With changing times and culture, will fur prices ever get any better, or is this it?

This is it.

Tan them and take them to renaissance fairs.

Depending on your age....the best prices may be passed us by....other than a species or two spiking for a short time....like beaver just did and now skunks.

Until somethings trending.
$600.00 cats, $80.00 skunks, and $50.00 marten?
We just came off of a trending beaver market and a several year run on coyote prices being respectable.
Maybe I'm the eternal optimist.

Renaissance fairs will only swallow up a small portion of the fur produced every year. If you flood that market there is nothing left.

Everyone likes to trap and catch and sell what they can. I don't know if trappers wouldn't trap a couple of species just one year would that makes a shortage. (Supply and Demand). Coyote here are going to be trapped no matter the market but now there a lot of people not marketing the fur. I donate some of mine to the trapper association which then send in for tanning and then sell at many different functions.

Guess I should have kept my mouth shut then. So I’m the only person flooding the market I have…


Disregard everyone. Don’t do that.

Very true. Wasn’t there a tv show or something, Yellowstone or something. Lots of folks buying beaver felt hats.

Always appreciate a good trending market for something.

Unless they start taking house cats, I’m out of the cat market. And I don’t catch but a couple slings and we don’t have marten. So. I’m out of that loop. Lol

The fur industry has always been like a roller coaster… it’s unpredictable,,, it was thought that beaver fur would never have any value again around 1836.. when other ways were found to make hats that didn’t need beaver for felting.
Just find a seat and enjoy the ride.

The (beaver) felt market is still fine. They're just not over-paying for it anymore since they don't have to.

Fur will come back one day. It's natural and society will catch back on. But will you be around to see it is the question. Imo

The worst the market is the fewer trappers there are. The fewer trappers there are the less fur sold into the market. The less fur sold the higher the price for fur. A lot of people on this site quit trapping years ago I've figured out from reading everyone's posts. The young guys on here dont really want to put in much effort and quit after a couple weeks and then wait for rat season. Getting a lot of rats is easy and quick. Not much effort involved. Not much money either but you can boast huge numbers. Getting 2 cats for 600 bucks is better than getting 300 rats at 1 dollar apiece or even 3 bucks a piece. Trapping and fur prices are arbitrary. If you're gonna trap you need to sell it or do what a lot of people do, let it lay.

Good points fellas. Ups and downs, and lots…..not all but lots of fur is paying what it’s worth if prime and was taken care of after the catch.
Less trapping hurts too. If we can’t fill the orders, they’ll have to find a substitute.

It only takes one movie, show, entertainer, fashion trend or photo to start a trend but who knows when. If funny the yote market was impacted by some sustainability BS for a species that’s never been endangered and probably never will be. Yotes and roaches will be around long after mankind is long gone from this earth. We dropped the ball on that one by going along with the facade to begin with it gave it credibility when is was moronic thinking.

As a canine trapper from Pennsylvania the market for my goods has been depressed for a long time. I don't see it getting much better anytime soon. I won't quit trapping them because I enjoy it.

I had it pretty good for a number of years as I was selling to a furrier who was treating me well. We had a pretty sweet deal. But that buyer has gone away and I was left scrambling to find another.

I sold to FHA this year. That was a big mistake, one I won't repeat. I'm working on several possibilities and have at least five or six months to figure it out.

Nobody could predict beaver or castor would reach the highs it did a few years ago.Nobody could predict muskrat prices would go where they did 15 years or so ago.Nobody knew western cats would go where they are at,nor could anybody predict skunks would hit the highs it did.Deep south fur could be a problem unless things turn around.But,nobody can really predict the fur market.

I like to think they went back to underpaying, because people will supply all they need at that price.

And if you can get XXL gd dmg at $16-$18 all you need why would you pay $40? That's it in a nutshell.

The industry is slowly collapsing, we are losing our infrastructure. Very few country fur buyers left, the ones quitting are not being replaced. Only one major auction house left. Some states don't have any country buyers. What is a kid going to do, who catches a few raccoons and muskrats and the nearest buyer is 100s of miles away and he doesn't have the knowledge or experience or equipment to handle the fur. When I was kid starting out, you could walk into a fur buyer and get some tips on how to skin and put up your fur. You could rub shoulders with more experienced trappers. Often times you could skin for the buyer and get paid piecework or trade your time for some traps, you got to hang out and see other trappers come in and pick their brains. There was a fur buyer easily accessible (either fixed location or traveling) in almost every town or at least within easy driving distance. These days are gone forever.

The main species are all in trouble, nothing even remotely close to the cost of production. Same as fur buyers, experienced trappers who are aging out or dying are not being replaced by younger trappers. There was a thread recently, about trappers ages, most were in their 60s and 70s. Craft sales aren't enough to sustain an industry, not even close.

There is a phrase often quoted from a 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises: ”How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. ”Two ways ” Mike said. ”Gradually and then suddenly." This to me sums up perfectly the state of the wild fur industry today.

Absolute best post about the fur industry...^^^^. 100% spot on Gerald!

I sure do miss those days. I'm 60 and most likely won't get to experience much of a fur market again...but I have the memories.