After the recent thread talking about the beaver market this year, I was curious so I looked up the prices of beaver felt hats. The cheapest I could find was around $300, and they went up to around $1500, with an average I would guess around $600 per hat.
We are told that we can expect $20 tops for goods, a bit more if stretched and dried. Of course, this price is going to be below the cost of production for almost everyone. This has me scratching my head.
I have no doubt that the hat makers EARN their profits on these goods, and the middle-man buyers of raw fur have a significant up front cash investment to acquire the fur from trappers, so to be clear I do not disparage these folks from making a profit. What bothers me is that trappers who actually make all of this possible are being told that we must accept a loss to supply the market. I hear “Its what the market will bear”… I also heard that there is currently no stocks of beaver, they need beaver! Yet we can not expect to make any money, maybe break even as far as our out of pocket costs (fuel, traps, supplies, equipment like boats and boots, etc.) I really don’t know what to make of it, or what the solution is, or if there is a solution. I know that I personally will not produce something that I know going into it will lose me money. I do get the part about we trappers love what we do, but man, something is backwards here.
One thought that has occurred to me - at an average of around $600 per hat, an increase of $50 per hat - lets call it a raw material fee or something like that - that is a little less than a ten percent price increase to the end user (5% for a $1000 hat, 3% for a top end $1500 hat), and that puts beaver at $70 tops for the producer (aka trappers…). That would at least give trappers some profit for their efforts, and we all make money - not just the hard working hatters and the furbuyers who also work hard and have a big cash investment. I don’t know what the answer might be, but asking trappers to lose money so the downstream industries can make money does not sit well with me. And I feel like in the market update video the real message is “go get the beaver, you get have your fun and lose less money than other species while we all make money”. And fair enough on that message, many of truly enjoy beaver trapping. But I feel like we being hoodwinked into losing money so others can make money, and I can find other ways to get out in the field and lose money…Am I wrong? Interested to hear other perspectives.

No dressing costs for the manufacturers of those felt hats either.Other costs related to that kind of processing though.
In the fur industry,manufacturing profit was historically around 125%,and retail profit was around 175%.Dont have any recent stats,but I assume the profit margins dropped from those numbers due to the glut of product that plugged the pipeline for a few years.

Not sure but it likely takes more than one beaver to produce the felt for the felt hats.
One large beaver pelt dressed can produce a beautiful warm fur hat that wont blow off your head in a wind,or catch up in the trees when bushwhacking.
And $250 will get you a beauty.
Plus they look way better than those big dorky looking felt hats.

I have had several furbuyers ( that know I trap for income) tell me over the years that trappers are not very smart. Hope that helps.

Too many dumb trappers doing exactly that, trapping for fun.

I saved my best Beaver in a freezer for several years, threw them away when I couldn't get any offer that would come close to not insulting my effort. I don't bother skinning them without a firm commitment up front!

Considering that one has to separate the guard hair from the underfur then the underfur is compacted considerably to make felt it's going to take several pelts, I would guess ten or more, to make enough felt for just one hat. At 20 a pelt you're fast approaching the final price of a beaver hat.

Google the felt making process and you'll see that is a severe shrinkage process.

Add into that they very few of us are wearing beaver felt hats on a regular basis and its no wonder that there is no demand.

Dont sell them. All of us dont sell them. see what happens to your offers then. same thing with everything else. Russia and China will be buying again. When they do dont sell till a decent price develops. All we hear is how there is a demand but no money offered. DONT SELL

Warrior no body is paying a 20 dollar average. Thats for the best Alaska MN Ontario heavy blankets.

you need get out more. out of the east

Quality hats in general are a big ticket item and most are constructed of, relatively speaking, low cost raw materials.

Your best Panama hats are made from palm straw. But they straw has to be split into very fine threads, softened then hand woven and knotted to make the raw hat. The finer the split and weave the higher the end price. Cheap material, skilled labor.

Pure beaver? Or mixed species felt?

Lots of rabbit and wool, even some nutria on the low end. Beaver blends midgrade. But pure beaver not so much.

Even among the big buckle and boots folks I know pure beaver is rarely daily wear but Sunday go to meeting wear.

Personally I would love to see a return of men dressing to go out including hats. Same for the ladies. Our Walmart culture is disgusting.

I would have a dozen different fedoras alone.

Yet the only market there is for beaver is the hatter market pretty much. Most people in the lower 48 have no use for a beaver hat that you are talking about. They are too hot for most places. Who wants to pay $250 for a hat you can not ware? The felt hat market is the only thing keeping beaver saleable, and it has been that way quite a few years.

I did some research, here is a quote from a history of beaver hats:

“a single hat of castor quality required on average, four pounds of pelt (a typical beaver hide weighed about 1 ½ pounds) which would produce one pound of wool; 9 – 12 ounces of fur were used in the best hats”

“Castor quality” means pure beaver fur.

So a bit more than 2 average pelts for large hat of pure beaver felt.

And yet most of the high end beaver felt hats are Texas style cowboy hats. I guess cowboys like to be too hot!!! Lol
I think warmth of hat has more to do with style of hat than material.

The same can be said for a wheat farmer. There might be 10 cents worth of wheat in a loaf of bread. If the farmer wants more money they can make the bread themselves and try selling it. That must not be real profitable or every farmer would be doing that. We as trappers can either sell at market value, dont sell at all or make the felt hat ourselves and sell it.

My farmer neighbor MAKES A DECENT PROFIT on his wheat. I do not disparage the fur buyer and the hatter making money for their effort. You’re missing my point.

What did furbuyers tell me?

P.S. The hats that Boco makes are too hot for much of the U.S. population.