I see constantly on here where you, my American friends, take your fur and castor and who knows what else to your local, "country buyers". I can guess what this means, but truly I have no clue. We have no one who goes around buying fur up here, no real outlets other than the main auction houses and the very very rare person who may make three skunks into mitts as a hobby.

So help me understand these phantom country buyers? Is there a domestic market where there is an industry that makes garments that these buyers supply? Why does western Canada not have country buyers in the region of awesome fur?

Thanks for any insight, been driving me nuts!

Most of the fur collected by small country buyers ends up at one of the big auctions.

Northwest company travels and buys fur. There are several others.

Fill orders, fur never sees an auction.

Some of the smaller country buyers in the US buy for larger companies - Groenwald, Zander, etc.

Some of the larger country buyers have established their own outlets for thenfurbthey buy. Brokers in China, Korea, Greece, etc.

A small portion of the country buyers buy for themselves or other crafts people that make and sell fur items on Esty, EBay, and other places.

It is a common misconception that the country buyers in the US ship to the large auction houses. A few of them do, but I think many of them, at least here in the western US have developed other outlets.

g

Same in Canada.

Wismiss is right. The vast majority either sell to a bigger buyer or have there own overseas outlets. Buying fur to ship to the auction would be extremely risky and if an auction tanks for whatever reason could cost that buyer their entire business.

You Canadians have been getting screwed by NAFA and before that Hudson Bay Company

ever since you stole Canada from the Natives and the French.

You have to pay royalties to the queen for each fur, and can't take a dump till you check with NAFA first.

If It weren't for trapper owned FHA (OTA), you guys would be BOHICA-ed without pause.

The United States on the other hand, has many independent fur buyers

with connections in the New York City Fur Districts

and with a network of Foreign Buyers around the globe.

The U.S. free enterprise system works well without being dependent on no stinking auction.

w

You should read "The Beaver Men" by Mari Sandoz




Heck, anyone in this business should read that book.

Phil has is regular rounds in Saskatchewan, and is not his son Byron doing the rounds now. He is a dual citizen.

Local buyers I've been around send some stuff to auction but definitely not most of it. They make their money buying green hides or carcass fur. It is discounted pretty steep. Most of them don't buy a whole lot of stretched skins. They cant buy them cheap enough. There are always exceptions but that's a good generalization.

I do send some fur to the auctions....great place to send the junk no one else wants.

Somebody sent them a bunch of junky $3500 dollar cats,lol.
Some of yous really should attend one of the big league auctions-even if its just to see all the dealer lots there.

Selling to GFW in Harrison MI tomorrow. Just loose ends that were not ready last time. After seeing naca results I don't see how I could do much worse.

They only are a collection point for nafa, no? Have taken them fur several times, never have they ever offered to buy my fur. If they buy fur, they sure do a poor job of saying so!

Yeah “dealer lots” lol
Some of which were bought cheap only to store at nafa for another year. Cause nafa has so many fees that they make money on every skin they can sell. Profitable to the trapper or not

Its Bryan-not byron and Yes the Patchin connection is your fur buyer in Saskatchewan as well as Terry barnes might buy as well-give them a call.

Now that sounds like a "Wyoming fur trader".

Unless they have stopped-a few years ago Phil used to process a lot of carcass fur-he was an absolute workhorse.Not sure if Bryan still does but pretty sure he does

You got it middleman starman-bought cheap by dealers and sent to NAFA.

100% correct Boco. I have sold to a country buyer for over 30 years knowing that his put ups where headed to the auction. When I was younger I thought I was doing good, but as the years went by I figured out I was getting about half or a little more. That being said, I always figured the time he spent teaching me about trapping and putting fur up made up the loss. I realized a few years ago that he wouldn’t be doing this forever. I’ve doubled my efforts on putting up fur, and with his help and the people on Tman I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. Maybe he is the exception to county buyers, but he’s a good friend. Thanks Trapper