If you thought $1600 for an inflatable husky was excessive, consider this pre-owned MixedCandy German Shepherd, auctioned last week for $7000. [tip: sardognsca/fursuitlounge]

The suit was the subject of a five-way bidding war throughout Saturday before the winner swept in with their last-minute bid.

MixedCandy is well-known for expensive wolves and canines, but this price is more commonly associated with a new custom suit — or rather, two of them.

Jäger won last year's Fracas

Nominations for the Fandom's Favorite Fursuit Fracas have closed, with 326 fursuit characters proposed for the 2009 event - an 11% increase over 2008.^[1] Voting for the knockout tournament will begin once all nominees have been contacted for their permission.^[2]

Last year's event ended with a landslide victory by Nevermint's Jäger from One Fur All Studios, who attracted 319 votes in the last round to Greifer's 195 (Tilt Longtail/Jax). In 2007 — the first year in which the tournament was held — Frazzle (Rose Quoll/self-made) beat Sophie Cabra (MixedCandy) in a close 135-122 final.

Many now turn to full-time costume makers for their suits, with professional mascot builders MixedCandy and Arend Studios each responsible for twice the entries of any other individual builder.^[3] Still, the top five account for less than 40% of the total, and just over half the nominees were created by builders outside the top ten.