I was in Cabelas today and thought I would swing by to see how much they were asking for squirrel tails in the fly tying department. Imagine my shock when they were $6.99! These were the regular grey squirrel salted tails too. Nothing fancy.

Some one is making some money.

Packaging and shipping aren't free. There's probably not as much profit there as you would believe.

I am not defending the price, just saying there are a lot of other costs in getting those tails from the hunter/trapper to the rack at Cabela's.

If they sell....the stuff that doesn't sell well in those stores typically have higher mark-ups. Has to justify the shelf space when they do sell. That's why real traps are so crazy there.

Most people pay you not even 50 cents so that’s a pretty bad deal I believe but I see where you are going at.

roadkill or sumtin,can't imagine buyin a tail if i needed one.could get a bridger 1.65 with the money.

I think I got about $.10 per tail from Mepps. You're better off taking fishing tackle from them, IMO.

I routinely give away 30 - 60 tails a year (some coon too) to people I know who tie flies or our local Trout Unlimited.
They were just in a small clear bag with a Cabelas paper tag at the top so not much in packaging costs.

Did check out the traps too. A little spendy for the Bridgers I saw there so they are still on the shelf.

Brian

That's the thing...if Cabela's got all 7 dollars from the register, their profit was 21 cents if my math is correct. Gotta pay the stocker, cashier, managers, custodian, warehouse, trucker, etc.

Now if you could get that retail price at a flea market, you'd be killing it as it only cost you some shells, salt, but the f gas...the closer you are to the end user the more you make in any industry.

I have taken tails from road killed critters lots of times for tying flies-porkie quills and hair too. There are few fox squirrel and black squirrels where I hunt most of the time my pocket knife and a quick stop along the road is about all it takes-I do bone them out and cover with borax and salt.

A single tail goes a long way. Now, if I knew somebody who raised Hungarian partridge.

Well, if anyone wants some, I’ll get them to ya for the cost of postage. Dogs been running well lately and we’ve been killing a few. I generally just toss them. I’ll salt the ends but no real desire to split them and salt the inside. If you can live with that, I’ll give them to you for shipping.

Still pretty high

But you have to remember there are 10,000 other item that are being sold in the same building, same cashier. Buy something for 10 cents and sell it for $6.99 now that is a real mark up. But on the other hand it is the only item that comes from the U.S.

*Plan to Vote ahead.*

Makes me wonder how many tails Cabelas buys, and where they get them. I know for a fact Mepps used to buy 200-300,000 a year back in the day, but even now still bring in 50,000 or so annually. I can't imagine Cabelas is moving even 1% of that, especially at those prices. Most that need them can source them for themselves.

I guess they figure if you are to dumb to source you are dumb enough to pay $6.99 for them

People pay a lot for convenience. I am always surprised how much people pay for 50 pound or smaller bags of whole corn, at sporting goods stores and retailers like Walmart, for feeding deer, when they can buy whole corn for a tiny fraction of the price at a grain elevator or mill. The same goes for farmers markets vs produce auctions for fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Keith

Back before the internet and flyshops being as common as they are now, about the only place a flyfisherman could be sure would have some of the materials he needed to tie flies were the Orvis shops. Their stuff is overpriced in my opinion, but one can almost be guaranteed to find what he needs. That is worth something.

That is true^^

I understand the convenience of it and probably many are given as gifts . I just find it funny that they probably drove past a hundred squirrel tails and bucktails laying along the road to get there . Its just a foreign concept to not source somthing like that but i understand why many dont

"I have taken tails from road killed critters lots of times for tying flies-porkie quills and hair too. There are few fox squirrel and black squirrels where I hunt most of the time my pocket knife and a quick stop along the road is about all it takes-I do bone them out and cover with borax and salt."

Yeah, I've been looking for that road-kill polar bear for 50 years. Maybe tomorrow...

Bottled water is another product that I am amazed that people buy as much of as they do, especially in cases where it's just bottled municipal water from a city.

Keith