For those of you with a better memory then me; when the fur market crashed in 1987, did it happen during the season, or did it happen prior to the season starting? If it happened during season, can you give me some examples of where prices started and where they finished?

The stock market actually crashed before the season started but we didn't understand the ramifications until it was too late. I believe Black Monday was Sept. 17 I think? Maybe someone actually remembers the date.

Fur prices had been high for most of the late 1970s and 1980s, I was making a good living trapping at that time. It took some time for the ripple affect to happen. I do remember that Iowa produced 480,000 raccoon that year. I was catching 30-50 a day and I was selling as I got them. (My wife was taking a trailer full to a buyer each day) I think the buyers got stuck with a lot of losses. People who shipped to market took a real beating. I don't remember that I took any real losses, because the damage was not really known until it came time for the auctions. I think I probably averaged around $22-$25 each. That was big money in those days when a good job paid $5-$6 and hour.

At least that's the way I remember it. It was a life-changing event for me in a lot of ways.

Black Monday was in October, can't recall the exact date. I sold a grey fox for 33.00 bucks in Dec. and by Feb. it was 4.00 and buyer told me he didn't even know if he would get his money back buying them at that! The party was over.

The market started soft and never realy regained any momentum. By 88 the weighting was on the wall. I'd moved to Kansas in 88 averaged 25 an cats 15 on coyotes and 5 on coon. That was a good average for that year down about 50 to 60 % from the 87 prices, mink and rats were still pretty good. Mink about 20ish and Rats 3 bucks and a bit. Gas was less than a buck a gallon so it was all relevant.

I was raising silver fox at the time on a small scale, I had 20 fox. The going price before the crash was about $150.00 a pelt. The cost at that time to buy feed and shots per fox in a year was about $30 to $40 . When I pelted all 20 fox after the crash I was paid $55 a piece.

I was Doing a Big three County Beaver "control" contract
.lost cha ching on the Fur end. Still made out on the ADC side.

Big shock though

graphs of fur prices

I remember muskrat prices crashing in '86. Went in expecting $5. Got burned at the rat wagon for $2.

There were a half dozen well established fur buyers in southern MN and as many traveling buyers running routes, so the market was very competative. Very few trappers shipped direct to the auction houses but a lot of the local buyers did. I recall it was an early December auction, Dominion/Soudack I believe, when the bottom fell out. Local buyers had bought alot of fur at 1987 prices and took a beating on that auction. I don't recall the specific price adjustments but they were significant. Many of those buyers never recovered.

The crash was in October. Very few of us being much younger at that time never really thought it would affect fur so MOST of us started trapping the end of October as normal. At that time there were numerous country buyers unlike today. I remember about the second week in November when a lot of us started selling to country buyers reality sunk in. Most of the trappers myself included kept trapping and suffered the consequences as the market dropped. Sure hope the last week with the market downslide isn't a repeat because
the price of selling fur can't get worse.

I believe the exact date to be the 25th of Oct. I left early that morning, headed to Wy to trap. Was just pulling onto hwy 81, getting ready to exit Ks, when I heard that the market was in trouble. As the day progressed, the news kept getting worse. I put it out of my mind, as there wasn’t a darn thing I could do about it, but the fur was darn cheap that Jan and Feb when I got t ready to sell!

I looked it up, it was October 19, 1987.

I was also raising fox in the 80's. I had some silvers, but mostly blues and Arctics. Not a big operation, but I decided to get out of it and sold out in 1986. Sold the breeding stock with all the cages, etc. and then pelted off the young of the year I think it was about 60 of them. I kept back enough of the pretty Norwegian blues to make my wife a fur coat which cost me $1200 at that time. Sure glad I sold out that year rather than the next.

I still get a little teary-eyed thinking back about that time....lol. I miss the years prior.

Even here in Georgia there were a half dozen or more established local fur buyers.

I was a new husband and new father. I was supplementing my monthly bills during the winter months....with $$ to spare. Bought new truck and new Honda Big Red.

Grey fox, bobcats, amd otters were literally everywhere. Coons were easy to pile up.

There were very few coyotes here then.

Yeah Bernie, that is the right date! I always used the twenty fifth date to leave, but that year was the year after my first wife died suddenly, and I left earlier than In normal years. Amazing how things run together and you can forget.

I can't remember all the details, but it was sure a jolt. I had been trapping since about 1974 and pretty much up until '87 the market only seemed to get better or plateau at good. I didn't know there was such thing as low, or non-existent fur prices up until then.

It was easy to make a living at it then because everything had a value and a good value at that. I lived in Eastern SD and it was a very wet year every puddle in a field had a rat house and a mink on it, the mink were getting in my coon sets far from the marsh areas even. Taking 5 mink off a spillway was common back then hitting a couple hundred rats by circling a marsh and cutting huts while taking mink in the spillways was a breeze.

Fox were $60, yotes $35, coon $45 same with the bigger male mink and rats 5-6.50 bucks in the carcass. I trapped to Arizona in 86 and 87 cats were good money, grey Fox $35 yotes around $15

Good times

I was in high school and remember taking about a dozen coon , a couple beaver, and a few muskrat to sell for Christmas money. The year before that fur would have covered Christmas, instead it barely covered the gas to get to the buyer. I made a whooping $17.50. Lol.

Sent a couple of early flat blond beavers to the Canada auction back then with no high hopes with them being early ones, about fell over when I got my check $90 each as that was the fashion demand at the time a nice surprise for sure.

I made more money trapping in 2 months then my forestry job for the whole year.

I remember getting over $100 for 3 otter and a whopping $180 for a really big one.

I know that I had been averaging about $12-13 for nutria and after the crash that went down to about $3.50-4.00