Castor market iISNT as bad as people are making ou

I contacted 2 of our previous buyers today.

The one from Wisconsin quoted me. 75 a pound straight on castor and 7 a pound on beaver.
...as long as they're not all flat.

The one from Minnesota quoted me 85 a lb straight. Only 6 on beaver by the pound

Thanks for posting

Good to hear some castor news that is good for a change. Thanks Cathryn!

Shoot, that even inspires me to go out and skin the eight beaver waiting for me in the shed! LOL

Beaverpeeler,
Inspires me to raise lure and bait prices.


Blessings,
Mark

Did they say that they had recently raised their prices?

Ya see Mark, we all end up happy!

I'll bet that a much better price on castor than was being paid in 1820, but the price for the skins is about the same.

So...what I'm gathering here is castor went down, sorry to hear that.

Was this an increase from what you were quoted say a month ago ?

Mark just be like WallyWorld and change the bottle size so nobody else will have the same, so you dont have to price match.

make it metric and you only have to compete with Canuck stuff, 4 ounce =100 ml ( not 118 ml)
you can set aside a case for the next time we meet, for such a great tip
now if i push the Boss, I know there will be a holiday for me, with that offer

no the buyers just had their money deeper in their pockets, that's what went down,,,their pocket books

GFW is paying $100 Canadian here or $78.34American on a straight run of castor. From what I’m hearing they will pay more

Last years sold late summer for $120 cdn lb ungraded.Heard one buyer in Quebec was over 130.

$130 last summer or now Boco?

If that’s what they were paying all season then prices aren’t increasing.
Were those prices contingent on selling them the pelts as well?

I'm not really sure it's increasing either. The average on last weeks sale in Montana was $60 a pound.

It's dropping nowhere near last year's prices....if you have it sell it. Europe markets will be in freefall after Russian invasion

No they never said that.

The guy from wisconsin did tell me early he was only buying local fur.

Averaged $71/pound at Hinsdale NY auction on 2/19

good average in todays market

Castor and land/housing,,,,,,, only thing you can count on in this economy.......

What im taking from it is that you could go buy the castor at most state sales and make 20 or 30 bucks a pound.

My point was its higher than most people on here are reporting having sold it for

Love it...

looks like easy money are you buying or planning to? if not why arent you?

I would stockpile 100 lbs at $20 lb

What I was saying is that according to most state auction results castor has been. Selling for 40 to 60 a pound.

Was just letting trappers know that there is a better market out there.

I wasn't saying any buyers were screwing the trapper just that there's a better market

I always check multiple buyers when selling castor. There is typically a significant difference, so I’m glad to know what the MN and WI buyers are paying right now.
I also wont mess with grades in this market. Give me a straight-run price or I’m looking elsewhere. Although I suppose at some price point on the grades I could be swayed to go that route.

The one time I sold at state auction it ended up that I should have no-saled it, taken it home and shipped to MN, and even after deducting the cost of mileage & state association membership fee from the MN price, I still would have gotten $15 more (total, not per pound) than I did by accepting the low bid at auction. My mistake. That won’t happen again. Not that I would not take it to another state sale, I will just know my minimum ahead of time and be ready to no-sale if that minimum is not met.

I’m all ears on who this Minnesota buyer is.

...... most all auctions paying are 60 plus i have not attended any or heard of any that was below 60

Ohio sale was at 100.00 a pound in january. We have a big sale coming up in a few weeks so we'll see if that holds up1

I'll venture it dips to 80 to $90

My mistake, I have not sold any in MN, but have sold to the buyer in WI. I was very happy with how he treated me.

It was posted on here. 48 a lb. Don't remember which state.

Dans a good guy.


Minnesota buyer is North Star Furs...tell em Cathryn told you to him.His name is Jean Paul.

Jean Paul won't but the beaver by the pound..or at least very little if he does.

Both guys are ok but we can make more selling to Dan because we have less expense in gas and travel and its too expensive to ship 300 beaver.

Dan will take the beaver by the pound as well as the castor. O e stop and done with 6 to 8 hrs less drive time

And for the record its been posted iin The 50s on here as well but I'm not going back to check all the threads to find out which state auctions they were

I used to sell to North Star all the time. Jim treated me great and never took off a % for drying. One time I shipped my stuff to them and it had been dried just as usual and Jean Paul charged me shrinkage and they wouldn’t back down even though they quoted me in straight run. Haven’t sold to them since but might be willing to give em another chance. I used to love selling to North Star and Wiebkes. Happy trapping! ScottW

Iowa and NY had some depressingly bad castor prices. Id have to hope that it was from lack of buyers interested in castor.

The title of the thread is "Castor market is on the rise", but I don't see where it is rising. Can anyone point to where the price from individual buyers has increased?

The gentleman who worked with Don Wolf is buying castor. His name is Tony Schaefer and number is 812-205-8547. Don always treated me great on castor and beaver. The last few years when Don 's health was failing Tony ran the business and Don handled the phone/checkbook.

I sold to Don. Fair on grade and a pleasure to do business with. Don told me Tony was his buyer.

Good grief. I changed the name of the thread

When we called Dan earlier. He wasn't buying castor or fur for any price.



I have found a higher market than anyone has posted on here and I wanted to share that information with fellow trappers so that they could get more for their product.thats all

I wasn't trying to cost lure makers more to make their lure but I feel trappers work hard for their goods and they should know where they can sell it for top dollar.

Castor is only off about 10 to 15 dollars a pound from last year..it didn't bottom out like some of the he state auctions were showing .

Well I reckon I'm right in there. I've been doing $80 a pound with no grade.

Thats great! Last time I checked with you it was 60 and that was In.Trade for lure...granted it was probably a year ago.

And I thought I saw on here not too long ago on a thread about castor where you stated that the market for castor was In decline Due to perfumeries and such not willing to pay the high castor prices.

7mglad you're not one trying g to take advantage of the guys hard work.

Maybe some of an have some castor to sell that you may be willing to buy.

Hopefully maybe the castor price will encourage guys to keep trapping and not hang up their steel

Last year it was $60 per pound and $80 per pound in trade. (I just checked my records. A year ago last month this time is when I went to $80 per pound)

I have heard from more than one source that castor price is in decline. I'm not in the reselling of castor business, so I'm staying at $80 to try and acquire as much as I need for lure formulating. If I were in the reselling, I'd not be at $80.

I believe there is a lot more beaver trapping going on than folks think. My beaver lure sales are at record level. I've never sold as much beaver lure as I have this season.

I hope youre right.

John been selling record amounts of lure also

Funny thing is though that buyers are contacting John and myself trying to find fur because they aren't able find the fur they need through other avenues.
Maybe its a quality issue.im not sure.

I was able.to get jerrys 60 inch and up shearable beaver sold for a really really good price and the guy will take 100..

I hope people are just holding their fur to feel out the market.

30000 coons at a big auction isn't that many.coon. makes ya think no ones trapping..at least that's what we're thinking. I hope we are wrong

Do not ship to North Star furs this guy will rip you off! Did it to me quite a few years ago. I posted a warning on here and it got taken down.
I remember one other buyer from southern MN threw a tantrum and insisted the mods take it down, birds of a feather I guess.

He quoted me a good straight run price on castor, I shipped it, didn’t hear from him for quite a while so I called and he said the “market dropped” offered me quite a bit less per# I told him no sale and to ship it back to me.
He sent back less than I sent, low grade, poorly handled castor.
It was Jean Paul, I never dealt with his father, I understand he was a fair man.

Those buyers are no secret. Shipping costs, shrinkage loss as reported, etc will likely negate any small difference in price paid.
High volume sales may come out on a mail deal.

$60 a lb is doable on current lure pricing structures (ouch) but a continued $80 level is rugged.
All of us who are lures are trappers so we see both sides.

I'm just glad to get good stuff these days.

Blessings,
Mark

I never said they were a secret.

Quite the opposite in fact. Just that if you call around you might find a better price than you are expecting..which we did.

They are buyers anyone can sell too if they so choose.

The key is too explore your options before you sell..it could mean more money in Your pocket.

We deliver our castor because Jerry doesn't trust the mail service and we like to roadtrip.

Most down here, from what I’ve heard, are not even skinning much fur. I only skinned 4 beavers, but kept castor(obviously). Personally, I am not going to catch a bunch of coons and take up freezer space for 50 cents each. Nor will I for Beaver at two or three dollars apiece.
So it seems, that if people are looking for fur, but aren’t willing to pay for it then why would someone waste effort skinning one when they’re not gonna get much for it.

The right buyer is willing to pay good money for quality fur. You just have to put in the work to find that buyer.

Jerry sold all his 60 inch and up beaver for 25 straight. He figures with castor and tails in he will average 18 on his beaver straight through and that aint bad. Especially if you ha e 300 + to sell.

Thats Wyoming Arkansas WY and Mississippi beaver

Well said!

Lot of labor for a $3 hide.

Problem. Is sounds to me like..y'all arkansas guys apparently are buying into the lie that all southern fur is crap.

Your fur is better than you think. I know because ive seen it put it up and sold it.

Jerry has been trapping in arkansas
For 10 years.
He's trapped in Mississippi for 33 yrs..so hes familiar with the quality of southern fur.

The beaver on the Louisiana border are shorter furred than those on the Missouri border but they're still worth more than 3 dollars put up.


Dukes paying 5 for big green beaver right now.

Y'all just need o put some time in and market your fur. Youll be surprised what markets are out there

Sold 2 pounds of castor today for $150. PTA sale. Top dollar was $90, but I had a fair number of shells ( common here in Pa.)

You did good.

I'm glad to see PA castor brought what it shoulda brought.

So there are 2 markets listed here for 75-85 . To help the trappers but the lure makers are short on castor but are paying 60 cash or 80 trade or 60 is do able, I can see that's frustrating and costly. Maybe some on here buy castor locally and send to these buyers, they take the risk of price falling or shrinkage. If you've seen some of the castor sold at those lower price state auctions you'd cringe, in Ziploc bag that's about 1/3 full liquid or cut off in one glob with oil sacs intact then partially dried.

Just another way to look at things. I enjoy your posts but I can see where this one has ppl miffed. Would you share your 60" and up shearable bvr 25 dollar market where the guy will take 100 ? I don't catch much of that type but I'm betting Les or a ton of other northern guys would love to hear it.

I piece and part all my bvr and you are correct there's markets to be found. It takes time and effort. Volume makes a huge difference as you know and it cost the average trapper with a small amount of product so much in shipping or transportation that they prob won't show much extra profit. You can divide the cost of transporting your 300 bvr and your castor over all those pieces, it costs the average guy with 30 pieces ten times as much. Just a few thoughts. My castor buyers are off about 15-20% from last year, I had predicted it will increase before season ends but this whole world has gone crazy so it's anyone's guess

We’ll, I don’t have the time or space to put up beaver. (Hardly time to put up mink).

Doesnt take much time at all to put up fur.
You need to manage your time better thats all.
Take a couple hours here and there while trapping to skin,then a day here and there during the season to put it up.
It does take time when you are just learning though.

I think the odd trapper doesnt like putting up fur,and find excuse not to.

Maybe so, I am just a hobby trapper with a full-time job and a large family

I trapped and put up way more fur when I was working full time and had two young kids than I am able to now that I am old and retired and partly wore out.
I will say its better to not put up fur if you rush or do a poor job because you dont enjoy that part of trapping.

Here's what we think about skinning hatter beaver....

I didnt think you got hatter beaver down there.
They need underfur to make felt.

Check out the “MS fur sale results”

Boco, some probably don’t have time however most of these guys are going to say they don’t have time instead of using free time late night working fur until midnight even 1-2 am on occassion.

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7511966/ms-fur-auction-results#Post7511966

And MO fur sale results

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7510941/mo-fur-sale#Post7510941

I think there's been conflation of terms when it comes to "hatter" beaver.

The 100. 25 dollar 60 and shareable beaver market has taken me years to develop. Its a private furrier and he truly gets all we needs through Jerry or I would share the connection.

And while I have shared info of this nature ..like the cas2tir market prices and buyers..'m not willing to cut my nose off to spite my face. Jerry benefits greatly from this market and I can't cut anyone in on it. It wpuld serve to take money out of jerrys pocket.

That connection initially came through a post I made on tman.

Weve sold to this man for 5 or 6 years or more.


There are markets available. It just takes a little networking.

Some of us are old enough to remember.
“Macy’s doesn’t tell Gimbel’s.

At the Fallon,NV sale my castor sold for $60lb. The castors weren’t very full, some I guess you call them shells that had very little in them. Anyhow another trapper had much fuller, better looking castor than mine sold that lot for $80lb. First I have ever sold, but to me there was a definite difference in quality of product. My 10 beavs sold for $12 each.

Dont forget those beaver tails,the user/ manufacture in Manitoba went through 30,000 last year
You can see his presentations on a CBC TV show Dragons Den, beaver tail wallets, just google it.

I'll be the one to say it. In the year 2022 an $18 average for beaver (the whole package) is bad.

I agree with you Dirt. Years ago I used to figure I needed $23-$25 averages for beaver for it to be worth my while.

I trapped 118 beaver this year and sold 102 carcasses for $9. Have about 25# of castor to sell, and the pelts will be put on the K. Falls OTC sale. I think I'll be OK for an average.

I’m with Dirt, the beaver market is bad for a fur trapper. A $25-30 average everything in for only the pelts would be an ok market however you better have a good number to trap and limit expenses. Your castor value would likely decrease in short order with a beaver pelt average in that value range due to an almost guaranteed flooded market. For as long as the market has been poor, trappers would likely go nuts on a $25-30 average.
I wouldn’t share any specialty markets, brokers numbers/contact, etc either. Let the trappers do their own dirty work and/or pay dues by investing time/expense.

I really didn't expect you to share that. It was an example of be mindful what you share, I'm thinking lots of local buyers might have used the two markets you provided as part of their business.

That didn't sound right, apologies. Share what you will.
Ironically I sell Jerry brother speciality stuff

That didn't sound right, apologies. Share what you will.
Ironically I sell Jerry brother speciality stuff

I think the expression was rhetorical: "Does Macys tell Gimbels"?

Thanks for bringing that back to the light of day. Hadn't heard it in several coons ages.

Thats around $3500 before your pelts sell,add anothe grand or so for the pelts,on the conservative end,and thats a fair return.

Beaver remains the one species you can still make good money on.The beavermeat,even if you dont sell it is almost never taken into consideration by trappers when they put a value on a beaver.

Some of the success for the pelt selling at association sales is how you lot them. I try to put my XL and bigger #1's in lots of 10-15 pelts so that smaller craft people can bid on them. Too big of lots, or mixed sizes and grades and you tend to get low ball offers.

Fixed it for you Boco, still below minimum wage with time taken into account.

Why is that?
Does it take you a lot of time and effort to catch and process 100 beaver? 20 beaver a day to catch and the same to put up and process pelts and castor

i dont think it would be more than 80 hours (2 weeks)work all in if you are in a good beaver country like BP,and are a half arsed skinner.Even if you only did half that you would be over $20/hr just for your time.

If he were only selling pelts and not counting castor and meat I would agree.

So your saying an 1 hr and 15 mins per beaver to set, check, skin, flesh and board (100 beaver divided by 80 hours). That's not including your travel time, trap prep, time spent selling your product. If we are just looking at it from a money perspective you can make more delivering pizzas in a medium sized city. I get it! I am out taking my fair share but lets not pretend the money is good, or even adequate for the time/effort spent.

No good sask, Your not using trappers math.

and every trapper does not have a market for the meat

Most trappers need to eat...can save a good bit off the grocery bill eating what you catch.

I dont eat much beaver meat except at camp,but lots of furbearers do.
I wouldnt catch much without bait.
Bearhunt outfitters will take a lot if you are spring and fall trapping.
I know a guy with rottweilers that take some for dog food.

No Id say about half that.
I can skin 6 beavers in an hour,when I am in the groove.
I can frost scrape and board 6 beaver in an hour.I'm a bit slow at that,(Paul Milette and his wife frost scraped and boarded 80 beaver in 8 hours).
I can trap 10 beaver in a 3 hour check.Traps work when you are not-you gotta let them work.

Everything is not done at once-you need to have a good system to be efficient.

I have no clue what you mean by time for trap prep or selling the fur.
My traps are always prepped in fall,part of camp chores.Like cutting wood putting up meat etc.I dont consider doing camp chores work when out grouse hunting and cutting wood in fall.
As far as selling fur,Fur goes in the bag when it comes off the board,and its a 5 minute ride to the fur pick up,have a coffee and breakfast with the wife at the restaurant while waiting for the truck.

You must consider watching utube videos work,lol.

Boco can!

I had a lot of good mentors,some passed away now except a couple.
Lost Frank Turner,Paul Millette,Yvon Arseneault,Carl Cashmore, and others.
Sill with us is Artur Dussault,Guy Rockburn,Greg Spalding,Jean Sauve,Ovila Sylvain and others.

You check with dog hunters or running pens ?
I've sold to both, now it's bait makers and bear guides. Takes ton of freezer room. I just got huge grinder going so I can save on space and add value to the product.

They’ll take them, but won’t pay for them

Might be tough to find good carcass markets in the south. When all else has failed I have sometimes advertised on craigslist and had dog owners buy carcasses. I do have an advantage in that I invested in a freezer that holds 100 carcasses.

Boco's faster than I am. I clean skin 3-4 per hour and board 4 an hour.

Man, you guys are fast. By the time I nail the pelt, cut off nose/ lips, touch up/milk fat out of pelt and lift up pelt on nails I have 30 minutes in.

They bought em down here for hog dogs for several years, remind them of the prices of dog food

What county you in Blak ?

I've tried myself with no luck. I can sell coon meat but with no value on the hide just not worth it.

Lonoke

I don't lift them up off the nails. Al the rest of it yes.

H2O sent some castor to me from Oregon. He said this castor is from beavers eating cottonwood. The castor has the same smell as the northern castor where the beavers are eating aspen, but the similar odor is milder. I thank him for sending it to me so I could be educated on the castor in that part of the world.

I think you are more realistic. I figure 1 1/2 hours total manhours per beav for me (not under snow and ice). I used to figure manhours to bid contracts. Things always take longer than peoples' ideal scenarios.

I'm in the same drainage that H20 is. Our beaver also eat some willow and blackberry roots but true enough, they seem to favor the cottonwood. It is impressive to see a 30 diameter tree felled on the banks of the Willamette.

BTW, I have about 20 lbs of that grade of castor.

Myself and another very experienced VA trapper and fur handler knocked the brakes off some beaver a few years ago after deer season. We skinned the beavers and put pelts in many large deep freezers due to limited time when trapping. After we were done trapping, we scraped and boarded them. The most we finished in a day was 73. I usually would go over several late evenings each week and scrape 25-30 without checking up and then go home. He would tack them on the boards.
Average about 10 minutes to scrape a beaver, about the same to tack one on board, about half that to take one off and brush, always more time involved in the whole process than figured.

We haven’t done this again at this level because it is too much time and expense invested for the current return.

Paul,
I admire your highly developed offactory nerve. I doubt mine is refined enough to detect subtile differences between regional differences.
It does remind me of a day many decades ago, back in a Fisheries class, doing some electrofishing on a trout stream. I caught the unmistakable odor of castor, and immediately proclaimed "beaver". The rest of the class looked around and seeing no beaver, or any sign of beaver, just assumed I was crazy. Of course, around a few more bends we started seeing beaver runs and beaver cutting everywhere. That is when I realized I was a bit different than most.

We feed the beaver carcases to our dogs..we have 9 dogs..and that saves us a huge amount of money on dog food from Nov till March.

We sell the tails also.

By the time we are done..pelt castor and tail..we average right as 20 dollars each.

Jerry saves alpt of time by clean skinning.

H
es fast and good at it.

If any of y'all are going to Neal's rendevous In maine this year in August you will see.

Jerry is doing the clean skinning demo this year.

I would love to see that demo.

I wonder if they could live stream it?

Or maybe his brother can record it and put it on his website?

I'll find out

x2
I don't watch many internet videos, but I would probably spend the time to watch that one and would definitely like to see it in person.

I'm slow, I figure 20 minutes to clean skin an x-large beaver and a bit more for a blanket or super blanket, a bit longer for one that is all scarred up. The big ones always have a few scars I have to slow down around but occasionally you get a fighter that is just a bucket of scars and those take longer. Again I'm slower on the boarding end, I might get the four that beaverpeeler gets in an hour if they are really nice beaver and everything goes smooth, but figure on average I'm closer to three boarded and milk fat scraped in an hour. I'm happy with that, I don't do many beaver any more and haven't done near what some of you on here have done, but I remember back when I started be happy when I got one clean skinned in under an hour. I've probably only done around a thousand beaver in my life, so I'm a long ways behind some of you in experience, but I've done enough I've got a system I'm comfortable with. Still might pick up something new though from someone who knows what they are doing though, pretty much learned from my dad and never been around anyone else doing beaver except beginners I was helping out.

I hear ya bearcat. I got to a point where I'm comfortable with what I'm doing and the time it takes me to do it. Got nothing I need to prove, so if I got a stubborn pelt that takes me longer so be it.