With coon prices the way they are, is it going to be worth it to pay a guy to put up my coon rather than sell green?

I doubt it, if prices are the similar to last year there probably isn’t $3-4 difference in green and finished prices. Doubt you can find someone to do it that cheap

most buyers should be able to do it or get it done cheaper than you probably can.

The biggest problem with selling fur green or on the round is that the buyer doesn't know what they are getting. So they lower the price to make up for scares and unseen damage on everything. You are asking them to buy fur that can not be 100% graded or sized.

Put up gives you the option of shipping to the big auctions

i don't buy fur but do put up.2.50 to flesh and stretch.5.00 if i skin and that is cause i'm not really lookin to do in the round.add it up.

You might as well do the put up yourself. It might make you a few extra bucks, plus, the practice is good for when prices go back up.

It all depends on how much free time you have this winter...and how much that time is with to you.

Now we can debate if trapping coon (or any fur) is really "Worth the time and effort"...if your just talking money. Guess it depends on what you want out of it: Cash, experience, Staying busy, hobby, exercise, bla bla bla…

This all changes from one guy to the next.

and by doing this you get free long term storage!!

As cheap as coon are right now in most cases there isn’t $5 difference between carcass and finished coon. Having them finished does open your options to sell but no guarantee they will bring more or even cover cost to finish.

good one!

I make money putting my fur up. As I have stated many times a furbuyer will never give you the benefit of the doubt when sizes are border line. The difference in 2x compared to 3x is that you can sell a 2x green coon if you stretch it to a 3x while quoting a buyer I know that said " the new 1x is a 2x." You would be surprised at the number of 2x (measured green) I have easily stretched to a 3x and 3x into 4x. Finishing coon like that will be the difference in selling them at all and 15 bucks so you do the math. So many reasons to put up prime fur. So few reasons not to. As a disclaimer I have a coon worth doing. Smaller sized lighter coon will be hard to justify even trapping from what I have gathered. LLL

Yep, another benefit:)

Could you stretch and dry them or freeze them until coon prices go up?

put them up if you like doing that and have the time. making money LLTrapper, that's relative. I understand what you are saying and more power to you. putting up beaver last year made the difference if getting $15 vs $10 "in the round", worth the time and effort? No. But that goes for fur trapping in general, you can't look at it economically right now.
I will put up some, just as I go along, look at it as practice and improving your skill, which is a great thing to do while fur is cheap, so if you mess it up you did not loose a lot.

If you have plenty of trapping territory AND if you can catch 2 coon in the time it takes you to put up 1 the math is easy.

Good points Bob. I started putting up fur years ago because I had no other options. What a great time to learn on the cheaper furs right now. As for time spent, depends completely on your life situation. For me, I could spend time in the garage putting up for, or sinking into my easy chair getting fatter. FYI, all my coon sold last year at very reasonable prices at the auction.

Low prices make the put up portion of a pelt a much higher percentage of the value of the pelt. If you can put them up this may be a good season to do so. A lot depends upon the quality of the fur you harvest or put up. If you are catching westerns that are 3xl you may get more than $3.00 more for dried versus green. It may be OK to find someone to put up your better coons if you don't have the time or want to and you can put up the lower value coon or sell for whatever in the low market green.

Bryce

I think Prune charges $3...….but he can do a coon in 4 minutes.

Bob I can scrape and board 12-14 coon an hour. If Imake an additional 4 bucks a piece that is still fifty bucks an hour give or take. LLL