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I actually sold a coon!!!! I ended up with a late listing as a Western semi-heavy and someone was actually interested. So, before any pt action, my coon clearance is at 8.3%...Time to go treat my headache and have some supper

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Sad coon sale for sure. The market is flooded with them from last year and again this year. Tman is squawking over the prices. After reading the whole 8 pages there are only a few with any brains to realize the market is flooded and only good grade coon will sell. There are some trappers on this site that read into that after last years dismal sales and only harvested the better coon and released many poor quality coon. Amik was one that I know of and Swamp. I think it will take a few years for coon to come back. So by being picky with your coon and your numbers will be down, there is a chance that you can sell them all. That's my opinion on the coon. Until their is a demand for coon, trappers should keep the numbers low and target other species that are doing better if they can. I was goint to make a statement on T man about that but figured I would get raked over the coals. Better to say it here where common sense prevails.

No surprise on this sale so far to me except skunks. We all knew coons and beaver would be down dramatically, and all the furs in general are down. Maybe its the case for folks, where only getting a dose of reallity makes things real and believable....seeing is believing? There is no sense working for pennies.

The problem with skunks I fore-see, is everyone that is willing is already talking about hammering them. There will be the usual rush to cash in, and a bunch of trappers with no sense will start in on them as soon as season opens, and flood the market with a ton of sub par skunks that arent prime just to "get a mess of em". Then the market will slow and those prices will nose dive and they will be sitting in the storage vaults right along with coons and essence will be hard to give away. One good auction of an item really dont make it in demand. It was, for THAT auction...but who knows on the next? Skunks have always been unpredictable in pricings and demand. Here today gone tomorrow. It would be nice to have a decently valuable pelt to count on, so I hope demand increases but I have my doubts. Too many trappers are already talking about filling the shed with them.....demand for skunk wont hold if that holds true, especially if jerks fill the market with unprime skunks. That in its self is GOING to happen, because skunks lay up more quickly then coons do and folks wont wait, as they prime much later then coons do. Cant get folks to wait on coons for the most part so why will they for skunk? Skunks should be a mid to late season harvest....but they wont be you can count on it. Tell folks and tell them but they dont hear.

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wolf- I don't know if its that the market is flooded with coon or more that there is no (or only a limited one right now) market for them?? That's one of the problems of only have a couple of countries that actively buy a lot of wild fur. If the Russians (or their agents) have been in the recent past the main buyers of coon and they simply aren't buying because of their deflated currency, then who else will buy them? Sort of like the heavy yotes and your Canadian en vogue fur trimmed parka maker. If they suddenly left the picture, would those yoders still go for over a Ben Franklin??

I will certainly try to go after k-9s next year (we used to be reddie country but mostly coyote nowadays) but coon are probably the most numerous furbearers per sq. mile around here. Mrats used to be but we have no water and doubtful the sloughs will fill up this year. If I want to trap rats in any number, I have to go north 100+ miles and even those guys caught very little last year when compared to say 2011. In my commuting area I suspect the greatest critter populations are as follows as of right now (being mostly dry): coon, skunk, grinner-coyote, beaver, badgers-fox, mrat-mink (what did I forget??). The dps will probably sit next season unless I want to do the couple of farmsteads more or less just for fun. There's only a number of sets I can check in 2-3 hours before work and knowing my lack of speed setting, probably about 3 doz is all I can manage to keep operating.

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Supply and demand.......over stocking of items and low demand normally go hand in hand. So which was first the chicken or the egg? What we are seeing now, to a large degree, we better get use to it. China is a shrewd buisness country that have begun to monopolize the over seas market several years ago buy getting other countries to buy from them instead of North America. China can buy a rat for $5, then sell it to Korea for $10 and Korea dont mind.....it saves them the cost and hassle of doing the auctions themselves, and if they were to keep buying N America, there would be bidding wars and China would run them up to $10 anyway,,,so why mess with the cost and hassle? Of course, that takes our N American profit, and puts it in China's pocket. Before long, Russia and most all of Europe/Aisa will be buying fur from China whether there is economical peril for them or not.. its happening ask we speak. China is even establishing domestic furs to further cut out N American profit. So welcome to the new world of low fur revenue...... we better get use to it.

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[quote="Amak"]Supply and demand.......over stocking of items and low demand normally go hand in hand.

There you have a flooded market. 2 years ago I asked Nafa a question when they had almost a 100.000 marten for the winter sale. How many would it take to flood the market. 200.000 they said. That's just a drop in the bucket compared to ranch mink. And this year you see the ranch mink prices dropping. Supply is greater then demand and they are only taking the better quality skins and leaving the junk or paying next to nothing for it. Until things even out and the demand goes out for more fur we will struggle with poor sales and clearances in certain area's.

No prob PC. Haven't been on puter much lately. Sometimes I have to take a break from the puter. I get burned out on the puter after being on it so much. Actually I got very good grading on my yotes after talking with Amak. Like you and many others, I lack the experience of reading the abbreviations of the gradings and what they mean. I thought they were under par and they were not. I knew when them yotes were caught and the colors were good with top notch put up. When my wife gets home I will have her help me with posting my grades.

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A WISE MAN PROFITS BY THE MISTAKES HE MAKES.
A FOOL NEVER SEES THE ONE HE MAKES. (Harold Warp)

Here are my gradings for this sale. The bottom yote was carried over from last year and one coon carried over from last year.
COYOTE
LOT
SIZE |GRADE |COLOR |CLR|
QTY
158178
XL-LGE SDA DK-DBR 1-4 GOOD,
1
158454
XL-LGE II DK-DBR 1-4 AVG,
2
158468
XL-LGE II 1-4 PR,
1
158998
XL-LGE DG3 DK-DBR 1-4
1
159219
3XL-XL DG2 DK-DBR 1-4 NC,
1
COYOTE Total 0

LYNX CAT
LOT
SIZE |GRADE |COLOR |CLR|
QTY
173727
XXL-XL *SEL PL 2-3 RD,
1
173809
XXL-XL *SEL XP 2-3 VRD,
1
LYNX CAT Total 0

RACCOON
LOT
SIZE |GRADE |COLOR |CLR|
QTY
169530
3XL *SEL 4 NC,
1
169551
4XL-3XL *I 2-3 NC,
1
170322
4XL *SEL 2-3
1
170324
4XL *SEL 4
1
170353
4XL-3XL *I 2-3
1
RACCOON Total 0

SKUNK
LOT
SIZE |GRADE |COLOR |CLR|
QTY
157759
XL-LGE I-II P.S.,
1
Account Totals
QTY
Account Totals 0

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A WISE MAN PROFITS BY THE MISTAKES HE MAKES.
A FOOL NEVER SEES THE ONE HE MAKES. (Harold Warp)

The 3x coon on my gradings is the only coon that sold yesturday. $17.00. I will not send any trash. All my coons were caught in my K9 and cat sets. The rest of the coons I have here at the house will not be sent and they are nice coons. I can't justify sending them just to be bought back or sold for little. I wills use another avenue for them. I am not in this business for fun or to work for free. I do not or will not kill for the fun or sport as some. This is a business, not a sport.

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A WISE MAN PROFITS BY THE MISTAKES HE MAKES.
A FOOL NEVER SEES THE ONE HE MAKES. (Harold Warp)

Like my other critters i'm no totaly up on the in's and out's of grading. I'm have a fisher that will hopefully sell tomorrow.
I hope someone can help me out with some details......

FISHER

LOT SIZE |GRADE |COLOR |CLR|
QTY

172805 SML *I LBR 5 LN,
1

I get the size, grade and color......... What is LN?????
Is the "5" less desired than a one?(just like raccoons)

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Coyotes -
Fox -
Raccoons -
Muskrats -
Mink -
Otter -
Bobcats -
Fisher -
Beaver -

small, 1* means labeled skin, not select but just about, LBR means light brown, 5 is clarity and the higher number means not good and LN means long Nap. Long Nap is usually a grade for ranch mink. Makes the fur look woolly. Good luck tomorrow and lets hope things go better.

The boys marten sold 100%. Average was $74.00. They beat me . Now fisher is next, they have 2

It wasn't the best sale for coons but I'm not angry either I had less then 50 percent clearance but I still averaged 24.75 so I'm not going to freak out and jump of the nafa ship.... They have always done well for me... Seen a bunch of diff years of the fur market good and bad.... Everyone on trapperman is bashing um and it's crazy.... Settle down two years ago it was all praise! it's an auction based on current fur prices, they don't work magic!

How did you guys do that had those neat critters called fishers?? I guess the last big wild is bcats at the end of today. You all will have to post about those as well. If the Jan. sale was an indication, bcats will probably be down. But then again, some of those down prices still might look good to a guy like me...

Fish- Nearly a 50% clearance of your coons?? You do live a charmed life, a combo of great fur handling and having pretty decent critters to start with. Yeah, with the 16% coon I've cleared I can't whine too bad about the ave. ($17.50). I might have a coon inventory for a while (more going up in 3 weeks). The dps will probably be put away next season.

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Davids 2 fisher

FISHER (click for lots)






By Grade & Size

OFFER**

SOLD

BUY BACK

SOLD VALUE

AVERAGE

I LGE 1 1 0 45.00 45.00
I SML 1 1 0 80.00 80.00
Variety Total 2 2 0 125.00 62.50

Ha ha I had less than 50 percent clearance.... 43 percent to be exact.... charmed? No just a hillbilly who likes to trap, and if your stop by my house my door handles are prolly still greasy from all those coon I put up ha ha

[quote="NonPCfed"]How did you guys do that had those neat critters called fishers?? I guess the last big wild is bcats at the end of today. You all will have to post about those as well. If the Jan. sale was an indication, bcats will probably be down. But then again, some of those down prices still might look good to a guy like me...

My female fisher got me $50...............I was fine with that. I also sold 4 more beaver so that brings me to 5 sold out of the 9 i sent.
And I was very happy with the caster price also!!! There is a positive in everything!

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Coyotes -
Fox -
Raccoons -
Muskrats -
Mink -
Otter -
Bobcats -
Fisher -
Beaver -

I like your attitude Westside. Id be happy with a$10 average. Thatd pay for gas and new supplies. Ive sold coons for much cheaper. Im with ya PC, if things dont turn around im only taking incidental coons and any ADC coons next year. Theyre getting a little thin around here anyhow now after the last 4 or so years of decent prices. I dont go near Tman, too many "odd ducks" there. If i ever feel a need to visit there I'll just whack myself upside the noggin with a hammer, self abuse one way or another, wont have to read to clunk myself either. Castor prices must be up? Short beaver catch? Zach shipped all his dried castor off and is fan drying the last of it.

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Waitin for the leaves to fall...

One cat sold for $120 and the other bought back. Looked like a flop of a cat sale. Many buy backs.

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A WISE MAN PROFITS BY THE MISTAKES HE MAKES.
A FOOL NEVER SEES THE ONE HE MAKES. (Harold Warp)

Yes Richard not a good sale on bob cats, lynx met the same resistance. Maybe the next sale will be better.

For fisher I had a top of $154 and an average of $82. Males were poor, females pretty good. I averaged just over $30 on my marten but I had quite a few yoy and they aren't as nice as our neighbors to the north. Rats I averaged $3. My eastern coyotes didn't sell, neither did my beaver or raccoon.

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Fur Shed 2014
Muskrats - 48
Beaver - 5
Otter - 1
Coon - 6
Fisher - 7
Ermine - 3
Mink - 0
Marten - 17
Fox - 0
Coyote - 5
Skunk - 0

Sold a coon private treaty for $8.19

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13/14 hunt/trap season
Geese-13
Grouse-1
Squirrel-6
Coon-4
Muskrat-8 (1 eaten)
Mink-1 (ranched)



Check out my youtube channel? I'm retroslickbass. I have some videos of me playin piano and bass in church!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/retroslickb ... rid&view=0 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul. Mark 8:36

LHB- Nice action on the pt coon. I wish it was more but at least its gone. I sold one coon pt as soon as the coon auction ended but after that no movement. Pretty dead out there. Next Sat. morn I'll add another 22 coons (and other stuff) to the NAFA "fur jail". Who knows, maybe the Russians will be around in July or Sept. If not, they'll probably be bought eventually.

Even though I'll probably hang up the dps for at least Nov. & Dec. next season and will try to diversify by going after k-9s (never set a single foot hold this past season and apparently I can't snare worth a crap), I'm sure I'll still catch some coon. And I'll put up decent size ones. Like I said in the past, I think a trapper, especially those of us who do it more or less as a hobby, need to think like a farmer and put some fur up for most auctions. Most farmers around here don't just sell after the harvest. They sell some crops then but then sell on futures 3-4 times a year. That tends to dampen down the big ups and downs that markets can do. Things in the world can change in 3-6 months. I hope they do...

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26

Just took 47 coyotes and 43 rats up for the June auction. The young lady receiving the furs was a great relief over the fellow they had last year. She let my boys snoop through a lot of stuff and answered questions brilliantly. Then the boys and I spent 3 hours in the trapping store.

tt- I hope the strong yote prices hold and you all make out well!!

Any pixs of your trapping or put up adventures?? I'd love to see a pile of Alberta pales laying around or hanging from a wall

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"And God said, Let us make man in our image …and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, …the fowl of the air…and all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26