Fur Harvester's Auction Results

What's up with the FHA? I sent in a bunch of furs last March, the Auction was cancelled back in March and May due to Covid. They suspended the auction until August 30-31. I just looked at the results. Looks like only about a third of my hides sold. What gives? Is there something going on with the market we should be aware of? Gosh dang, with these kind of results I might not trap this winter.

Except for heavy coyotes, skunks, wolverine and wolves there basically is NO fur market. No demand. Plenty of fur available. No point in trapping more just to have it sit in warehouses and plug up the pipeline.

The truth hurts. Sorry.

That is the absolute unvarnished truth wissmiss. There is no market for most fur right now.

Will there still be a hatter market for beaver? I have some to catch for pay. Harvest castor and tail(bounty) and usually skin. If no fur/hatter market though I could skip the skinning part.

Yeppers

He sold a third of his pelts and he's complaining? I had 77 misc pelts on this auction and sold two.

I feel there is no fur market other than coyotes. The rest of what sold is the trinket trade, not the fur market. If this is breaking news you were to far out in the bush.

If you don’t trap this year because you believe there’s no market then I hope you don’t use trapping as a reason to keep healthy animal populations and control disease.

Jurassic. No comprendo.

I’ve had the commodities markets kick my butt since I was a kid. The best advice I have for the fur trade is take a deep breath. It won’t rebound like corn or soybeans but it will improve as months go by and things settle down. Also never take advice from a farmer. Lol

The backlog of stored and pelted out ranch fur has to clear out first.

Garryowen

What I meant is if you decide not to trap this year because there is no fur market then I hope you don’t say you trap to keep animal populations healthy, keep disease down, etc when asked the reason why you trap.


Because if there is no place to sell the fur, there’s still many reasons why trapping is important.

If you only trap for money that is fine. I’m not against it.

Well, anyone who has trapped 20, 30, or some of 40+ years are no strangers to crappy prices years. Everyone talks about the good years, but wow have we had some doozy bad years too.
I wished I had saved more of my sale sheets over the years. I vividly remember one year in late 80s getting average of $4 on 44 finished coyotes. That was my average for finished dogs. Most i had caught in one season and worst price i ever got for them too. Not many trapped coyotes that year. The pickup army here were just dumping them in creeks since buyer wouldn't take carcass coyotes.
Coon have had some real swings too. About 10 years ago my kids were getting $20 bills for carcass coon and I tried to explain to them it wasn't always like that. Last year it was $1 or $4 for carcass coon, $10 if skinned.
This year i doubt anyone will buy any coon, even finished coon.
And rats. I've sold nice finished rats for lots of different prices over the years. I remember $5 and $6 dollar rats, and I remember $0.10 rats too. Yep, a dime.
Everyone remembers the good years. We need to remember we see crap years too. This year if we are able to sell anything other than coyotes we need to count our blessings. Ask any farmer...they would love to see $7 corn again instead of $2.80 current price. But even $2.80 is better than $0.00 no sale.
When times get tough i pull out old crappy year fur sale sheets and remind myself many years i don't make money. But ive never had a pheasant pay me a dime back either and personally I'd rather eat chicken than pheasant but they are fun to hunt.
Some pics of my crappy year sales i keep around, thought I would share. This year id be very happy to get $1 for coon again. $1 is better than $0.00 no sale. My gut tells me we will not have any coon buyers around here, and that is uncharted territory for my 40+ years of trapping.

jabNE- Again, I appreciate your perspective, but you forgot one thing. The value of money now is not the same as the value of money in the past. $4 in 2020 does not have the same buying power as $4 in 1989. The inflation calculator I first ran across doing a search says $4 in in 1989 would be $8.36 today. That needs to be kept in mind a little bit. But you're correct on no offer. Zero divided by zero is still zero. I wonder how fast the clean skull market will saturate...?

All I know is 100 coyotes from east Ks would buy a brand new top of the line 4WD pickup including tags insurance and sales tax in 1980. (after expenses) Today about 15-20 of them would sell for about a 20 buck average. It takes about 150 bucks today to buy what 20 bucks would buy in 1980. (my best guess)

The best coyotes come from western states where government control agents knock the tar out of coyote populations. There is good reason why Robert Wadell didnt try his 1000 coyote season in MT WY or N.D.

If you catch 100 of those pretty westerns, after expenses, you wont have enough money to buy a good USED 4wd pickup.

too bad we didn't see this coming.

What I didnt see coming was COVID panic.

how'd ya like to spend 40 yrs learning fur and working for buyers to someday be the "guy"-only to end up here.but i'm not bitter.

It’s a tough sell when you have to wear a mask with your $10,000.00 fur coat and no place was open to wear it.

In my close to 40 years trapping I like a lot of you have seen very low prices and some hard sells. The difference this time that I’ve not seen before is the fact that most fur has no market/value even at rock bottom prices. I bet a farmer wouldn’t plant corn if he couldn’t sell it at any price and he had to store it until it rotted.

Dont feel left out.......I cant recall how many endeavors Ive had that just when I got on top of things it all went south.

Getting out before you have more time and effort invested is a serious consideration.

Danny I ll second what you said I been at it along time also catching 100 coyotes in those 3 states take a lot of gas and time. Miles and miles are driven to catch that many.
In the early 80s i was single sort of,,, it was unbelievable now I think about I was selling for the same average then as I have been lately.
Now that is plumb depressing . That inflation has got that far out of hand.

55 years I've been a trapper, I just retired. There goes my retirement plan. 1985 we purchased a house with my fur catch. Gas was 1.25, now the cost of production is way outa site. My longline just got real short. I'll trap to learn more about coyotes and to keep populations in balance but I can't run 100 mile loop.

Fur masks?

I sold muskrats for $1. In 1969 and coons for $2.00 average. In early 80’s $9 avg on rats and $30 avg on coons, $50 avg on fox red or grey.Then in late 80’s early 90’s $2 avg on rats, $1.88 avg on coons. $5 avg on fox. Then market spiked in 2010 thru 2014. Now it has crashed again. I don’t know if I’ll live to see another spike. Lol:)

$1 muskrat in 1969 would be equal to a $7 muskrat in 2020. $2 coon in 1969 would be equal to a $14 coon in 2020. A $30 coon in 1982 would equal a $80 coon in 2013 The best coon year since the early 80's. I bet no body averaged $80 on coon in 2013 when we peaked again?

throw another coon on the barbie ned.