Tell them that you only want their hides, and not ones that hunters bring in. This is rare, but worth the effort and paying a little more for it. A typical price for a deerskin from the butchers in 1997, is from four to eight dollars. Even better is to get a job skinning for a butcher during the opening week end of deer season, and get the hides for free. Hide dealers and tanneries .
Most big towns have someone who buys hides from hunters.
If yours does, ask that person to put aside the very best. Offer to pay a dollar or two more than they are currently getting, for their best ones. Ask them to put aside twice as many as you actually want. Then go through the pile and pick out the best. This is a bit of a russian roulette since it is hard to see knife marks through the salt.