Well, anyone who has trapped 20, 30, or some of 40+ years are no strangers to crappy prices years. Everyone talks about the good years, but wow have we had some doozy bad years too.
I wished I had saved more of my sale sheets over the years. I vividly remember one year in late 80s getting average of $4 on 44 finished coyotes. That was my average for finished dogs. Most i had caught in one season and worst price i ever got for them too. Not many trapped coyotes that year. The pickup army here were just dumping them in creeks since buyer wouldn't take carcass coyotes.
Coon have had some real swings too. About 10 years ago my kids were getting $20 bills for carcass coon and I tried to explain to them it wasn't always like that. Last year it was $1 or $4 for carcass coon, $10 if skinned.
This year i doubt anyone will buy any coon, even finished coon.
And rats. I've sold nice finished rats for lots of different prices over the years. I remember $5 and $6 dollar rats, and I remember $0.10 rats too. Yep, a dime.
Everyone remembers the good years. We need to remember we see crap years too. This year if we are able to sell anything other than coyotes we need to count our blessings. Ask any farmer...they would love to see $7 corn again instead of $2.80 current price. But even $2.80 is better than $0.00 no sale.
When times get tough i pull out old crappy year fur sale sheets and remind myself many years i don't make money. But ive never had a pheasant pay me a dime back either and personally I'd rather eat chicken than pheasant but they are fun to hunt.
Some pics of my crappy year sales i keep around, thought I would share. This year id be very happy to get $1 for coon again. $1 is better than $0.00 no sale. My gut tells me we will not have any coon buyers around here, and that is uncharted territory for my 40+ years of trapping.