ATTENTION RACCOON TRAPPERS:

We have seen an uptick in the northern prime raccoon price this week. We have raised our prices.

NORTHERN GREEN (SKINNED) RACCOON

5X - $15
4X/3X - $10
XXL - $6
XL - $3
LG - $1

Stretched and dried raccoon will add additional value.

Early, damaged, and poor color skins will be discounted.

Central raccoon have seen a slight uptick.

Eastern raccoon is still a very difficult sell and have little to no value.

Please visit www.gfwco.com for a full listing of our fur route schedules.

As always, thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you this season!

That sounds encouraging, at least for some folks in those coon zones.

Kinda makes me feel better I can't even find sign of coon this season
Not really.

$8-$10 Coon..$3-$4 Gas...No Thanks

I'll call it good news

holy smokes that is great news wicked makes me want to go lay out few dozen coon sets never mind the gas prices skinning fleshing the greasy suckers for what thats not evn beer money nevermind smokes banchee

I’ll pass.

Gonna be a pass for me I'll keep em in the freezer

Heck if we could get 10 bucks a coon I’d be cleaning up deer hunters corn piles !! 2 nights be rich lol

Best of the best coon under 10 dollar average. Not very good. It is a shame that the market is this weak.

Thanks us for our support...I dont think So

what a bunch of debbie downers...any price increase is good news..coons been in the tank for 8 years...I'll spin it for you....COON PRICES UP 75%

I'm betting If you take 20 coons to the rat wagon you wont see to many $10.00 coon and probably not to many $8.00 coon.
As of now I'm not selling any fur to any country buyer. But I do have 60 LBs of deer antlers that will be looking for a home.

They're up higher than that ...just doesn't trickle down to the Trappers.

What will a 5X raccoon weigh... 40# ...?

Garry-

In low light conditions, you might mistake a 5x for a baby bear! They’re few and far between…

I have had many 5xl coons and males will reach that length 38 inches and many will not weigh 30 lbs. They are big coons for sure. Most 20-22 lbs. males in our area are quite easy 4 xs but I see they pay for those the same as the 3xa which are the most common sizes here for males and loder females. Nice to see an uptick but December here is not a real productive time to catch numbers of coon, but then the market is not looking for many coons just a few of the highest quality and size. Note too the discounting for color. That leaves a lot of our males at low value regardless of grade and size.

Bryce

How wide are your coon boards?
Years ago,I put up several coon from South of here near their Northern limits around the new Liskeard and North bay area and stretched them on the top of a wolfboard-12 inches wide and around 40 length.

Haha wow. Weve had essentially no coon market for a couple years and they come back with what could be a 5 dollar avg for a lot of guys and guys are complaining. At least we can pay for gas.

"Eastern coon, little to no value"

No price increase for me!!!

On a 5XL I usually run at 8" board at 30"

NORTHERN GREEN (SKINNED) RACCOON

5X - $15
4X/3X - $10
XXL - $6
XL - $3
LG - $1


Length
5X - $15 38”-41”
4X/3X - $10 32”-38”
XXL - $6 29”-32”
XL - $3 27”-29”
LG - $1 24”-27”

Here in PA only about 1 out of 10 for me has the right color. The bigger males have that yellowish red tinge to them. The 29" females have nice silver flanks LOL.

I guess you could look at it that way. Kind of like gas comiing down 3 cents....still 2.00 too high but people will drive 5 miles out of their way to get it.. Like beav said you will probably come out of there with a 3.00 average but have at it if you like.

Do they measure from tip of nose to base or end of tail?

Nose tip to tail base

Base. The tail has no value.

At least there is a market for our coon. And seeing central coon get a slight uptick…I’m thrilled.
I’m using these down years to teach my sons how to put them up. We aren’t out much If they nick a few. Should have a couple experts in place then by time markets come back up.
I’m having a ball catching coon and coyotes this season with my boys and teaching them things. Lots of animals around. The deer and pheasants get hammered but trapping is almost no competition and has gotten us all kinds of land access even some spots where others threw in the towel and those sections are now ours to trap.
Down markets always have an upside for me.
Jim

Anyone have a coon comparable for Barnes Hide & Fur?

5x coon thats the size now whats the fur quality any damage does it have good color what percent is worth 15 you have 10 coon worth a dollar 1 worth 15 you have a 2.27 average 10 guys in line have 50 coon each or 500 total takes 1 hour or less to buy make a dollar each is 500 dollars in a hour how much did you make trapping them lol

The Industry standard Is 7 1/2" at 30"

11/27/22

"I sold to Groeny yesterday as well. I was the ONLY person at that particular stop. All fur was put up.

Rats were from 3.00 down to .50, 1.43 average. Guy said some rats may reach a 4.00 level in the winter.

Coon were 1.00 to 15.00, 4.56 average. I cherry picked the coon that I put up, the smallest that I put up this year were 3x."

How many yellow dinks you need?
I understand they bring TOP DOLLAR!!

Coon could be worth $100 each now and it wouldn't matter. Ours are sleeping for the winter.

Promise increases, average remains the same.

Thats a great plan! Good on ya!

So his Wisconsin coon should have fit the Northern section, and 3X and above should have fit the $10-15 price range. He must have taken a beating on the early, damaged and poor color discounting.

Not only that-Beav is a poster boy for groeny-i seen the pic.
So he got the premium.

They might be too old at that point, lol.

Know what you mean though, good time to learn AND try new things.

Hunted with one of my grown sons for a few days this week, brought back a lot of good memories.

This is a raccoon thread? Somebody get me out of here!

Lol… wait until you sell your rats- this is the big money talk right here

Not for long hopefully. Nobody should board and put up fur how "industry" says to do it for how low of prices they are paying.

Hmph

When I measure my coon, I use the old NAFA measurement standards. So, my idea of a 3x may be different than Groeny.

That said, I had a request for coon meat for a fundraiser that needed to be filled by the first weekend in November, so I started as soon as the season opened. So, yes, there were blue coon in the mix.

Also, I am outside of the "golden triangle" for coon. Good color coon really don't exist where I am trapping. Add all these factors together, and it might explain the discrepancy.

For you western guys, our coyotes are junk in general. Coarse fur and usually poor colors, off-colored bellies.

And the mink wasn't blue. It was a roadkill, so at least I could salvage something.

Just trying to give everyone all the info I have. I'm glad that someone is buying/moving fur. It could be sitting in a warehouse for years with no end in sight. At least I got paid.

Good point- not sure what standard Groeny buys at
The sizes I listed are the NAFA specification also- width fluctuates with section
Canadian= 8"-8-1/2" @ 30"
Western, Northern & North Central US= 7-1/2"-8" @30"
Eastern Us & Semi-Heavy Section= 7"-7-1/2" @30"

Not that a 1/2" on width makes a difference in this market

What do you suggest?

No way, Jose'

30 pounds like this one.

You got a wolf or a "more wolf hybrid" in the middle there.

I recommend every trapper putting up fur what's easiest, fastest and most convenient for them. If flat boarding a coon is where it's at for you, that's what a trapper should do, if case skinning a coon is where it's at, he should do it. If not fleshing coons and keeping em green and frozen is the way, then go for it. If we want to band together once and for all and actually get paid the right way, then we all need to create a standard that trappers decide, tell the fur buyers the minimums for fur and that's how we will put fur up from that point forward. I don't know all the trappers, but I do know that each and every one of their time for skinning and fleshing a marvelous raccoon is worth way more than $1 or even $3. It's not about just getting paid, there are plenty of people buying fur, we don't need to scalp ourselves because we think "this is what the market will bear". The market will bear the price we tell them as a minimum as long as we are being reasonable, I just don't know how else to say to stop being willing slaves, because that's literally what's happening.

The reason there is an industry standard for putting up the raw fur resource is so the pelts can be graded,sized and evaluated, so the end user knows he is getting consistent grades and sizes of product in an intersorted lot.
Pelts have to be intersorted and put up in lots somewhere along the line no matter who you sell to if the final destination is the international raw fur market,so there has to be an industry standard for put up,otherwise evaluating the resource would be a guessing game,and you can bet the graders/buyers will err on the side of caution if there is any question where a pelt belongs.And that will cost the producer.

A 7 1/2” board at 30” gives you a 8” wide pelt after stretch/dry.

Yes! They have to have a standard. Can you imagine how long it would take to check all that fur. If it wouldn’t be.

Do you think the market will become favorable again? I don't. Not in the short to midterm timeframe anyway.

Thats exactly my point. They the end users want things dress right dress in the way they want it, they want it easiest for them. I have no problems with that as long as they are willing to pay, but as of now we got people selling fur for slave labor rates. Also I always hear they only use this part or that part of the fur. We the trappers need to know what parts they use and what parts they dont use, so these guys can save their time on the skinning and fleshing times. Just stuff like that is what we as a community are missing in my opinion.

There you go again with the "we". How is it that a newbie has all this wonderful insight but doesn't answer on other threads?

I had a fur buyer this summer tell me not to waist my time fleshing and drying. That they would be able to do it faster than the average trapper and their wasn't that much more money in it for the trapper. So he said, do what you do best, trap quality animals, and leave the finish to us!

Cool. I like that thought process.

There is a atremendous amount of subjectivity involved in pricing fur. By putting fur up on standard size boards one of the many aspects of subjectivity is eliminated or minimized. The grading changes as the market moves and right now in a horribly diminished market the grading as to size, grade, color, clarity, damage etc. is extremely rigid.
There is no upward movement in fur when prices are posted.They are always for the very best, biggest, primest etc. and everything beyond that is a down grade or discount. Posting high prices in a tight market like this never costs a buyer much as the vast majority of fur never comes close to those prices. Even though rats are low the $3 top and the $1.40 average is not really that wide of a spread. $17 for a top put up coon with $4.50 averages is a very wide spread. We can tell there is an extremely limited market as now they don't even want us to bring any small, early or damaged stuff to them. In the past they would ask if you wanted them back. If not they would take them.

Bryce

Why would you bother to even sell carcass coons right now? Your just making things worse by selling. Groney is running a route with a truck. I hate to even guess his expenses to do that. Yet he is still making money. So the value of your fur is lots higher.

Don't let somebody else make money on your fur if your not making any.

Why in the world are you willing to spend money so someone else can show a profit on your investment and hard work while you lose money?

Just send me that money and I will send you pictures to enjoy. No need to get wet cold muddy and greasy.

By all means trap if your a mind too. go have fun. JUST DONT SELL

That has been Groeny's position in the past on coon also- "spend your time trapping- rather than putting up fur". He said he can process green coon fast and the cost difference between, put up fur and green, was negligible. So what changed? Maybe the labor availability and labor cost to run those processes ?

So everybody do fur whatever way they feel like, and then demand that it be bought. Got it.
As for the rest of this, when you get it done let us know. Action speaks louder than words.

If you have a regular buyer that you get a decent price (relative to the market) for your fur, you should put it up the way they prefer. Makes life lots easier. If you occasionally ship to the auctions, put it up according to their specs, never had a buyer downgrade me for a hide put up to auction specs. I guess the exception to that would be grey fox for GFW, they like fur in.

I would bet that nothing has changed in the racoon market. Groney raised his price a little to try to get people out trapping. When you go to the rat wagon, are you averaging more? Maybe, maybe not. If you do get more how much? Selling coon on the grease is stacking the deck against yourself. I can assure you he buys a lot of 3X and 4X for XX price if not X. Look at what everyone posts, there is always more in the middle and bottom piles than top. He knows within a dollar what you average is going to be before you show him any fur.

Negative. Just a coyote

You didn't say that coon was part bear just because he was big did you?

Some say that ...Yes.

Rare , but I've seen that

11/27/22

"I sold to Groeny yesterday as well. I was the ONLY person at that particular stop. All fur was put up.

Rats were from 3.00 down to .50, 1.43 average. Guy said some rats may reach a 4.00 level in the winter.

Coon were 1.00 to 15.00, 4.56 average. I cherry picked the coon that I put up, the smallest that I put up this year were 3x."

Bingo-a little too late on the news for us here as well-they are all sleeping until mid febuary at least

What sticks out to me is that all this fur was put up…. 4.56 ave…. No thanks

Rats and coons are easy to put up, at least.

Some are sleeping in peoples freezers.

"Central coon have seen a slight uptick"

I wonder what that "sight uptick" is being these coon were mostly not even saleable past 2 years.

There is gonna be a good amount of coon killin' I'm about to undertake over next couple months...so....

I will keep and process some of the absolute very best 2x and 3x with the best colors but I ain't expecting much.

If you have any bright silvery colored coon with good well marked tails I would suggest you ship them to any of the western auctions that attract lots of crafters. You will do much better than the fur market.

Can u pm me a contact there. I usually end up with several nice silvers with distinct tails.

No need to pm, any of the sales that Moscow Hide & fur attend will be a good bet. Gary goes to the Idaho sales and Oregon OTC sales as well when he can. I think the Colorado sale also gets a lot of crafters. Maybe WissMiss will have more ideas as well if she checks out this thread. With Gary you never know, I've seen him offer less than $10 and also over $20 in recent years. Depends how much he wants them.

I believe there is a listing of sales on this forum somewhere. For the OTC sale look up Oregon Territorial Commission on Furs. The Klamath Falls sale usually the better of the two for crafters

Stupid question but if China and Russia aren't buying who is GFW selling to?

Didn't realize fur could be shipped to those western auctions.

He has direct markets in China from my understanding.

Yeah Swamp I think most of them do accept shipped fur. Not aware of any that don't.

Great recommendations, thank you so much for sharing some of the alternatives. The craft market world is really untapped and not known in my opinion as far as what it can handle. Be good to keep leveraging it when available.

I answer plenty of people, but those who block people instead of having a meaningful conversation are not worth trying to communicate with. You made that decision not me. Goodluck.

Been selling mostly carcass critters but sold 2 22-23 pd green coon to groeny for $5 each he called them 2x.Got $20 for a 73 pd green beaver and $5 for a medium green beaver.Not jump up and down happy but happy enough.

Been selling mine IN THE ROUND for $5 a pop for the past two years.All I can get.Only reason is my buyer has a market for the meat.

Colorado fur sale draws the most craft buyers in the west do to the diversity and quantity of items offered. Monstertoms is the trapperman member you need to contact for the Colorado sale.

That's sad but I'd take 5 bucks in the round. Now here, I'd have to give the buyers 5 bucks to take them.

Would anyone know what state/areas are included in the coon ranges described? Are the areas of Upstate NY I trap in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence County for example in the Northern range or would we be Eastern?

Thanks!

I've had my Jefferson County coon grade both Northern, and Canadian.

I've never had one grade Eastern.

I trap in the Henderson, N.Y. area.

walleyed

I started putting up fur for the freezer space.

Groeny has treated me ok in the past we are out of options . I get a check from him or the fur sits at FHA so what is the difference. At this stage I do this for the love of the game and not the cash and if I save a few fawns and turkey nests along the way that is what really makes me happy but everyone has different reasons for pursuing their hobbies.

Best way to have your coon grade canadian or Northern is stretch them wide LOL-i FEEL THE GRADERS GO BY STRETCH MORE THAN ANYTHING NOW AS TO WHERE THE COONS ARE FROM! Brutal

My buyer said that coyote around here are $100 again







it just that now it takes ten of them.....

True story.

Any coon I trap that are 4XL or larger get put on a
Jumbo board 9" wide at the base and they always
grade Canadian and pay more as a result.

I used to think it was just coincidence but now
this has been confirmed by a genuine, native Canadian trapper.

walleyed

In Minnesota, only if they are skinned, fleshed, sewn, washed, wrung out, stretched, partially dried, turned, combed and fully prime.

There aren't any real lines, it's all subjective in the buyers eye. They know what your average will be +-$1-2 before they ever look at your stuff.

Hey, I've got mine skinned, I'm part way there!

Yep, one time Groeny took one look at a stack of put up beaver in the back of my truck and asked ‘What did you do, $10 each.” I saved him the trouble.

This is what was on Grony FB page. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me but that's what he posted. I guess that would put you in the mixed section, but as ADC said, I don't think there are any hard lines.

I thought the plot on that map would have been up higher. I missed the PA line by about 50 miles-go figure. Im sure the guys to the west of me get killer money for their coon.

When one looks at the grading sheets the auction companies have a 4xl coon can be from 4-5 regions, with 5-6 grades, with 4-5 colors, a couple of clarity grades and 2-4 damage ratings or dozens of final assessments.
The buyers in the country or routes typically are putting coon in 4-6 piles based I believe on current value to them which means the piles include a combination of color, size, grade, damage etc. etc. From my experience when the markets are okay to strong having the more complex or complete system works to one's advantage. During poor to very limited markets not so much. Buyers may be buying fur like rats and coon and mink to lower their dollar cost per pelt average and hold them. If the firms have good equity that is not a bad marketing plan as the investment in dollars in todays fur is not very high comparitively speaking. That option does not work as well for the smaller firms or those that are say seasonal buyers with other businesses etc.
Two years ago buyers could buy and sell their rats quickly and thus have some liquidity even if profits were not great. That is not true today and thus the rat market is down about 50% from two years ago.

Bryce

Garment makers prefer to buy graded lots,it saves them work.They will pay more.
Somewhere along the line someone has to sort out all the pelts into grade lots in order to make finished product.
This is one of the main reasons the trapper gets more money for his fur at the auction.he benefits from having his fur intersorted and put up into graded lots for buyers/end users to bid on.

prices much much better in the country sales than auction house last 3 seasons......in western usa

I won't skin one of the stinking things for that.

I wonder if timing is as much a factor as anything in this. Prices have been in a pretty steady decline and the international auctions are later in the year. That trend might be reversed in an improving market.

The last 2-4 years the auctions prices have been more to set the fall prices for the coming season. Many cases we find that there is more optimizm in the fall then may well be warrented. This year it seems that for some species like rats especially the auctions prices have carried over to the fall prices.
I enjoy reading the threads and posts that say trap coon now in early December for those big well furred coon well here in our area with all the farmsteads the coon that are running right now are mostly smaller coons or females trying to catch up before they den for longer periods of time. The older males will be out when the rut starts but many will be stained, off color and stink about like a coyote. They also do not seem to travel far either. Couple hot trails with nothing the last 3-4 days.

Bryce

That will change today.

I agree $1.50 avg. last year, $6.00 avg. this year, I'm not complaining.I will take a up tick anyday.

Upticks are positive but it's still not worth skinning a $5 coon

ttt