Finished coons bring 2X's as much at our state auction generally. That varies of course due to quality of fur handling, green or put-up. Of the better goods that I've paid attention to over the past few years, well put-up fur always out performs green by a sizeable margin. A very large portion of the fur brought to our state auction is put-up, and we always have folks encouraging trappers to do it, and offering advise and tips. Not everyone is able or has the place, time, stuff to do it, but for those that do, it can make a better fur check.

I suppose for guys that are short time duration "spasm" (a lot of traps out for a short period of time) and have a skinning machine, they don't have time to flesh and board and are willing to get more critters at a lower price and take in X in absolute dollars. Someone who has the time and/or the system to put up, especially in larger numbers, gets that base absolute X dollars + the Y dollars for the finishing work. When the numbers start going north, then that's when that Y dollars starts to really grow. I'll never fit into either camp (although I might have to pick up a skinning machine some time) but because I'm a stubborn German who just low-intensity traps coon over a longer period of time because they "are on the way", I value the extra cash for putting up fur. I also really like seeing how my stuff rates at auction. That alone is worth the price of admission to me...

Three weeks ago, I sold some finished coons to Groeny for a $13.00 average. The buyer was paying no more than $3.00 for green coons. I'll put them up for a $10.00 bill.

Putting up coon increases your value just from the bigger sizes one gets from them being fleshed, then stretched appropriately. If you don’t see that value increase you’ve not fleshed and stretched many coon. When selling green ever see them measured? No, but they sure are when stretched. All green skinned coon will increase 1-2 sizes after fleshing/stretching properly.

Any sellers this weekend? I had a friend who sold in IA to GFW for a 15.75 average for finished coon and sold green coon for 8.00 average. LLL

Larry, I sold coon to Shane at Lincoln Fur last week for just shy of an $8 avg. on green coon.