So I’m going to be selling skinned and frozen this year and was curious the best way to wash and dry when using this method. I have a heated garage to hang dry but do not want any fungus growing before freezing.

What species? I’m surprised any buyer would buy frozen pelts.

Groney buys frozen hides.

If It were me I'd wouldn't wash any fur. In today's market it's not going to get you any more coin.

Interesting. I suppose he figures if he buys cheap enough, he can absorb the junk he gets.

Local buyers will buy them here to but some of them I catch in creeks are nasty so I wanted to rinse them before messing with them but didn’t want to get mold or such while they dry.

They have a better chance of spoiling and slipping before molding.

Clean and dry before skinning.

Rinse cycle and dry with dryer with no heat.

You but the nail on the head. GFW is one of the lowest paying buyers I had ever sold to. They buy frozen,green,round and finished fur and low-ball all of them. I know some of you guys think GFW rocks but that is only because you don't have a buyer like Trevor Barnes. If you like GFW then by all.means go for it. Your loss...

Agreed on the GFW not being up to snuff. I sold to them last year when they were out this way and myself and several other local trappers were completely turned off by not only their low balling, but also the “I’m in a hurry and your slowing me down” attitude at the truck. Petska had already concluded their routes otherwise I wouldn’t have sold to GFW at all.

Do like Boco said. Things dry better on the carcass.
So all these other buyers of wild fur are paying more then groney?

Most I have talked to are. I am sticking with Trevor because he is very personable and he does a thorough job of grading and will explain grades if you ask why something was graded a certain way. He pays for what you bring. My experience with GFW is they have a pretty much a set price and it didn't matter how the fur was sold. I was first in line one day and just because I had time I hung around and watched as others sell. I was turned off by that. I guess if you don't want to put up fur, just sell frozen then GFW is a viable option but if you put up fur then others pay considerably more. Another nice thing about Trevor is if you need any trapping supplies he will bring them to the stop with him. That is just another bonus. Like I said before, if you are happy with your buyer have at it. I can only relay my personal experience.

I wash all of my fur but then i put up all of my fur as well. If i sold green skinned I would still wash i think. As to the buyer issue i see a lot of folks like and or dislike each buyer because of their prices among other things. In our area we have the honor of having multiple buyers roll through on a regular basis. Driven mostly because of the Coyote market. well almost solely because of the Coyote market Lol. I go to all of the sales and watch folks sell and learn a lot about different tactics and what goes on. some folks get a hard on for selling a single hide for the highest price. For example if they have 5 coyotes and sell one for $100 and 4 for $50 they will brag about that $100 dog all day. Other guys look at averages and totally disregard grading. For example I got $60 each for my coyotes. If they are the same coyotes they get paid the same money in those scenarios. What some folks miss is that if they have sold to one type of buyer for a good while they get slighted or feel slighted by the other tactic. I have heard quite a few guys that have not sold to Groeny before dislike his methods. In the end the ones that had more animals I found after conversation averaged the same from other buyer by number and grade. In the end each person is going to find someone that has a process that they approve of understand and trust and if they are good they will start to put their furs up that particular way that buyer wants to see things. After a while you might find your practices for put up might "cost" you with another buyer.

Last example.
If you have been selling furs to Groeny for years and hear him say no money cut after everytime he looks at your coon you will eventually start shortening your cut until you get it where he wants it. Down the road if you go to a more traditional buyer of coon you will be losing out because they pay by size and don't care if you money cut or not. They may actually really like a flat bottom line put up coon square and neat put up on a board money cut coon. Mine do that is for sure.

The kicker for me with GFW was with beaver. I know the small raccoons and late coyotes would be discounted, not surprised, but $2 (2019-2020 season) for finished XL raccoons was a pretty bad price. I know that market was tough but Petska will normally give you $5 for properly finished goods that have basically no market. I got $8-$12 for XXL and XXXL finished raccoon last year from Petska, and even when I sold them I said "I know you don't want them" and he agreed, but still gave a fair price for the current market.

But the beaver, Petska will pay you about the same for carcass beaver compared to finished beaver. The reason is they know full well on a prime beaver they have the pelt, castor, and meat they can market. GFW was firm at $5 a beaver, some of these being fully prime 50lbs beaver. It was the tail end of the season, and with other spring activities I just needed to get them sold and moved out of the freezer. So if someone is ganna low ball me at $5 per beaver, while someone else will actually look at the beaver and consider the full value of what they are buying, I am going to go out of my way for the better value. I know there are people on here that will say "should have skinned the beaver". Maybe, but with the market last year getting $18-20 for an unskinned beaver sounds better at the end of the season compared to $5.

Well If your giving away the castor and I'm sure there are buyers that are selling the carcass. I can see why you may get a better price. That buyer Is In a win win situation.
But you seem to be talking about the 2019 season correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct, that was last year (2019-2020). Just giving it as one example of my past experience selling to GFW. Its kinda a moot point here as well bc GFW dropped their routes in my area this season.

Trevor buys fur at our state association fur sale every year. My daughter sells our fur there every year and he went out of his way to explain grading to her and gave her some fur handling tips. He even bought her green opossum lot just so she didn't have to take them back home.

Lot of the other buyers are buying for groney

It seems to me groney has gone out of his way to post all these fur grading flicks On Tman. I don't see anyone else doing that.

Great point Beav but I’ll add something. I sold to them last year for the first time and appreciated them coming to Kansas. I even called them a few weeks ago and told them thanks for coming out here but I didn’t have enough put up to make the drive when they came through.

My first impression was a bit disappointing. I wasn’t belittled or degraded maybe talked down to is the feeling I got. “Why do you put coons up on wood like this?” My first thought was “because they bring $12-$15 and you just offered $8.60!” or “we buy thousands of theses a year and never sow a single hole up.” Well the guys I sell to discount me if there is a hole! I was just surprised at the tone of the conversation. Maybe I’m to sensitive but I’m just doing what I been taught and what brings me top dollar. Constructive criticism goes a long way when a guy has worked hard for a end product and is proud of it. I know they deal with guys that bring junk on a daily basis, but if it’s not to there liking I’d handle a bit different. Like nice job but if I were you I would try doing this on the next batch, or good job but if you would do this I could pay a bit more. Manners go a long way especially when there are so few of us! I realize every buyer looks for what he likes and needs but when you have been doing something for years and being rewarded with it for top dollars at auctions and fur buyers it doesn’t sit well at all. I’ll give them another try this year and again I appreciate them coming to Kansas.