in the 1960's we had a fur auction in a local cattle auction barn in upstate NY. I am sure it was for an organization but don't remember who. I shagged fur as a volunteer and sold some rats. Lot's of red fox in the sale.

H.E. Goldberg but a funny story from a few years later. I was selling my fur at the time to Fred Hjort in Raymond and I had caught 5 Least Weasels. Of course, they were all brown as they don't turn white on the coast and Fred was not interested in them. I was maybe 13 or 14 and I figured everything was good, so I mailed them to F.C. Taylor in just a regular business envelope. They were small. About a week later I received a check from then for $1.25 and a note that said, "Please don't send us anymore weasels." I often wonder what they said when they opened that envelope.

1966 sold 'rats at Izzy's barbershop in La Crosse. It's where Dad got his hair cut. Izzy cut hair in the front and bought fur in the back.

Next year I sold to Dick Schultz in the same building that Dan Wiebke now buys fur out of on the north end of La Crosse. Sold 'rats, mink, 'coon and red fox. Was always impressed by the "mountain" of carcass 'rats that were in the shed with the old timers sitting around on buckets or milk crates skinning 'rats lickety split whilst carrying on conversations.

Either groenwold or buckhorn fur out of Richland center wisc they both came close to where I lived back in the 70's

Mr. George Yarborough at Peck, LA around 1975, possums and nutria rats.

1968 Dick Schultz in LaCrosse Wis. my brother and I had 7 rats and I think we got 65 cents for them. The next year we had around 125, I sold to Dick till he retired and then Wiebke took over that spot. He always paid in cash which was awesome for a kid.

Sold my first fur in 1965. We had several fox bounty trappers around me at the time. Two brothers near where I was working would take their fox down to LaCrosse and that year I sent a couple rats, a female mink, a kit fox and a few coons we got hunting down with their load. I paid the brothers two bucks for taking my fur down and I don't even remember the total amount, except the kit fox brought $2 and that was the highest value of what I sold.
When I was 10-13 I trapped pocket gophers but all I needed was the tails to get my .25 cents. most farmers chipped in either a dime or a quarter as well. Farmers hated those pocket gophers when they were ,making all those mounds in their hay fields.

Bryce

Shipped to F.C. Taylor. St Louis

Sold to Paulette in Sandyville, OH. 1978

mcgee fur company eolia missouri

Sold a lot of fisher and grey fox to Warren. He always paid better than any buyer on these species.

Sold my first fur in late 70s to Pettigrew in Lincoln.
Later when Roger Blehovy opened turkey creek furs in Crete that was much closer to home for me and I sold to Roger for many years. Even used to go skin for him once and awhile. Learned a lot about processing fur from Roger by working in the back room occasionally. I never was so sore as I was from pulling coon a whole work day in the back. Back then I had just started working at a bank and Veterans Day was a bank holiday so I got a paid day off from bank plus skinned coon all day at Turkey Creek. It was a key thing now that I look back. I Needed to learn to peel coons with minimal knife work and that was the learning “camp” for me. Learned to wash and tumble coyotes too. We did a barter thing for several years. I’d go skin for a few days here and there, and instead of cash payment he would let me apply the “wages earned” against bait and lure off his shelves. It was a beautiful thing to barter my time for something important to my own trapline.
One time driving over to Roger’s it was one of those mild misty nights in late November and I left my house kind of early to get there. I was blessed with five fresh road killed coon on way there so stopped and picked those up and sold in the round to Roger when I got there. Made enough on those to get some bait, lure, urine, and also bought me lunch that day plus what I earned shucking coon. That was a good day.
When Roger went away from fur I switched and sold to Dennis Vicars in Pickrell, Nebraska. I sold a few beaver to Papp’s in Nebraska city too but it was a little farther to get to Papp’s so only sold to him one season and didn’t go back. Sold to Vicars for several more years until his health wasn’t so good and I started selling to Kevin Jones in Palmyra. Been selling to Kevin (Grizz) ever since.
Jim

My brother and I took our first 6 rats from our first trapline to Tom Gebo. He would come to Lee Garand’s shop where Lee had a small trapping supply business in Richville, NY. We got $18 for those first six rats. That kind of money in the early 70s was a fortune to a couple of farm kids.

The next fall we went to Tom with some of our fall catch. Two coon and 15 rats. Rats were up to $3.50 and the coon brought $45 each. I remember we got $130 for the lot. Some of the rats were small and only brought $2. We were rich. We did leave some of it with Lee for fox, coon and rat traps. And a few 110 conibers and a selection of O.L Butcher lures. And we still had a small chunk of change left over.

I think that was the last year Tom came to Lee’s. We sold to Al Gordon after that for a few years. Al would buy at the DeKalb hotel lobby on Sunday afternoons. He always did well by us.

Sears. Filled out a shipping tag and took my rats to the post office. The check came in a couple of weeks. A note said the rats were matted and to dry them out before stretching.

I caught my 1st raccoon in 1973 in a victor #3 double long spring. My uncle showed me how to skin it and then took me to see Jim Mesler in Iowa, our local fur buyer, he gave me 7 1.5 Blake and Lamb long springs for it, I later married his daughters best friend and worked for him some skinning.

A

Gunderson in lanesboro MN, 1972

Wesley Zander’s fur company Baldwin Illinois

Ron Bloebaum at The Little Red Fur Shed in Decker IN

Roger at Pacific Hide and Fur in Spokane,Washington. I know his last name but old age is catching up with me and I can't recall it. This was in the 80s.