Flea Market Ethics

Over the years, I've seen traps of various types at flea markets, auctions and yard sales, Quite sure many of you have as well.
Most of the ones I see are priced as ornaments, 4 times (or more) what they are worth. Rarely, almost never see one "user" priced.
Anyway, I've seen some over the years that had ID tags on them. No idea who they were, just noticed.
I did buy some at an estate auction of folks that I did know, they were tagged but I knew the fellow, it was to settle his estate.
But what about traps bought from ... wherever .... that have tags ? Does anyone ever look them up, try to contact the person on the tag, check if they were stolen from them ?
Or, just hit them up for a cool back story, reminisce a bit, make a new acquaintance ? anything like that ?
Seems like folks would cut the tags off if they knew what it was, or was dealing a dirty deed.
Next one I see, I'm gonna try to look them up. (if I can afford the trap, that is)
Or, should I leave that can o' worms closed up ?

Just curious, thanks

I once bought some MJ600's at a convention here in Northern Michigan that I found " Property of the state of....."either Virginia or West Virginia,I don't remember which now, stamped on the frame.Always wondered about that

I imagine a good many of them the owners may be deceased. Guy dies, none of this relatives trap, and they get sold off.

I was at a consignment auction a number of years ago that had a bundle of traps on it. I was looking at them and discovered two of them were mine. Still had my tags on them. They went home with me.

When I see a single trap at a garage sale I wonder how many of them were "picked up" by a bird hunter. You'd think they'd be smart enough to remove the tag but i guess not always

I purchased quite a few traps over the years that had name tags on them. I guess I always assumed the seller would be smart enough to remove the name tags if they were stolen. Now this thread has me thinking. When I do think back I got traps that way at flea markets, conventions and estate sales. I would think the flea market traps would have been the most likely to have been stolen.

I have often wondered the same thing when the tags are at flea market. I've looked at traps to see if I find any of mine that were stolen
I did have a friend give me a federal tag with my name on and a previous address. He bought at auction. Said He had bought a jar of just trap tags found mine while sorting them. The tag was from a 110 rat trap stolen from me back in the mid 1980s. Was probably around 2005 when he found it gave it to me?
So if anyone has a upper Mississippi refuge tag with my name engraved on the back. It would be from a trap that was stolen. I may have given one of those tags to someone here on T man for some project. But any other tags out there would be from stolen traps.

Mac

My dog poops facing north!

I don't think that folks that have never trapped know anything about trap tags. Given that the tags are often rolled or wrapped around something (link or swivel) and can't be read unless unwrapped, they probably have no idea what it is and the tag is ignored.

We were at district 8 flea market long time ago in Maysville. We had two tables and when things slowed down went walking around and my buddy found one of his old hunting licenses for sale in a pile of licenses......jk

I was bird hunting and worked an old pond that the dam washed out on. Saw an old beaver den hole in the bank. There was a 330 in the hole. Looked it over and found my trap tag on it. 30 miles from where I lived.

I have purchased traps off trap shed that had as many as 3 trap tags on a single trap. All three tags had different names.

I have a drawer full of used trap tags I removed from traps I bought over the years. I don't know why I saved them. Maybe someday I'll go through them and make a list of the different names. Some are really old, where the address says" rural route" on them. Some are big and home made. The write your own get thrown in the trash, as they are unreadable. There are several from out of state (I've bought all my traps in Michigan)

I found an old rusty trap chain with a copper tag on it about 10 years ago. The trap was nowhere to be found. I looked him up on the internet and he had a criminal record about 3 pages long and was lodged in the county jail at the time for assault.

There is a victor number 1 1/2 longspring growed halfway into a chunk of tree on display at the local ag parts store. The store owners didn't believe it was my Dads until he rolled open the tag and showed them his name. He said he must have lost it in the late 70s. Its still hanging above parts desk to this day.

That's why if you ever have a trap stolen,,make sure to report it so its on record.

How many states DON'T require trap tags...? South Dakota doesn't.

I've bought a few #1 LS at antiques stores around here. One had a MN trap tag on it. Didn't really think twice about it...

South Dakota doesn't and I usually buy traps from antique stores and haven't found any tags on them. I bought a bunch of traps from a guy that had his tags on them still from when he was in Wyoming but I took all those off and junked them. This thread does make a guy think about putting tags on his gear though.

I just found that one of my 110's has a name and #'s engraved on the flat heads of the pivot rivets.
Like with a vibratory engraver. Very small/faint, can barely/almost make it out.
Wonder who would expect to check there, except the one that did it.
Sneaky

I have purchased a lot of traps this pass year, as I prep them for the season (paint and my preferred chain set up) I stamp a private code into the frame. Should make identification easier if they should ever grow legs. Thieves may remove trap tags, but not likely to be taking the trap apart to grind the code out of the frames.

Easier to drill a small hole or two in the frame, the same location on all traps. Only you'll know and they look like factory holes.

Thanks for mentioning that ... I didn't consider that, but it's a simple option if your looking to mark traps.