January Fur Auction Results Are In

North American Fur Auctions and Fur Harvesters Auctions both recently held their January sales, and with the exception of raccoon, fur prices are generally average to slightly below average. 

Raccoon was the only item that really looked good in both auctions, generally averaging over $20, and selling at around 100%.  The supply of raccoons is short and demand is high.  I would guess that raccoons will sell at equal or higher levels in the spring sales.

Beaver sold at similar prices to last year, averaging around $20. 

Muskrats continue to be a real dissapointment.  After selling at very high levels early last year and crashing in the March sales, this item remains partially unsold and at very low levels, somewhere around less than half of last year’s prices.  Prices averaged around $2.50-$3.50 apiece.  With only about 50% of muskrats sold, NAFA plans to sell all of its muskrat inventory during the March auction with no reserve prices.  This means that if demand doesn’t increase soon, these ‘rats could sell at extremely low levels, being a great dissapointment for many trappers, myself included.

Coyotes continued to average similar to levels in previous years, but lower than last year’s prices. 

Fisher sold very well at FHA, and marten sold at lower prices than before, but demand remains strong.   

Most other items have not experienced much change and continue to sell at expected prices.  Otters remain a dissapointment due to lack of a strong Chinese market. 

While many of these prices may be a dissapointment to those expecting higher fur values, changes haven’t been too significant, and many of the prices that have come down aren’t much lower than what they were 5 or 6 years ago.  So sell your ‘coons while they’re hot, and you might want to hold on to those muskrat pelts or find another use for them.  But by all means, keep on trapping!

See the links below for auction results.

NAFA January Auction Results

FHA January Auction Results