The Montana Trappers Association held the Western States Fur Auction in Columbus, Montana this past weekend with extremely positive results. The quantity of fur brought in for sale this year was much greater than that of the past two years, and almost everything sold at or near 100%. Rumor has it that availability of fur in the country is down, leading to high demand. Obviously, more folks elected to bring their furs to the WSFA this year in anticipation of better fur prices.
All fur was brought in before the deadline of noontime Saturday, and over half a dozen fur buyers made their way along the crowded tables in the fairgrounds building, inspecting and evaluating the quality of the hundreds of lots of fur. The sale was done via silent auction and buyers’ bids were due by 5pm on Saturday.
After the bids were tabulated, sheets of paper with individual results were placed on several tables for trappers to examine the prices bid for their furs. Like the others, I made my way through the small crowd to to see how my furs did. All I can say is that I was VERY pleasantly surprised by the numbers. Trappers were smiling all around.
Here’s a quick recap:
Coyotes were a hot selling item. 621 coyotes were offered, and 578 sold, at an average of $44.83. It appears that the early demand for coyotes seen at the NAFA auction has continued.
Bobcats sold at 100% of the 132 offered, at an average of $572.21. Looks like cat prices are back to the high levels of a couple years ago.
Muskrat averaged $5.28, which isn’t bad for western ‘rats. Only a couple hundred were offered, and some appeared to be freezer ‘rats. Mine were fresh and averaged over $6.25.
Raccoon (231 offered) averaged $18.92.
Marten averaged $35.85. Some folks commented that this was a little lower than they’d received at NAFA.
Beaver averaged $14.41. This item is still lagging. Not many were offered, as I suspect people trapped very few beaver for fur this year. I put a couple of large beaver in the sale that averaged $22.50.
Here are the rest of the averages:
Badger – $25.50
Red Fox – $31.22
Mink – $11.90
Otter – $46.63
Skunk – $7.80
Ermine – $2.31
Porcupine guard hair – $22.82
Beaver castor – $44.23
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