Fur Prices

What are the fur prices looking like this year?

Six

From the fur buyer I deal with they will be about the same as last year and coyote will do the best like last season.That is with fur put up. No green.

I was talking to a guy I work with today. He tells me that a friend of his, got $3.00 apiece for his scraped/dried coon. Didn't know where he sold them or when, but I would have kept then for that price. Have read in FFG that coyote are going to be the top dollar fur this year.

For how the price of fur is ,you sell it or if you sit on it then if it sit too long for the next seasons then it will be down grade do to stale goods and will not get what you would if you did not hold it. The fur market is and been on the down side for some time. If someone is looking to make something on it then you will need to think again. It is a hobby for me.

January 2018 Fur-Fish-Game

Coyote: Best white bellied, xtra heavy prairie $80 with weak necks/hip rubs/gunshot holes discounted, Better Western and NE with "puff" $30 maybe $45 for later goods, Semi-heavy $15-$25, flats $8-$15 after best gone

Beaver: $8-$12. Advice is to find landowners with a beaver problem and make more doing that.

Castoreum: Best $60-$80 because of low beaver prices = few to market.

Lynx: few selects at late western auctions close to $1,000. Best "Great Basin" $300-$400. Ordinary Western $150-$200. Rest of country $25-$75. Very Best Canadian maybe $135-$200 but avg under $100

Marten: Very Best Alaskan/Canadian $80-$100. Ordinary heavy $60-$70. Semiheavy $35-$45. Montana Rocky Mt types $18-$25

Fisher: Heavy, silky female $35-$45. Males $20-$30

Otter: $25-$35 for larger with a few $35-$45

Muskrat: $2-$3 many collections bought and stored

Mink: Bucks at $10-$12, females $3-$4

Nutira: $2-$3 if you can find a buyer

Raccoon: Much in storage. Interest in fresh Northern and xxxl-xxxxl bright colored $20. Avg under $10. Bigger & better semi-heavy $4-$6. Southerns difficult to move

Red Fox: Best Northern/Alaskan $30-$40. Bright Northeastern's $20-$25, pale Plains fox $12-$15. Flatter skins $8-$10

Silver/Cross Fox: $25-$35

Grey Fox: Good large skins $$10-$12

Kit/Swift Fox: maybe $8-$10 if find a buyer

White (Arctic) Fox: $50-$60 for clears and $20-$30 for stained. Fur Harvesters Auction, Inc. will move some this month should give market direction

Badger: Select pale, xtra heavy $40-$60. Brownish xtra heavy $20-$30. Semi-heavy $10-$15. Flats $1-$3

Skunk: Properly handled with long stripes $10-$15 at right auction. Short stripes/yellowish worth little

Spotted Skunk(civit)/Ring Tail Cat: $10-$15 craft trade

Opossum: Consider yourself lucky to move any at $2-$3

Squirrel: Lucky to get $1 if you can move it

White Weasel (ermine): $2.50-$3.50 for long-tails, $1-$1.50 for short-tails. Browns and graybacks 25 cents if your lucky

Wolf: Very best White Arctic Rug quality maybe $500 range. Arctic black and grayish rug $350-$450. Brownish Arctic $200-$300. Coarse timber wolf types $100-$200. Lower grades $50 or less

Wolverine: Rug Quality with feet $250-$400 (big range depends on where market goes), fur-quality with feet $150-$250

Advice is to find a taxidermist who may pay more for select hides

For what FFG have is for furs that are put up and dry and also that is for the top furs. Also depend on who is buying them also.Some of my furs where at some the price that is there, but not all of them.I do not go by what the trapping mag. state because it is due to change and some of them put what they think to build up the hopes of the ones that traps and hunt for the furs. That is what i seen for the years I been at this.I just talk with the one that I will sell to and go from there. But I keep trapping like I normal do each season.I do put up my furs also.I get more that way for them in the end and it all adds up in the end.

It is just a forecast of everyone's best guess. You may get more, you may get less but it does indicate the market and the market drives the price. The prices don't apply to green fur or anything like that.
I wouldn't let it stop me from trapping but depending on what is in storage, the price forecast etc I might concentrate on one a little more than another that didn't pay much if they both are in my territory. Beaver and Castoreum are a good example.

First off thank you very much jonp for the write up of FFG. Second off, both of you are correct to a point. For instance the price of beaver a pelt is only a pittance of the price for the castor from the same beaver. Some trappers don't want to mess with the castor. Others ( a few ) will take the time to clean and dry it to sell. Apparently the supplies are low to bring this much for them.

And, as it was explained to me when I was full time buying furs, A LOT of the prices of fur depends on what is happening/going on in this world. The economy world wide, North Korea, the tax reform here, NAFTA, weather ( everywhere ), clothing styles, the EU, oil prices etc.. The prices that are printed in FFG, The Trapper and Predator paper, and any other periodicals are purely speculation of put up furs ( scraped, stretched, and dried ) and never green/in the round. None of them will ever put top lot prices in print, no matter what!

So, I highly commend both of you fellows for still continuing to run trap lines for fur bearing animals no matter the prices. I hope you all have good luck and be safe out there. If this old world holds together and people would get their heads in order, life would be a lot better for everyone.

PS. trapper, how many of those timber kitties ( skunk ) have you caught so far? Some years we would only get 3 or 4, then others would get 2 or 3 dozen, ya just never knew.

This season I only got one skunk.It was not big but a nice white lines on it.i got $4 for it being put up.The most I had got in one season in the past was 12 and the top price was about $12 for about 2.Possum was alot this season and coon was down around where I am because of distemper .The thing that gets me on the mags . is that some that read it dose not know that for what they post is for put up furs and also like stated it is not for the top price for some.Because in different parts of the country there is different type of the same animal of fur.There is some parts of the country has the top type of furs and there are some that are for others. The guy I deal with he have a guy from Italy that buys his coyotes. I have met the guy about 2 years ago also.As for beaver there is not many that trap them. I got 12 this season and last season I got 21. i sell the casters. it is all extra for me.Got 10 coyotes this season.Npot count other animals.It is just a hobby for me.