wears shorts year round. Even wore them at NAFA. He was the talk of the sale the first time he showed up in Toronto.

Gorgeous George in some circles.

Well I got lucky. A room opened up and I got it. It’s a cafe, motel and bar. Better than sleeping in my truck!
Gotta love a place that requires 4 wheel drive to park in their parking lot!

Hey, most anything is better than sleeping in a truck and this day in age, a room for $80 is cheap!

Different place. Got this one for $60!

Good deal on the rooms. At least it's nicer weather than we had last time I was here. Nasty wind and cold.
Look me up tomorrow, me and my daughter and boy will be wondering around.

have to ask for 160user . Does the price go down a dollar per bed bug bite ?
We will wait for your report in the morning.....

antihistamine does relieve some of the itch

That’s cheap Carl, I just paid $80 for two nights to camp in my own trailer. Pouring at the coast. Have a safe trip.

Western Wildlife Services

I averaged $30 on my better XL's and Blankets last March at Klamath Falls. If I do better than that I'll be happy.[/quote]

You should do better than $30 on you XL's and up. I'd pay you that.

I’ll let you know! Not afraid to pack up my fur and go home if the bids don’t favor.

BP,
Do you have to pay the 3% display fee even if you no-sell?

There will be buyers.

Yep, that’s the point. If your minimum is met you only pay 6%, no additional fees. If it is not, and you withdraw your fur you owe the display fee to ITA for their time and trouble.

Few more random pics this morning:

And another couple of pics while I await my results:


(When you see low badger prices this is why)

Everything is getting bundled up ready for the shaggers.

Yours truly with some of my beaver.

Keep us posted. Thanks

Rusty Kramer, the man that runs this excellent ITA show.

I guess I wasn’t the only one thinking taxidermy with my civets!

How was your night?

Well, a lot of very happy trappers came out of there today.
Results were very good for me:

These numbers are after deducting the 6% auction commission:

For beaver 92 beaver averaged $35.62

I only had 1 otter it went for $65
1 western Cascade cat 30” $177
Beaver skulls $3 each
Wet Castor $110 for 44 ozs
Beaver tails 39 of them for $25

That beaver price looks pretty good. Was it worth the long drive?

Any idea how the tanned fur did overall? There sure was a lot of it. Almost too much, in my opinion.

Good for you BP.

I'm sure that was the idea! And I like the sensible shoes for walking around on concrete for days. Just kidding you George!!

Some prices from the master sheet that smuggled out of there:



I could post more of the pages if there’s an interest…

Carl, would you please post 2 or 3 pages of the tanned fur results. Thanks.

Good for you BP...looking down that price list yeah id be happy too

Congrats BP! That'll get you back in the boat navigating those flooded rivers...

There you go Nancy

Thanks Carl. Very interesting prices. Is that all the tanned fur bid sheets? If so, strange that I don’t see my goods listed. Oh well, there is always the OTC sales.

Remind me never to send tanned Lynx to that sale.

You can’t necessarily judge a pelt without seeing a picture or knowing more details. I’ve seen some real junky tanned pelts at trapper sales.

high for cat?

Correct

Quite a few more pages. You only asked for 3-4.

A bunch of marten in the low to mid fifties.

Couple more pages. I think there’s still 1-2 more pages I didn’t post of tanned goods. But like a wise person once told us trappers “ Patience”!

A lot of tanned fur for that sale!

Did you happen to have any prices on skulls?

Carl - thanks for all the info. I found what I was looking for.

Lots of tanned fur and decent prices. The major raw fur buyers stepped in and bought tanned goods. Which is a good thing. Too much quantity for the craft buyers to absorb.

I need to start shooting buffalo for their skulls! lol. I thought the Ms. fur auction had crazy stuff for sale at it but that one takes the cake! Birds of all sorts of feather's, tails, skulls, crazy stuff. Congrats on them beaver price's, those price's hold up you can start reserving you a room at the Hilton instead of the Red Dot Inn, lol.

The ITA sale has developed a reputation is a great buying opportunity for “crafters”. Those folks that sell at flea markets, craft shows, pow wows, muzzleloader events, reenactors and the list goes on and on.

That is the nice thing about Idaho - liberal laws when it comes to buying and selling “animal parts and pieces”. Any number of the items ar that sale could not be sold in many states.

...yeah lynx were about the size of house cats with no feet a or fur....never seen them that small

...563 dollars

Thanks. The high end market on cats has softened some we will see what happens.

Probably october kittens from Ontario.

How much were the pheasants?

Anyone know how much a coon pelt and skull went for?

That,

Coon ranged from $4 to 8.50 for dried put up pelts. Raw coon skulls were at $3

Btw, there were 525 beaver on this sale that averaged $31.73 before commissions taken out.

The pheasants went for $10 each

Most of the ordinary types of raw skulls were right at $3. That’s what I got for both nutria and beaver skulls
Saw a wolf skull go for $100
Some bobcat skulls for $12-13 each

This might make your head explode: Our “Musty” on this forum got $42 for a jumbo nutria he caught in a cage trap in western Washington. I only got $13 each for the five tail-on nutes I brought.

YES the world is not fully upside down, 42.00 for a ditch rat! lol

Looks like Western Montana fur bought most of the raw skins and paid a very good price. Always tough competition for other buyers. As you can see the other buyers bought very little. I believe they are the largest bobcat buyer in the US.

This appears to be valuable service to members provided by the ITA, that generates revenue for the ITA.

"There are many reasons to support the Idaho Trappers Association. Many people think we are just here to give you a great quarterly magazine, two fur sales, a fantastic Summer convention and a great Fall fundraiser banquet." "Yada, Yada, yada"

They already sold me right here.

How much were skunk pelts and skunk essence?

Spotted skunks were at $25 I'll have to get the paperwork and see what the striped ones went for. I just got back, so give me a bit. Somebody that did a skunk skinning demo mentioned that the essence is going for $50/oz right now.

That's great to hear!

3 bucks for beaver skulls?

I've tossed enough to fill the gas tank up a few times lol.

You and me both Steven. I only kept the big ones with good teeth. Had 50 I sold.

Those skulls would of paid for you a nice room, lol. Ever see a beaver with white teeth? I caught one a few years ago, should of saved it's skull. Never seen that before or since, weird looking.

those are the wealthy beavers-all females that had veneers put onto their front teeth to make them look pretty? lol

We got some black teeth beaver on the Oregon coast. Must be the chew.

Striped skunk we’re in the $12-17 range.

Everything sell?

$50 an ounce was for the spotted skunk or striped essence ?????

Well anybody have any eastern bobcats that they want to sell for $38 apiece let me know, just rough skin and freeze head and feet in(next year)
After seeing these prices I’d say let’s just round it up to $50 knock yourself out. I don’t understand I get the fur market up and down up and down.
I know I didn’t see the cats either maybe just a bunch of short haired south eastern cats….which still make beautiful mounts, but I can’t believe that all of them we’re only worth that. certainly not in the taxidermy industry. I also understand that selling one cat to one taxidermist could be a hassle shipping, payments,the whole deal I get it. but there are not too many taxidermist that wouldn’t jump on a bobcat for $60 or $70 even southern Alabama, northeastern rabbit backs,Texas short hairs or even Florida Olive colored any bobcat has more worth than $38
Don’t forget the taxidermy industry don’t gouge us,Be fair,get paid for your time and hard work and when you sell less to the fur Industry you’ll create more demand in the fur industry which should eventually (hopefully)move prices up. this is not meant to offend anyone just offer some insight that might be overlooked by some.

I heard in the south the beaver have only one or two teeth.

The Marten market must have picked up an awfully big percentage. At Thompson in northern Canada last month, the northern Canadian heavy Marten averaged $32 USD. This weekend in Idaho, Rocky Mt. types (which are a very southern type of Marten pelt) averaged over $50 USD? Something big happened.

How many $50 cats can you absorb and utilize? The southern market is full of cats and only so much demand at this time! Cheap or not, be happy there are still folks willing to spend their money to buy your goods. They may own those $38 cats a while. Even if a trinket buyer purchased them at $38. Tanning, shipping both ways and marketing cost money.

No competition there.
Marten were quite a bit higher than 32 (40cad) last year at FHA.
My avg was 65(cad) after all deductions.
I dropped off a bag of marten yesterday at FHA,for the upcoming march sale,all indications,after talking with the graders and staff are for stiff competition not only for sableskins but some other species as well.
Beaver buyers it is expected will be more selective in what they pay for different grades,which is the way it should be,with better grades advancing and lower grades(early flatter fur) easing a bit.

Nope.

Marten averaged $ 62.90 Canadian. December 2023.

Source: Manitoba Trapper Association Facebook site.

Canadian Exchange rate .74 U.S. dollars buys a Canadian dollar

.74 multiplied by $62.90 equals $46.54 U.S. dollars

...yeah they were cherry picked big males with feet on ...super great put up on them also

That's One Tooth , Boco, One Tooth !!!

w

Got the black teethed beaver too, just never saw one with white teeth.

Use to have a taxidermist buy all my bobcats, meet up with him at end of season and got 75.00 each for them, he never looked in the trash bag, just counted bags. Didn't care if they were big small spotted or not. At that time you couldn't hold a knife on anyone to get them to even make an offer, 6 lingered at the nafa casino for 6 years before finally being dumped off for 25.00 each. That said, imagine everyone is in the selling to the taxi market now so it's more flooded out than the fur market!

Dont believe everything you read Dirt.
Some of those averages are inflated 25% because of the Metis bonus paid to card holders. And, not all marten are sold each year to go into that average. Look more closely and you will see that the beaver average was $ 2100.00 give or take a few pennies

I think what you are saying is the sellers ended up with $46.54 average? Not what they buyers paid? Which is basically last years price at FHA.

BP, how do you handle your skulls for the fur auctions?

Make a cut across the jugular and push the head back until the vertebrae snaps and then freeze immediately. Skull buyers don't want rotten skulls or ones with chipped or bad teeth or bullet holes. Also they don't want you decapitating with a hatchet. I put them in strawberry flats with the teeth side up so they can be easily inspected.

Are you taking them froze and how are they keeping them until the sale, if its a few days away? thanks.

I drove over 11 hours to my sale arriving at the last hour of receiving with skulls still frozen. The skull/tail misc area at the auction was outside in an open shed so they were staying pretty cool and auction was the following day. Buyers don't want skulls that are starting to decompose so you have to figure a way to keep them froze or semi froze up until the buyers are looking at them.

Of course, the obvious is you can prep those skulls yourself and quadruple (or more) your money. That way they keep forever.

With beaver skulls it’s seems the ones in foot traps usually have chipped teeth, where conibear are mostly perfect

The cleaned one coated with something as well?

The picture of the poor badgers are not badgers they were woodchucks

Shucks, you're right. Went ahead and scheduled an eye exam.

Those may be woodchucks but I’ve seen badgers that look just as bad. You can buy badger like that at FH for 50 cents, maybe a buck at the most.

I saw them also, but I didn't want to challenge BP on the iD. They sure looked like our Ghogs here in Pa. Never seen them put up that way.

BP, do you happen to have the auction sheets with skulls listed on it?

Yup.

Cleaned skulls for this auction should not be coated with anything - buyers will preserve them according to their species.

Also, nature cleaned skulls - ones dug out of your carcass pile - will not necessarily bring top money. Depends if the buyer thinks he can whiten them up with peroxide. Dingy brown skulls are not pretty to look at.

Great effort on the reporting BP.

Any chance you could share those skull prices?I had a bunch of cleaned skulls in the auction

Sure, you got lot numbers? Or if not, tell me quantities and species.

BP

Thanks a bunch! I have lots 3144 to 3159

Here ya go:

3144-$48.17
45-$228.15
46-$50
47-$12.01
48-$182.17
49-$42.29
50-$31.89
51-$60.29
52-$60.29
53-$120.29
54-$211.10
55-no-sell
56-$1.01
57-$1.01
58-$7.01
59-$15.05

Thanks a bunch! I owe ya man!

Should I send my address? LOL

Did you do as well as you had hoped?

For the most part. Wolf skulls were down a little than I hoped but I had them together so I might have done better if I separated them but over all, like normal, it was another great sale!

When do you suppose averages will be posted? Specifically western cats.

You can probably get a pretty good idea if you look at the pages I took pictures of. Top cat was $563 if I'm not mistaken. I don't recall seeing any that were those eye poppers that you know are going to be over a grand.

Eyeball math says western cats will average $250 +/-. Right in line with where the market is at the moment.

Cats like these were in the $4-500 range.

This kitten stretched 30” and when put up had kind of a narrow belly. Got $177 for it.