Congrats, Frank!
WRT prices. Decent Western hide goes for $100, Eastern for $50. If you want more precise numbers - auctions publish them.
Fur is down this year. Couple years ago was the best.
WRT tanning. I am not an expert, so what I say here is based on research, not lifetime of tanning pelts.
Alum and salt is OK to keep the hide on the wall, but if the fur is for garments it needs to be properly tanned.
There's dry tanning and wet tanning.
I wanted to have my yotes tanned professionally. In the US it can be done for just over $20/hide.
The biggest difference, is how soft they come from tannery drums. Breaking hides is tough work and it's almost impossible to achieve the same results as they do in professional tannery.
Now few places in Canada went out of business, as far as I can tell.
The only place where I got a quote was North Bay fur auction - $70+royalties+shipping. They send it to someone.
I am going to tan my pelts when it gets a bit warmer.
I will probably use Monotan (single drum solution) from an outfit in QC. There're 2 large tanning supplies mail order businesses I know of.
There's even a business in the US where you send pelts, they tan them and make fur closing to size and order for you.
I suspect taking pelts cross border may be complicated.
I didn't mean to hijack :)