Just curious to see what the outlook is looking like for raw: raccoon, fox, coyotes, mink, muskrat and beaver?

I'll believe when I see it but a certain trapper friendly magazine said raccoon prices might be higher than normal

I don't worry about it. Ijust trap and get what I get. $5 or $50 I will be hitting coon and mink and rats hard till the day I die. I am getting sick of everyone worring about prices. I pray for $10 coon so the weekend warriors will stay home and get fatter so they will have more trouble next year.

Brownie
Your prayers may be answered by the recent world wide economic slump. The last time this happened (1987)fur markets collapsed.

Talked to my fur buyer last night, and it doesn't sound good early

walleye 101 I think you might be very correct. Rumor is that coon should do well this year, but we all know how the rumors go. Everyone will focus on coon and flood the market. Only time will tell.

One of the main consumers of racoon is Russia and the countries of the old Soviet Union. The reason coon prices advanced like they have the last couple of years is that their economies were growing rather well. If you have listened at all to the news on world markets in the last couple of weeks they (thier economies) have taken a severe hit. That is bad news for coon markets this fall.

I have to think that the whole fur market will be affected by the wall street greed collapse. With credit hard to come by and the fur market being speculative even on a good year, I bet the buyers will error on the side of caution, which will have them offering you less for your fur. So go out and trap and enjoy yourself.

With coon there are none to buy right now. The prices will be up until all the idiots who were picking up road kill in August start selling their [PoorWordUsage] and the market is flooded with crappy coon. But like leechman said it is about trappi9ng not bottom lines.

The market is already flooded, I was giving the advice to hold your fur till later in the year, let the market clean itself out

I thougth it was cleaned out. It was cleaned out last spring. Where do you sell fur?

they didn't have there September acution so they have hold overs starting the winter auctions.

Bottom line sell your early stuff early.. The prices are inflated major.. I have talked to several MAJOR buyers and they are worried big time... All these trappers thinking high prices aint gonna happen boys... To make money trapping you need VOLUME AND NUMBERS.. Not high prices. I've seen this for 20 years..

If you mean sell unprime junk early I would agree (no point holding on the that). But if all the buyers are worried as you say there is nothing to gain by selling quality fur early. Their uncertainty only means they will need to hedge low since they are taking the risk. Selling early under these conditions will assure low prices. Hanging on til mid-winter may not be any better but at least it give the markets some time to stabalize. I don't mind getting $10 for a coon if that is it's true value on the market, but I don't want to get $10 because a local fur buyer was concerned about a possible crash that never came.

I don't sell local.. I sell to different buyers all over the country and NAFA.. I trap several states a year.. I know when to sell and when to hold. I've been burned plenty of times.