I was contacted this evening by a couple who have been handling his father's estate, and have bills to pay. Among other items, they have a #5 Newhouse bear trap, and from the conversation over the phone, might be in very good shape. The pan is legible for the #5 Newhouse name, but not all the patent numbers are legible. It's been hanging in the cabin for many years, according to this source.

These folks would like to sell it to use the money to repair the place. I told 'em to take pics, but they apparently aren't up on the internet world, so they're taking real film pictures and mailing them to me.

I told 'em I'd post this on T-man to see what the value of this trap might be and if there's any interest in the trap from members here. There are no tags on the chain. I've got enough "stuff", otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this.

If you have an idea what the value might be, and I know it's tough without looking right at it, please post. Hopefully WissMiss will spot this and lend a hand. Sounds to me like these folks would like a fair price for it.

That's about all I know about this trap.

PM me if you're interested in the purchase, they live in SE Wisconsin.

Here are pics of the pictures they sent me in the mail. Here's the text of the accompanying letter:

"Here are a few photographs of the Oneida Community Newhouse #5 bear trap that our estate is trying to sell. Please give me a quote of how much you would be able to pay us for the trap."

As stated earlier, I have no interest in this trap, nor do I care to make a penny as the middleman. These folks just sounded like they needed some help in selling this trap.

At this point, without turning this into some sort of auction, let me know if you're interested and what you'd be willing to pay based on the pics. We can go from there.

I'm going to let this ride until Sunday evening.

Fella with highest offer has been notified and will forward seller information to him soon as I get confirmation on him still wanting the trap. Second highest offer has also been notified.

Thanks all for looking, the sellers are looking forward to using the money to help fix the place up.

My involvement in this was simply to help some folks out trying to sell a trap they inherited through an estate settlement. No $$ exchanged hands. Why me? They found my number first when looking for somebody in the state trappers association.

So it goes. Let's hope both parties are pleased with the deal.