Congratulations to Made Fur You (@MadeFurYou) on their record breaking auction! Make your own dreams real with us @TheDealersDen!https://t.co/sKup8KvMEG pic.twitter.com/eGjCMzCdwn — The Dealers Den (@TheDealersDen) January 30, 2018

Some highest fursuit auction records:

$8,025 for Lavender Corgi by AlbinoTopaz, sold on Furbuy with 73 bids on 10/11/14.

$11,575 for Sniper Angeldragon by PhoenixWolf, sold on Furbuy with 187 bids on 2/14/15.

$13,500 for commission slot by Made Fur You, sold on The Dealer’s Den with 82 bids on 1/29/18.

Those are public auctions, but I also confirmed a private $17,500 commission and a $25,000 one that would involve special electronics. Other prices for personal builds and commissions may not be known. The Dealer’s Den told me:

With 82 total bids, the $13,500.00 Made Fur You auction that ended yesterday is our new record winner, beating out our previous record of $10,100.00 on a Mishka Silver Fox fursuit auction by Howl Yeah with 37 bids back on 9/08/16.

If anyone was curious as to what the suit will be. This is the character I am looking to get done. I was debating between this one and my bunny; but there are some other makers I would prefer to have my bunny done by, so Sage is the choice. pic.twitter.com/fzy1kzto55 — Dezzi (@DezziFae) January 30, 2018

To the winner of the Made Fur You commission, Dezzifae, I asked:

Were you surprised at how the bidding went? Can you talk about why it rose so high – are you just that big a fan of the maker, or did you win the lottery?

Can you talk about your plans for the commission? How about fursuiting in general – do you have other suits, and what will you do with this one?

What have you heard from others about this? Got any hate mail?

What do you think about high priced suits? Do you think this is a top record? As far as I know, it is for auctions.

Did you have any chat with MFY about it yet, and what are they saying? How about with The Dealer’s Den?

Do you think this has any implications for fandom in general – like if people spend more on custom creations, do you think fursuiting and furries will get more appreciation for being creative and supportive? And how about people lacking the money to spend… is it good or bad for them?

Dezzifae answers:

Honestly, I wasn’t too surprised that the auction got so high. MFY is easily one of, if not the most popular makers out there. I don’t honestly know why the auction got so high. I had a lot of people telling me I was bidding against trolls, etc; and that could have been it. I will give the other bidders the benefit of doubt though and say they were probably just as big of fans of MFY as I am.

As for why I went so high, I make a good living; and I do tend to spend and donate more than my fair share in the fandom. This isn’t my first suit, nor is it the first suit I’ve paid much over what a maker would generally ask for a suit.

My plans for the commission will be me getting a new character done, one I actually bought as an adopt after the auction had already started. Other than that, just taking the suit to cons, and getting involved in whatever shenanigans play out there along with suiting around downtown Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip.

I have 2 other suits, both by Mischief Makers. 1 is my main fursona, a fox named Dezzi, and the other is a premade coyote they were raffling off at Itty Bitty Fur Con named Lancelot, which I generally just use for partialling or loaning out to friends at cons.

I have heard a wide spectrum from friends and people I haven’t even heard of before. Most of it is positive. I can put the responses into 3 main categories. The first being people happy that the suit got so high, and they seem very happy for me and the maker. The second being people responding to negative responses with messages and tweets like “Ignore the haters.” And the third, which I will go into the most depth on, are the angry people.

Let me just start by saying this. I have not, nor will I ever be responsible for increasing the price of fursuits over this auction. It is the most ludicrous statement I have ever read, and I have gotten it a lot. No one needs to worry about the price of suits from MFY going up from my auction alone. Hardly anyone has the kind of cash to drop on a suit, and MFY knows that. I will also say this. The people making threats to me, I’m not scared of you, nor will I ever be. The hate has actually gone way farther than it should have for it just being the first 24 hours and for being something so trivial as just me buying a suit, and some of it has already crossed over into illegal activity; and I cant say anything more than that. And to those people that will take it that far, you are the biggest cowards I have seen in my life. You don’t scare me, and you wont stop me from doing the things in this fandom that I love. Your hate has not scared me off, nor has it hurt my love for this fandom in the slightest. Bad people are out there. I’m well aware of this fact. I wish it would not affect the fandom, but such is the way of things. The overwhelming number of positive and loving people in this fandom greatly outweighs any of the hate; and I think the bad people know that, which is why they act like they do.

That is all the more in depth on that I will go, but I think some people are WAY overreacting. I’m just a rich man that bought a suit. I like supporting my fandom and the people that make it happen, and MFY is definitely one of the people that make this fandom how great it is, which is why I am happy to make such a large purchase from them.

As for high priced suits. If you have the money and you’re willing to drop it on a suit, go for it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I love suiting, and I will continue to suit and buy new suits as time goes on. Nothing will stop me from that. This isn’t the first high priced suit I have bought; and honestly, having a high priced suit doesn’t make me better than anyone else. I still make friends and hang out with said friends like any other person in this fandom.

I honestly have no idea if this is the record for an auction. I know for fact it’s not the record for most expensive suit; but as far as I can tell the 11,575 auction was the most expensive I have seen. Someone did tell me there was one that sold for 15k, but they couldn’t provide me any proof; so as far as I know, this is the most expensive fursuit ever sold in an auction.

Of course I have chatted with MFY already. I sent in the design and got my invoice for the purchase. They seem very happy that it went so high; but other than that, not much chatter with them. Nothing from Dealer’s Den, but I didn’t expect to hear from them.

I think the only implication this has for the fandom is that it is growing, and that’s good. I haven’t been in the fandom for long. Maybe 5 years or so, and I didn’t go to my first con until MFF 2016; but I have seen it grow massively in that small time, and I think it’s a very good thing for everyone. More people means more cons and events, in more locations, which means more accessibility to those outside bigger furry towns like LA, Phoenix, Chicago, etc.

For the people without money for an expensive suit, I think this is also a good thing. More growth means more fursuit makers, and the ones just starting out won’t charge massive prices. I’m trying to say that people have no need to worry about furry getting too expensive. More people just means more creators. It’s a free market. If there is demand for cheap art and cheap fursuits, new makers and artists will fill those slots.

Overall I don’t see this auction being a bad thing for the fandom in the slightest; and despite the massive uproar I’ve seen against it, the people sharing love and support will always outnumber those. The fandom is changing, I will say that, but it’s changing for the better, and people need to realize that. Anything else you want to know, do not hesitate to ask. Always happy to chat with people in the fandom and partake in their work.

– DezziFae

Thanks to Dezzifae for the chat, and enjoy the suit.

The Dealer’s Den sent even more comments:

The Fandom as a whole is growing and becoming more popular, more mainstream, year after year – and with all of the adorable fuzzies running rampant through the streets, it’s easy to see why! Fursuits are becoming more fashionable as our creators rise in number and in talent. As the skill level and work required rises, so should the compensation. Should they all be priced this high? Of course not. If they did, we wouldn’t have the amazing fursuiting community that we do. But for an artist in extraordinarily high demand, we don’t see this as unreasonable.

Fursuit makers and artists make up the heart of this fandom. Without them, our characters and creations would only exist in our own imaginations, and we are glad that a few of them are starting to get paid what they deserve. Running a business is very hard and it takes a lot of work with many years of dedication, sweat, and tears. We are lucky to have an abundance of very talented artists in this fandom. We have been spoiled, we think, with some of the low, low prices we’ve been charged in the past due to the tough competition between all of these artists we have to choose from. Months and months of work go into each custom fursuit creation. Hours upon hours of labor get put into each piece of artwork. When art from your favorite artists just pops up in your inbox every day, it’s easy to forget the amount of work that went into each submission.

A lot of the artists and creators of the fandom do this full-time and still struggle to get instant noodles on the table. We are attempting to change that by offering a place for buyers and sellers to connect more easily, allowing for a more robust marketplace that supports our artists and creators more, while also giving our consumers a wonderful platform for comparing pricing and art styles. We are very happy to see that we are breaking into new ground for creators. As the profit potential of these business types increase, you will find more and more artists drawn to the community and we believe that this will actually bring prices down in the long-term. More options means less people commissioning the same individual at an inflated rate, less time waiting for your custom fursuit to be completed, or even to get on the queue, which translates into a healthier marketplace with stable and fair pricing for everyone.

The Dealers Den – Fandom Stores & Auctions

http://www.TheDealersDen.com

Serious thought on fandom money:

Guys. Fursuit makers aren’t like pfitzer or GE or APPLE or something. Where do you think they’re gonna spend that money? Think they’re giving it to shareholders or Focus on the Family?



That money goes to bills and likely back into the fandom. — PepperCoyote (@peppercoyote) January 30, 2018

Just so you know MFY isnt like a huge business. I work from inside my studio home in the woods. I do 90% of the work. I get additional help from friends on occasion. Everything I make gets turned around to improve MFY and a comfortable life for me to do so. Im grateful 💚🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/BcKEZmMyma — The talk of the town (@SyberWuff) January 30, 2018

Everyone is bent out of shape over a $13,000 fur suit.



Here is a $13,000 phono cartridge



It was made by an 80 year old Japanese man who has known only this work his entire life.



Its body was hand carved from a piece of jade. The coils wound by hand using watch making tools. pic.twitter.com/dt2vJPxGrT — House of Squeak (@Lionel_Toy) January 31, 2018

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