Chinchilla Comeback?

Said one rancher: "If the price is too low, we'll go out of business. If it's high, a lot of us will pay off our mortgages."

In this kill-or-cure atmosphere, some 250 fur ranchers and buyers gathered last week in downtown Manhattan for an event of prime potential importance to the $500,000,000-a-year U.S. fur industry.

It was: 1) the first auction in 23 years of the once fabulously expensive chinchilla; 2) the first formal sale of U.S.-raised chinchilla skins. Mindful of the $20,000 to $100,000 that chinchilla coats once brought, some furriers glibly forecast a fantastic $250 a pelt.

Of the 3,315 pelts offered, only 1,261 were sold. Average price: $22. Top: $51.

The 98 U.S. chinchilla breeders had a hopeful explanation of the low prices.

They argue that chinchilla has been off the market for so long that it is virtually a new fur, and has to resell itself. But many a furrier doubts that it will. Chin chilla fur is so perishable -- and so valuable -- that some owners have kept their coats in cold storage, brought them out only on state occasions. Ranchers say that the new "chins" are tougher, point out that most chinchilla coats in existence have already lasted 20 to 30 years. But, as one skeptical furrier cracked last week: "We have more people who want to sell chinchillas than want to buy them."

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