I wanna say it was 2005? I called for a sterling fur catalog. I’m pretty sure it was a paper catalog with black and white photos.
I wish I still had it. I believe it had a green cover.

Ed Bauer fur company in smithboro, Illinois.
It was 1978.. I was 8 years old and dad went to go sell the ginseng we dug that fall.
Dad said I could get whatever I wanted there because some of the ginseng money was mine as well..
I got my first dozen brand new 1.5 victor longs.. there was just something about having your own traps and not having to use dads.

Herter’s and a local hardware store.

Johnson BB gun shop in Silver Creek NY
Mr Patterson was the proprietor.
Was around 12 years old. Started with two #1 vics longsprings. With those traps me and my buddy caught a muskrat and paid for a 1 1/2 vic coil. And the ball just kept rolling from there.
There was a traveling buyer from Canada back then that would stop by a few times a year and buy fur. He paid much better than the two local buyers I new of.

Ken Buege
Was Mississippi River Trappers Supply. I think I still have a handful of his yearly catalogs. I bought most of my earlier stuff from Ken. Being I was in WI he helped me and my brother inlaw a lot. Said WI residents would never trap MN so we'd never be competing. I even help him build his new fur shed when he move from LaCressent to near Hokah.

I bought my first dozen #2 victory coils from Dicks Sport Shop. Also bought my first dozen 1# long springs from old Valley Farm Supply. Which then became our first Farm & Fleet.
I thought of Midwest Trapper Supply at that time as mostly for lacrosse boots. I didn't get to know Jerry until my son had him for middle a school shop teacher.

Mac

My first mail order was from Grimshaw’s , I remember ordering traps, lure, and a fleshing beam . Mailed him cash. Later in the season I mailed him a picture of my brother and I’s season catch. We were only 11 and 13 I think. He wrote a letter back, very appreciative and said he hung that picture in his shop.

Ordered from Murray’s in person as a kid, riding along to conventions with Lewis Quarles or Tom Tyree. Lewis and Tom both got me started. Tom is an amazing fur handler, gave me a great fleshing knife I still use today. And Lewis gave me a handful of 110’s and few 1.5 coils to get me going.

Great folks in this trapping industry, all the way around.

John

Northwest Trappers Supply, lived about 20 miles from Owatonna, MN.

NETCRAFT Fishing Tackle
TOLEDO OHIO
Ordered in 1972 my first trap purchase
THANK YOU to my DADS help and SUPPORT

After that I lost track
I was HOOKED

Randy Mongomery Ogden Utah.

My gramps was a trapper so I could use his stuff. I got a doz. number 4s from Herters in the late 1960s and still use them today. Have bought traps from F&t as they are 25 miles from my house. Still trying to catch some fur but at 76 years old have slowed down some. Larry

Im still buying traps from a local dealer, 40 years since I bought the first.

I purchased my first traps from a local hardware store both #1 and #1-1/2 single long springs back in 1961. Back then local hardware stores sold traps.

Southeastern Outdoor Co in Virginia I believe? They got a lot of my early on purchases and then probably dealt a little with all of the shops out there. No vehicle in my youth and furbuyers were none too close.

Cabela’s and local hardware store

Bought my first few dozen traps from tailgate sellers at the WI state conventions.

First supply house purchase was coon bait and trap tags from Funke's.

Never been to an actual brick n mortar trapping place.

Dug worms and picked nightcrawlers and traded them at Chapman hardware store in NJ for the great B $ L 1/2 stoploss. they were right at 50 cents then, I caught everything in them.......jk

And I never saw a conibear or a coil until I came back from overseas in 1980. I did read about both in magazines but did not see them when I was a kid. there was only us kids trappin and we knew nothing but did have a LOT of rats to go after. Sold fur to a "Lord and Tailor" store, he wanted the whole animal unskinned, then later to Sears and Roebuck mail order.....jk

First Traps I bought were from "Eveready Sales" Now defunct, Then I found MTP

Ludy Sheda of Iowa.