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.  … [Read more...]

The January fur sales at Fur Harvesters Auctions and North American Fur Auctions are completed and have provided valuable information going forward in this year's fur market. FHA held the first major auction of the year on January 7.  Prices were encouraging for most items, but the majority did not sell at 100%. The hottest items at the FHA sale appeared to be bobcat (lynx … [Read more...]

This fall, cautious optimism is the key phrase when talking about the fur market.  Discussion has surrounded the increase in demand and recovering Chinese and Russian markets, but there seem to be more questions than answers.  After looking over fur market reports from the major players, I've put together a quick summary of what we might expect to see for fur prices this year.  … [Read more...]

It appears that the fur market is not out of the woods yet.  After a surprising spring recovery of fur prices that had been severely depressed for some time, many trappers had high expectations for the May fur sale.  Unfortunately, the high March prices were not repeated in May. Here's a link to the results. Overall, prices weren't terrible, but did not continue the uptrend … [Read more...]

The March 2010 fur sale at North American Fur Auctions reaffirmed feelings in the industry that the fur market was experiencing a serious comeback.  Prices advanced significantly, and most items sold at or near 100% clearance. Click here to see the March 2010 NAFA Fur Sale Results. The next NAFA auction will be on May 23-29, 2010. … [Read more...]

It looks like the fur market is finally back!  This past weekend was a huge one for fur auctions, and the results are very encouraging. First off was the Fur Harvesters Auction February 19th sale in Seattle.  Essentially every item offered for sale at the auction showed significant price advances from the previous auction.  Most notably, muskrats averaged $8.50, and western … [Read more...]

Despite a serious downturn in the wild fur market as of late, the most recent Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. fur sale posted some pretty encouraging results.  Fur prices were still pretty low for some species, but others were impressive.  Beaver averages were pretty low.  Some raccoons did okay, while others didn't sell at all.  Muskrat prices were very impressive, averaging … [Read more...]

After announcing that they would cancel their January fur sale, North American Fur Auctions put out another press release to trappers, providing a better explanation of why the sale was canceled: December 18, 2009 Dear Wild Fur Producers Some of you may be wondering why NAFA chose to cancel its January 2010 sale. No doubt it’s a highly unusual thing for an auction company that … [Read more...]