The 2023 MTA fur auction is now in the books. All of the fur there is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of the modern fur trapper. As the Fur Auctions Chairman, I would like to give a shout out to my committee and all of the volunteers that worked hard on making the event a success. A big thank you goes to our treasurer, Cindy Creech and our membership chairman, Jocelyn Search for hanging in there all day keeping all of the numbers and memberships straight. Our auctioneers, our buyers and our members, thank you all for all that you do to make this event a success.
The auction ended up with a total of 39 lots of fur and a total of 12 buyers. It was a successful sale with some advance on some items and some decline on others. One in particular item that saw a decline a already low price was raccoon. There is simply no demand for this item. Some exceptional finished hides saw as much as $17.00, but the average was only $2.15. Green raccoon hides only saw a $0.91 average with the high of only $2.50.
Beaver and otter, although not outstanding, saw some pretty fair prices. Finished beaver saw an average of $14.22 with a high of $26.00. Otter for some reason, and always have at the MTA fur auctions, are always about the same price between finished and green pelts. They sold fairly well though with finished pelts averaging $30.05 and the green pelts averaging $30.88.
Bobcat is one item that sold very well and that are in good demand right now. Between finished and green items, the bobcat averaged a good price at $90.53 with a high of $135.00 out of 73 pelts
All in all it rounded up to be a good sale. There are some positive notes in the fur market and some negative. There is one thing for sure and that there is always some hope from the trappers for better prices and brighter days in the fur market. Things will eventually come around and some day will hopefully bring us better prices, until then hang in there, be safe and take along a youngster so that we we can carry on the heritage.
Komentari