MO Fur Sale

The MO Trappers Association had a very well run fur auction yesterday, the 26th. Want to thank all the volunteers for their hard work. Thank You!

I don’t have any results from the sale, but hopefully someone will get them posted.

14-15 buyers. 43 or so lots of fur.

robbie page said 35 lots

I need to learn how to post pictures.
Just have no interest in learning that kind of stuff!
Anyway, I have the results. If anyone wants certain species results let me know.
I’ll list some common species:
115 finished beaver averaged $8.93
49 green beaver averaged $7.35
34 bobcat averaged $46.01
313 coyotes averaged $10.75
1044 rats averaged $4.61
1229 finished coon averaged $4.38
224 green coon averaged $2.27
29 dry otter averaged $30.24
56 green otter averaged $25.69

Any price on castor?

Thanks for posting guys. Looks like you had a good turn out, I'm encouraged things are moving considering all the doom and gloom. Personally I have hope for our future and the market, we have had alot of strikes against us with the world situation. Chins up fellas.

Does anyone remember Dorman Clouse? I am not 100% sure on that spelling.

TTT

No one remembers Dorman Clouse? In those days the fur auction was huge. If I remember right, it was held at Sedalia at the fairgrounds. One year it was held at the oid JC Penney farm in northern(?) Missouri.

This is Wanda Keller Garver. Bud Keller was my dad. I remember attending 2 auctions with him at Sedalia fairgrounds in late 60's or early 70's. I would have been 15-16 years old the.
I remember Dorman Clouse (sp?). Some other old time dealers I remember there was Duane Clark, Crane, Don Veirs,
Terry Wynn, Joe Duryee, Sadler husband and wife, Danny Barrows from Kansas I think, there was a guy named Loren I think, Jim Triplett, Joplin area. Two of the most memorable was Jack Veirs and Ludy Sheda from Iowa.
Clay Creech, Robbie Page or Rick Frederick might remember more.

If I remember right around that time Missouri had around 300 registered fur buyer's. I'm pretty sure I have an article from Sedalia about that auction at fairgrounds with dad and some other fur buyer's in it.

Why would anyone finish a beaver for 1.58 cents? Green vs finished price list.

Reason#1--it is an auction,you don't know if put up beaver are going to be a lot more than green or close to the same price.
Reason #2--you don't have the freezer space--so you have to pit up the beaver.
Reason #3-you enjoy putting up beaver
Reason#4-you don't consider the job complete,if you don't put up the fur.
Tom

Bog master gave you 4 good reasons. Many learned that the job wasn’t done if the fur wasn’t dried and stretched. Why would someone chase big bucks when you can’t eat horns?

Looks like a pretty good average on Missouri coyotes compared to what I've seen quoted for Ks coyotes.

We sold our furs a few times to a guy whose name was Charlie Lamb. I am pretty sure he was out of Iowa. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Furlover. I think i am slightly younger than you. I remember it was dang cold in that barn. We were at the auction when coons hit $10 or so. If my memory serves me correctly, the local furbuyers back in Kansas were topped out about $6 or so. I know the next years auction was a complete zoo. Ludy was pretty hard to miss with his fur coat with the skunk sewn into the back and his roll of 100's. I think we might have sold to your Dad a time or two. Bud Keller sounds pretty familiar. My father is still around(90 in August). I will show him this thread at breakfast in the morning. If I am not mistaken, Dorman Clouse's regular job was commercial bus driver. I am sure your estimate of 300 furbuyers in Missouri caught a few people's eyes. Kansas had a fair number back then too.

You might not be able to eat "horns" but they can be sold, some for pretty decent money. Just make sure you have the "paperwork" to back some of it up, especially for big racks w/ skull caps that can bring several hundred or more on ebay or other on-line places.

Better price on rats that I would have thought. Nice....considering.

X2.$4+ for Missouri 'rats don't sound bad to me considering the state of the market

Wanda Keller!!!
I lost your cell number. Send it to me private message on here.
You named a bunch of the old time buyers who attended Mo fur auctions. Harvey Dale Payne was quite a character. Dean Hoffman still attends. Roger Yoakum never missed for years. Bill Pruitt, Bud and Willard Magee, Bob Flannery, Donnie Foley, and Rick Bunyard.
I remember Missouri sales going until 3 o’clock in the morning. Crazy how much fur went through those sales back in the day. Lots of characters. Lots of laughs, and lots of hard work. Many times I remember buyers completely filling their trucks and trailers well before the auction was over.
I fear we’ll never see such things again.

Bud Keller was the best country fur buyer in the state in my eyes, and I’m only one of many trappers who feel that way. Bud paid well for well handled fur. He was my friend. I miss him. Selling at Bud’s in Collins was always a day we looked forward to. Bud would have us come mid to late morning and then we’d go to lunch. Good times. Great memories.

Dad always thought a lot of you. He really appreciated all the hard work the members of Mo Trapper's Assn in putting on the auctions. I'm a little biased but dad paid top prices for well handled fur. I remember many times he would get pick up and camper full and then started asking different members if he kept buying would they haul a load. Got home many times between 3-4 in the morning and dad would say go sleep a couple of hours but be back at 6. Then if he couldn't get all green stuff in freezer I started hauling to other guys with freezer space for storage.
Robbie, Rick, and Bart would remember those days. Don't forget Bill Geiger, Jack Carnahan.
I can't remember the buyers name that bought skunks, he was in a wheelchair. Dad knew I hated skunks, so he bought some green ones. I went to skunk buyer and asked if he wanted to buy them. He asked what I wanted told him a quarter more than dad paid for them.
I always tried to load some when he bought them. We got home late and unloaded pickup and dad asked where's the skunks. I said I sold them and made a quarter a piece on them. He tried buying a couple more times but sold them. He finally quit buying green skunks at auction.

Yes, they held it in livestock barns and was freezing. When I get back home from Florida I will try to find article on Sedalia auction and post on here.

Furlover,

I talked to my father and he said he knew your Dad quite well. He remembered him being a coon hunter with English/Bluetick hounds with one particular one named Mike. Is he remembering your father?

He sure is. Keller's Mike was inducted into the English Hall of Fame. Coon hunting, ball playing and then fur buying were dad's greatest passions. When dad hunted he growled about trappers, but once he started buying fur he preferred trapped coons. I heard him give many a lecture to coon hunters about letting their dogs chew their coon up. Some would say we're training them. Dad would tell them if their dogs were any darn good they could grab them by throat and kill them quickly.

LOL. He also mentioned Suzy/Susie. He also mentioned a frightening episode while on a UKC night hunt.

I remembered a couple other buyers who came to the Missouri auction. Delmar Logue and Paul Mershmann. Delmar was a good ole boy. Always bought for someone else. Don Bauer from Illinois or maybe Ohio? Can’t remember where he was from.

Keller’s fur shed was in town and none of the family lived nearby. Bud told me back when fur was high and he had a ton of fur bought, that he slept a lot of nights in the fur shed (I’d bet with a shotgun nearby) for fear of someone breaking in and stealing fur.
That’s not a concern these days lol.

You could probably leave your shed open, lights glaring and a huge free sign displayed and your coon count wouldn't go down! LOL.

Keller's Susie was my dog. Unfortunately, when I was about 16 I became more interested in boys than coon hunting.
Should have stayed with coon hunting. I went to a lot of UKC hunts with my dad.
Susie was ok to him but he could be a little rough with her when she screwed up.
My cousin, Jerry Keller and Gary Mitchell both hunted her in hunts.

Mike was THE dog for dad, he never found one in 30 years that he ever thought measured up to Mike.

did prouhet ever attend the auction

He did sleep with shotgun at fur house and when dad couldn't stay another guy stayed there.
He was broken into once and we put out word to other buyers of who it might be.
We could identify one set of coons stolen.


Jim Triplett called dad and said one of suspects was there with coons we could identify. Dad asked if he could stall him. Dad called our local sheriff to tell him and Sheriff had Newton county go arrest him and seize coons.
Our sheriff called dad and said he was going down to get him. Dad said by gosh I'm going with you. Sheriff said only if you promise not to take gun or physically harm him.

I remember Delmar and Mershman. There was a buyer from down around Frederickstown but can't remember his name.

Lots of names from the past.

Does anyone remember Paul Gregg? He was a coon hunter and also logged some. He lived near Adrian I think.

Furlover,

My Dad mentioned the roughness with Susie. It involved a UKC night hunt and a skunk! Enough said.

It always warms my heart when I hear a story about a thief being caught!