Raccoon prices?

Hey guys, I've been out of the scene a few years. Are raccoon prices recovering at all yet?

Nope. Just like most things, they're going the opposite direction.

'Worthless racoons' is the way I have heard many describe them lately.

Haven’t sold a coon for a couple years but what I hear on the grapevine is they’re worth the effort...to pitch em in the ditch.

tree-fiddy

A dozen!

So is it really that bad, or is it the typical preseason doom and gloom with prices slowly increasing or doing better than expected at auction ? I got $8 to $12 on my 3xl and 4xl coons last year at the local auction, after the covid 19 panic in China which dropped the prices at the end. All season long I heard how worthless coons would be that season, that I'd be lucky to get $5 for put up 4xl.

The market has been saturated for years. For larger sizes and higher quality you may do ok. Anything damaged, small, blue, or off color will sell for next to nothing if it sells at all.

I had about 700 at FHA---- after their latest auction I have 653 "unsold".
so I wish it would get back up to "gloom and doom".....

Gone are the days of $20 for throwing a carcass coon up on the grading table for sure.

Make a hat for ice fishing out of them.

It ain't pretty!

Report said mostly unsold yet... Been bad and probably gonna get worse with China Corona mess etc. Still need to control the population though.

True. But the market will be in for a lOOOONg recovery, if it ever does, if folks don’t quit stacking coon on top of unsold coon. I don’t have any skin in the game, haven’t seen a coon in my neck of the woods for almost 20 years, and that one was a fluke.

Don't know why anyone would be targeting coon, unless for self use. Looks like the market is totally saturated as is. Agree the population has to be controlled.

They will keep stacking coon on top of coon. They are real trappers.

Fur price cycles. High in early 80’s. Crash about 1986, next peak around 2014, crash in’15 & ‘16. That makes the next peak in 2044, I’ll be 89. Lol. Hope it’s earlier but I’m not getting to exited for that. I got to trap in 2 fur price peaks, I’m happy with that.

I'll only be 78

I’ll be 54 with a little luck it will be about retirement time for me....... yea probably not

Have wait an see what late winter brings for prices an what happens. With covid stuff, fresh stuff when sell well go quicker than someone hold onto them for few seasons

I'll be 105. guess I won't be around to see the next price raise. LOL

I don't think you will miss much. A $30 coon average in 2044 won't be as exciting as $30 coon average in 1979.

Maybe the grading table but some taxidermist are paying that. I get $25 rough skinned for taxidermist. Same with fox. I get 20 per mink on carcass. Since I started selling to this gentleman coon alone cover a lot of my expenses. I don't know if any other taxidermist buy like him but can't hurt to ask them.

If the next fur boom is 2044 I’ll be 56. Perfect timing for me to take an early retirement and trap like a maniac

Do you catch a truck load a day and sell them to him daily or does he come clean out your walk ins at the end of season? LLL

I don't target coon, I just keep all I get in other sets. I skin and bag them. I do the same with fox. When I get a bunch we meet up and make the transaction.

We have so many coon here and they are really nice coon. Used to get a flat fee from local buyer as many as I could carry in the door nightly instead of grading. Last several years it was big bins at the buyer and he's throw them in the appropriate bins by grade and the price was based on what bin he put them in. Took about a pickup load to bring a good haul in. A good days catch was fun to make a whole bunch of trips from the truck to the back door of the buyer, and a good night should be a pretty full pickup. Nightly stop at the buyer after checking traps.
No way I'd find a taxidermist to buy that many coon around here. LoL.
Jim

In 1987 my dad told me that a 10 dollar average on green skinned coon was pretty good money.

Fast forward 35 years and people would be trying to stack them up like cordwood for ten bucks.

It seems trappers are impervious to inflation

The number of hound hunters is way down in my area.

As for taxidermists, they don't seem interested in buying fur in my area. They want bear and deer.

We're just duller than the inside of a fleshing knife, that's all.

My hounds have a really hard time smelling the difference between a 25 cent coon vs a $25 coon. So much so, I just gave up and let them do their thing....practically every night. I breed my hounds to run coon and you can bet your last dollar that’s what ill let them do until I can’t anymore.

All the hound hunters who said they did it for sport don’t hunt or have dogs anymore in this area . .Funny how that works . This darn greedy trapper however is still trapping. But I will not trap something with no value.

Putting more worthless coon on the already flooded market can only hurt us In the long run. Any incidental coon I take this year will be released. I'm not going to add to the problem.

Releasing them just attributes to a different problem.
I’m glad rats are hot!

Like women, there are different levels of hot.

Is it a "flooded" coon market or a "no interest" market...? I don't think they are the same thing.

FHA was only offering 160k coon at the end of August sale and could only move about 10% (or less). Is that because the furriers are sitting on gobs of dressed coon hides or that there just isn't a major use for coon right now, with the Russians still not having much money vs the US dollar and the Chinese having their various problems. And well, the Western nations have just about given up on using a good amount of any fur except some yote trimmed coats. I'm sure there is a lot of coon hides in freezers, but after a while even the best packed green coon hides are going to start having issues--can you really board and finish a coon skin that's been in the freezer for 5 years and make it look as nice as a freshly caught and boarded coon? I think the fur market has devolved down into a number of small niche markets that can only take certain amounts of any fur, so that maybe means a "flooded" market for any year. I'd love to be wrong but...

It will be a tough market this year for sure. I will keep trapping them lightly but only when the 5 year old is going to come with. He loves setting and checking coon and beaver traps. With what we do catch I will be taking my time this year teaching him the way to put up fur on the selects that I think we are able to sell. Those that I think may not grade out as good we are going to learn the process of tanning fur and they will either go to relatives, get sold, or hang up in the man cave. This year with the prices I decided to focus less on the trapping part of it (except coyotes) and more on the learning aspect and memories for the kid and I.

It’s both, it’s a flooded market with no interest. And all the guys saying they will trap no matter the price are creating another issue, there’s a monopoly forming in the fur business and continue selling cheap fur will all but ensure prices will never get better, we may have already past the tipping point on most type of furs

I wish I could click a “like” button for Shane’s post

So would it get better if everyone quit for a year or two, or would the market just go away?

Well there’s at least enough coon in the pipeline to fill 2 years worth of orders at current demand, then you have to ask yourself is there difference between no market and $4-5 average finshed coon to me there is not. If we keep piling on I can just about guarantee prices won’t get any better

We need a new good Daniel Boone movie made.
Last time they did that demand for coonskin caps went through the roof.

Yep, I agree with you, and there are multiple reasons why that monopoly has developed, but the entity at the center of that monopoly developed its own model, or at least pushed the hardest on that model, on how to sell American fur overseas. I said several years ago if China became the main gatekeeper of where raw fur flowed, then they would eventually get the market down to what they were willing to pay for it. And it there is one main American gatekeeper who can move volumes of fur and will offer a price to buy from people, even if its cheap, they will get people to sell to them. People do things for irrational reasons, I may do things this season for what appears to be irrational reasons. We all pick or own paths, and those paths can change over time. Maybe some just walk away and not look back, maybe some have to get hit a few more times to quit, some will never quit. Everybody has a choice...

Would love to see the POTUS wear a nice fur hat on inauguration day.

Russia russia russia

Old news. Russian seems to have stabilized and still prices in the tank.

Released 2 coon today. Let nature take care of the surplus.
I talked to a farmer today that killed 65 coon this summer.

In 2013 it was 32 rubles to the dollar. In 2020 it is 75 rubles to the dollar. It has got worse.

FLOTUS would look great in a full length fur coat too.

. The monopoly is close to the only game in town. And any competition is not set up to make a profit on dirt cheap skins Unless demand and prices increase quite a bit we are stuck. If this covid thing runs it’s course it can’t do anything but help. Last retail season was hit pretty hard by it in China

Blackhammer has hit at the biggest part of the problem. Yes, I agree there is a surplus and would be great to shut off the spigot for a couple years to drive the price up. But the people that buy their fur at auction, not being able to attend sales is a big problem. Most don't understand the raw fur grading system, and they come to the sales, review the samples, and choose what lot they want to buy. Since this rona crap, they haven't been able to do any of that, and is the biggest factor in the poor auction results. Once we can get past the rona, I hope things will pick up. That's the way I see it.

I guess I'd rather skin worthless mink than worthless coon.Less labor intensive.

I’m gonna use this year to start putting up my own fur. I figure ripping holes in a few coon won’t cost me much.

Groney will be the last man standing, my understanding is he has a warehouse and partners in China. Fill the warehouse with tanned fur and the Chinese won't have to leave home. One stop shop.

Barrel of oil 2013 $100. Barrel of oil 2020 $40

Goin out on a limb here but i wont be trapping in 2044

I'll be 89 in 2044 so I'm sure I'll still be out there.

The reason there is a surplus is that there is no interest. The fur market was in the crapper before the chi coms released the Rona for the Dems.

Rat i'll be 90 figure on bein smarter by then