Alaskan Marten buyer.

Q ) Who is the number one buyer of Alaskan Marten ?
Anyone have any contact information ?

I was shipping to Joe Mattie, FHA.
Honestly, have never heard of a #1 Buyer Title.....

Ditto.

George Kortum is one of the largest buyers in the west

https://www.reddit.com/r/Trapping/comments/bqy575/nafa_banned_prominent_fur_buyer_george_kortum/

He has to be good if NAFA terminated him in 2019.

I've met him, I agreed with NAFA on that one. A lot of people seem to like him though.

[/quote] I've met him, I agreed with NAFA on that one. A lot of people seem to like him though.[/quote]

I HAVE ALSO MET GEORGE ALTHOUGH MANY YEARS AGO AT THE ITA FUR SALES. HE BOUGHT A LOT OF FUR AND PAID FOR IT ON WHEN THE BILL WAS DUE. (I WAS ITA PRESIDEMT AT THE TIME SO I KNEW WHEN THE BUYERS PAID ON TIME.) HE BID MORE ON SOME FURS AND LESS ON OTHERS THAN THE OTHER BUYERS. THAT IS WHAT AN AUCTION IS ALL ABOUT. HE ALSO KNOWS WAY MORE ABOUT BUYING AND SELLING FUR THAN I EVER WILL.
IF HE TOLD TRAPPERS THEY WERE BETTER OFF SELLING THEIR FURS AT A DIFFERENT SALE, IF IT WAS TRUE, THAT WOULD BE OF BENEFIT TO THE TRAPPER. IS THAT ANY DIFFERENT THAN SOMEONE TELLING ME "I WILL BUY YOUR FUR AND PAY YOU ? $s OVER THE AVERAGE?" NOW IF HE DIDN'T BUY THEM THAT WOULD MAKE ME UPSET.
SO WITH bearcat2 THIS MAY BE A PERSONAL THING OR HE MAY HAVE OTHER GOOD REASONS
SINCE I DO NOT KNOW GEORGE PERSONALLY, I WOULD SELL FUR TO HIM IF HE OFFERED ME WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A GOOD PRICE BECAUSE IN THE PAST HIS CHECKS WERE GOOD, REGARDLESS OF WHAT CONFLICT NAFA HAD WITH HIM.

George is still in business of buying and selling fur. Nafa is not. Nuff said. How many martin do you have to sell? As you may know its a tough market. Boco seems to have a good strong market for his marten. Not sure he is willing to let you in the door.

Marten is one species that is difficult to sell tanned in good numbers.And right now the raw fur market for marten sucks.
Tanned beaver,is in demand locally where I am.

mad mike, you'd be smart to do some real research before you go blackballing someone you've only googled

Slickpan, you nailed it

Guess its still a mystery who the largest AK marten buyer is, but i bet Joe Mattie would point you in the right direction.

we sold 5 skins for 400 , its never enough, but I try to find the value added market for them and make an honest buck wherever I can.

It was a dig at NAFA, rosscoak. NAFA had nothing good going by 2019.

The largest fur buyer in Alaska would be Kwikpak Fur. Its a Company I started. I am guessing they get the bulk of the Marten along the Yukon river now. The main office is in Anchorage.

Any reliable numbers being paid, yet?

Alaska Trapping Range Store, the trapping store in Eagle River is paying $40-45 each. Just sold him 10 last week..

In these times, that seems reasonable.

Katcatcher,
Yes it is personal, I don't like him, I never said his checks weren't good. I do think NAFA had grounds to ban him, regardless of how their situation worked out. And I'm not happy with the NAFA situation, I lost a lot of money over that deal.

He has bought some of my furs at auction, obviously I didn't get the checks from him personally but have never heard of his checks not coming through. I just think he is a jerk (to put it politely) other than that everything bad I know or think I know about him is secondhand he said/she said, and I'm admittedly biased because of my personal opinion of the man. This is why I stated that plenty of other people like him, I won't deal with him personally because I don't like or trust him, but I also won't tell anyone else not to because I have no firsthand knowledge of him not holding up his end of the deal. Unlike a couple other fur buyers I have dealt with over the years.

Flat williow flash's add says he is the " largest in the west".
Who do we believe now.

Kwik pak fur is definitely not the largest buyer in Alaska. From Phone calls I've had this season it seems they may not be buying at all? A business can only lose money for so long before they no longer are in operation. With that being said they were paying really high prices a couple years ago. Plus they don't know how to grade fur, its a nose count system. So that works out to the trappers benefit often times.

I would guess that Bill Wivoda in Fairbanks is the largest marten buyer currently in the state. He's not being super aggressive, but he'll buy marten. Its tough times right now in the fur trade for all.

I'm buying Lynx this season and will be making a few trips around the road system later in March when I get my traplines picked up. Prices aren't great, but I have a large order and will buy as many as I can get my hands on and no need to skin out the feet.

Mike

Mike my guess is, your your guess is way off. Kwikpak buys way more fur than Bill, and Joe combined, and has for years. Thats why NAFA sent Mark Schmitt to Alaska to see what happened to all the marten they used to get. I was getting it a lot of their shippers along the Yukon. They didn't like it.

P.S. Kwiikpak is worth 100 million. They can lose money on fur all day long.

Good luck. I am glad to see you still in business.

The Yukon river area isn't the biggest fur producing area of the state is the problem. But at any rate, word has it they aren't buying at all at this time. Do you have information otherwise?

All the others mentioned are buying, if they are the biggest and can afford to lose money, why are they not in the game?

Mike

I have not heard that they are not buying. We had a buyer in Grayling ,Kotlik, and Anchorage the last I heard. I am not involved anymore but I would be very surprised if they are not buying at all.

Most of the Fur Bill and Joe handle was/is for the auction.

A buddy mentioned a few weeks ago they were paying $120 for Lynx $60 for marten $30 for otter. Try call and ask if you want.

The Yukon river area is rich with fur. Not hungry country like much of the interior. We have very crazy high populations of most all furbearers, I used to have guys sell me 300 marten twice a year. Fox.,beaver and otter and mink all you want to skin most years. Lynx get crazy high here too. Thats why Goldberg made the trips out this way. Was huge fur producing part of the state at one time and I brought it back, if they didn't screw it up.

I know they lost their azzes on the NAFA scam I always told them to stick with FHA but Nope. So maybe they are broke .lol I am sure NAFA took down a lot of buyers.

Well, my understanding is the yukon expanded. My guess this social program is losing money.

Social programs are not intended to make money. Although this is not a social program , its a get off your butt and go trap program that's funded by us . Note in the graph above its listed as "Employment" "Trappers Income "

Pollock provides!