Question for Fur Buyers

Been getting my equipment ready for the upcoming season got me thinking. Fur buyers from my area buy mostly fur in the round, put it up themselves and then sell it. Do they just ship to NAFA like everyone else or do have private contracts or other avenues for selling? Any info would be much appreciated!

Probably both. I'm sure some of them ship to NAFA. Some probably ship to FHA. Some probably sell to larger dealers like Groenwald and Zander. Others might have their own niche market. Just like trappers, multiple options on where dealers sell.

You can ask the buyers where they sell but you might not get an answer. Is it really any of your business where they sell? If you are happy with the price they pay and you've got the money in your pocket, that is the most important thing.

I'm not trying to be a jerk with my response but asking a buyer where he sells is like asking Paul what the formula is for Back Breaker.

some fur buyers are buying for other buyers,some ship,some sell to growny,some have private contracts,and a whole lot of em right now have piles in freezers.it's a tough business right now and money talks,to the point of i've saw some very long agreements between buyers that worked great for yrs,thrown away like a dirty towel.another sad part to this slump.i'm really curious to see how things shake out when and if we get somewhere back to a good market.

This fur market has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel

I'm just this year starting trapping. I'm retired with a lot of time on my hands. I have no idea concerning selling hides, so figured I would just make wall hangers, and decorations, for the most part. Mostly going after skunks as this area is overpopulated with them, but if something else gets trapped that is good to. Also neighbor down the road offered me his deer hides as he gets them. This year I figure will be self training based on a lot of You Tube videos I've been watching. Figure I will learn as I go along. My son-in-law also helps me with any questions I may have.

I’m old enough to answer the original question.
Macy’s doesn’t tell Gimbels.

[quote=wissmiss]Probably both. I'm sure some of them ship to NAFA. Some probably ship to FHA. Some probably sell to larger dealers like Groenwald and Zander. Others might have their own niche market. Just like trappers, multiple options on where dealers sell.

You can ask the buyers where they sell but you might not get an answer. Is it really any of your business where they sell? If you are happy with the price they pay and you've got the money in your pocket, that is the most important thing.

I'm not trying to be a jerk with my response but asking a buyer where he sells is like asking Paul what the formula is for Back Breaker. [/quote

If your not a fur buyer why do you feel the need to reply?

Where did you get the idea that I'm not a fur buyer?

I am a fur buyer. Have been since the early 1980s. I buy at the OTC sales in Oregon. I but at NAFA. I buy at FHA. I buy at other trapper sales. I buy from other dealers.

The one thing I don't like to do is buy from individual Trappers.

And where I sell what I buy is none of your business!!

Have a good evening Nancy.lol

Ouch.

Why would an uppity buyer buy from a lowly trapper?

I sell direct to the Chinese, We Hung Lo and Ho Le Fook

Thank you for your very helpful input.

I thought it was a simple question

I thought wissmiss gave a simple answer...

The simplest, most straight forward answers are the best.

If you want answers ask a trapper. They are expected to turn over trade secrets. Fur buyers haven’t yet evolved.

[quote=trapperne]I sell direct to the Chinese, We Hung Lo and Ho Le Fook[/quo Interesting.

Sure makes it easy to buy when you have an order to fill, as Margins become clearer risk is less.

Asking where a buyer sells they're fur is akin to asking someone how much money do you make in a year. Most buyers don't "find" a market they spend a great deal of time and energy "developing" a market for what they buy. As you can imagine, anyone is a bit protective of the work they have put into this, however, the biggest buyers are very open about it. Go to China, Greece, Russia or where they sell yourself and market what you catch, of course I'm being facetious! I believe Nancy is referencing how easy it is to buy exactly what you want/need at the Canadian auctions cheaply compared to dealing with a trapper that wants to sell all sizes, quality's, and species together at one time, and wants to "dicker" at the same time, not easy to take that on today.

Since most buyers are crooks, they operate under the rules of omerta.

Just like a dope dealer,gotta protect our connections.

A few years ago I was up at the furbuyers dropping off marten for the Auction. The buyer who is a trapper of some sort spent considerable time trying to convince me to trap and sell him beaver. He was offering twice the current pitiful Auction rates which was well below production cost. I knew what he sold them for tanned, same as me. I kept wondering why he didn't trap his own beaver? Because he could buy them cheaper from the hobby trappers than trapping them himself.

If it wasn't illegal here for a trapper to buy commercially at auction I would be buying LM,and LG size prime beaver right now for making bed covers and throws for sale.
Even med and small beavers which are easy to tan make readily sellable baby blankets at a great profit.
Plus not much skill involved in sewing a blanket.Very straightforward.

So you can't go to NAFA or FHA and buy goods? That seems a bit unfair. I always thought buyers were buyers at an auction, who cares what they do the rest of the time.

Hire a broker to bid on the goods for you. You can attend the auction and inspect the goods yourself. Then give your bid number to the broker. His fee should be low because he doesn't have to do any of the work.

Illegal in Ontario to hold two of the 3 fur licences.(No problem buying tanned good for commercial resale,just not raw fur.raw fur can be bought under a restricted buyers licence for personal use)
Commercial trapper,Commercial buyer,or commercial tanner.
They allow special circumstances if you run your businesses out of two different locations,and keep all furs separate.
The reason being that a trapper is allowed to have unrecorded pelts on his premesis,whereas a fur dealer is not.It would allow high grading of fur to have the two separate buisnesses operating out of the one address.

Very interesting.

But do you need a buyers license to buy at NAFA? I don't need a license. Is that because I don't live in Ontario?

The only license I need is a US import/export license to get the goods into the US.

In Ontario,yes you need a licence to buy fur.
The cost is miniscule for the commercial licence and free for the restricted licence.They are available on line I believe.
Wildlife is well regulated here to prevent abuse of the resource.Every square inch of crown land is someones trapline here.

If I lived in near an Auction,I would just buy pelts to sell.
It would be cheaper than trapping them.

Something fishy here. Those are both Japanese names and you claim to sell direct to the Chinese?

Im Lai Ing Lo next year because theres no Cha Ching in it.