It’s been a tough selling season for most wild fur. Aside from coyotes, which continue to be the bright spot in the market, most fur sold slowly, if at all, during Fur Harvesters’ March auction in Helsinki, Finland. For the past couple of years, this sale has been the highlight of the selling season. Its proximity to a large number of fur buyers and collection of quality fur made it the best auction of the season. This year, the auction wasn’t quite so spectacular, and prices settled at or below the levels set in the NAFA February auction, and a lot of fur didn’t sell at all.
Beaver continue to struggle along. Eastern 1st section beav averaged under $14, and the lower quality pelts averaged a little over $9. Castoreum prices remained high given the lower supply of beaver, averaging between $50-70 per pound.
Mink didn’t sell.
The lower quality marten sold at high percentages for much lower prices than the previous NAFA sale, but FHA held the line on most of the better goods. Some big Alaskan marten went for $90+, but the large semi heavies averaged $36, large heavies at $41, and 1x-3x semis went for $50-60.
Otter didn’t sell.
A lot of the fisher offered didn’t sell, but the ones that did sell averaged okay. Males averaged $40, while females went for $57.
Lynx averaged $88, but that’s just the ones that sold. Most didn’t sell, and if they did, the average would have been a fair bit lower.
The average reported for western bobcats seemed ridiculously high, considering there was no interest in most cats when I listened in to the auction. But they reported an average of just under $600 for western cats. I’m not sure how this average was calculated. Western cats have been hovering around about half that this year, so I’m skeptical of this number. The high average could have something to do with a different grading criterion, which may have only put the best of the best cats in the top grade. The rest of the bobcats that sold averaged $50-60.
Muskrats averaged between $2.50 and $3.60.
Red Fox averages varied widely, between $10-25.
Like mentioned earlier, coyotes did extremely well. Central ‘yotes averaged $46, Easterns went for $55, and Westerns were at $104. Guess we’ll all be trapping coyotes next year!
Would like to know where in central Wisconsin there are live Silver Fox for sale.