NAFA spring sale

[3nails]

 Getting pumped to see how well we do. Interesting to see that there are so much fewer muskrats in the offering. I thought for sure those numbers would go up due to more trappers because of the high fur prices. Looks like around 100,000 less rats! Maybe that will bode well for prices. Otter, mink and bobcat appear to be roughly the same as last year. Beaver are up. Unfortunately all my fur will be sold Monday and Tuesday so I can't see the results until I get home from work.

[trapperguy22]

3-nails,
from what i have heard the low numbers are due in part of the doughts back east and the very cold winter that the mid west had this year. From what i saw when i was back in wi. a few weeks ago there are not many rats left. good luck on the up coming sale. i do know that there is just short of 9000 rats from oregon and washington that are going to be on that sale because thats how many I picked up for this sale, that is the most i have ever had for one sale so far.

[trapperguy22]

lotting letters are up, time to go on and see how you did for grades!!!!! coon wasn't up yet last time i checked but everything else was!

[ouchfoss]

I actually got one otter and one cat graded to I* which I have never gotten before. Looking forward to see what they go for but also wondering how much the turmoil in Russia will effect the prices too. Oh the suspense!!

[Carp Commander]

Why are some skins identified with an asterisk indicating they have been labelled?

[3nails]

 Too many acronyms! 

[ouchfoss]

Here's a sticky from trapperman that tells you a little about the NAFA lotting and grading.
http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4467011/NAFA_Q_&_A#Post4467011

[Humptulips]

Why are some skins identified with an asterisk indicating they have been labelled?

Labeled furs are a good thing. Only the best make the cut. Ka-ching!

[3nails]

 REALLY proud of how much better my sons mink and muskrats turned out. Lots of sel, and *1's. With just a little more care he not only went up in quality but went from 1 rat last year at 3xl-xxl to 43 at that size. 20 last year at xl to 73 xl this year! Can't wait to see him reap the rewards.
 On a side note, under season receipts it says 17 mink. In the lotting letter only 16 show up. I wonder what happened to our other mink? 

[trapperguy22]

3nails they are still lotting some stuff, it is common to have some missing fur it will show up. if it doesn't at the end of the sale give me a call or pm and i will check it out for you. i also have a couple of things missing.

[3nails]

3nails they are still lotting some stuff, it is common to have some missing fur it will show up. if it doesn't at the end of the sale give me a call or pm and i will check it out for you. i also have a couple of things missing.

OK good. Thanks Adam.

[Humptulips]

Looks like a pretty hard grade on the otters from the looks of my account. Grades on the beaver look good though.

I have three possum and they all graded dmg. I would like to know what you have to do to not damage them. The chest fur is impossible to not have slip when fleshing it seems to me.
I imagine that would be a fine looking coat made out of possum chest fur.

[trapperguy22]

It will be interesting to see what the rats go for! Only 250,000 on this sale last May was something like 750,000. My mink graded really good this time.

[3nails]

 Ok so SEL=Select, SDG= Slight Damage anyone know what SLT and SDA stand for?

[Cultusman]

    SDA = Slt Damaged A
    SLT = First Grade with slight defects
   
    Good luck next week!

[3nails]

 Well how's the sale going for everyone? Up and down for us. $9.75 average for our rats. $18 for mink. Only 1 out of 5 otters sold so far. $62 for the one. Just beaver and cats for us tomorrow.

[aer212]

Any coyotes at the sale? What did they go for?

[ouchfoss]

I sold one otter for $48 but my other one was a I* and it was bought back.
Sold one coon for $10 and my other 4 were bought back.
I got a feeling none of my beaver are going to get sold tomorrow with the way things went today.
I guess I cant buy a new corvette now.   

[Humptulips]

I'm happy with the rat prices. I averaged 11.90 before commission.  high of $14.00 and a low of $9.50

Other then that mostly BB. They sold my best otter for $64 XXXL Select Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UrbanTrapper]

Sheesh!  I shoulda sold my otter to George Brady when he offered to buy them. 

[Humptulips]

It is pretty discouraging. Appears to be low clearances across the board.
I think we have been hit with the perfect storm of bad news, political problems and a warm winter in our markets.
I have heard the mink ranchers had ramped up production to as much as 80 million mink worldwide and with the prices they are getting it will force a lot into bankruptcy. That in turn will put all their breeding stock on the market next year. That may put 100 million mink on the market. Add to that all the unsold goods looking for a home and  next year doesn't look to good.

On the bright side muskrats seem to have retained their value. Who can figure that out?

[trapperguy22]

Bruce that seems about right, and i too can not figure out why the rats continue to stay high but I hope they do!!