As a teenager and up until the fur market crash in 1987 there where many options when it came to selling fur to local buyers .They where the backbone of the industry I can't remember all of them but there was probably a dozen or so that lived within 15 to 20 miles of my house When the 1987 market crash hit the local buyers closed up They where buying fur with their own money and there was almost no money to be made .During that time because I did not know about the NAFA and FHA fur auction houses I did almost no trapping . Those old timer fur buyers where another part of rural America

Wish my memory was better I don't remember the story.

Bud Hall was a great guy and one of the best mink trappers ever. He refused to give me mink trapping instructions because we trapped some of the same area. He wouldn't even discuss his favorite set. He always told me that when he was too old to trap, he would take me out and show me everything. But of course he trapped until he died. My articles put a lot of money in his pocket because he did a lot of instructions due to the publicity I gave him. He was always grateful for that.

When he died, his wife sent me a handwritten lure formula he had made about 50 years before. I framed it and sent it to the NTA to be auctioned as a fundraiser. Never heard a word from the NTA, not a thank you or anything. Somebody probably pocketed it rather than put it on the auction or something.

Ludy was a hoot, still have some #2 long springs I got from him used , and a knife. I didn't see any mention of North IA Fur, I think the name was Drulos maybe.

You can’t have a thread about fur buyers without mentioning Tom Wiebke He passed about two years ago Even in his late seventies he was driving all over the west buying coyotes when that market was hot . Bought literally hundreds of thousands of our Midwest coon and was one of the the premier fur buyers in North America Always willing to talk about the fur business and markets when you asked He loved the business Today is the first day of water trapping here in southeast Minnesota and I’ll set some traps But if we continue to basically have no market soon there won’t be any fur buyers Sad when you think about it.

In West Michigan we had Jack and Steve Vanhoose in Greenville. What I would give to be able to walk into that place one more time. Jack was a great story teller and had seen some country. He raised silver fox outback and you could smell them as soon as you got out of the truck. It was a very busy place during the fur boom. It was a paradise to this little kid. We also had Dewitt in Grand Rapids. Sold a lot of coon to Phil Welty from Indiana. Not positive on the name. He owned a place called Gunners Tradeing post. He loved our coon and always paid us well. That place was cool as heck too ! Great thread !!

Earl Cain from Plainview, MN. I remember my step dad and I selling to him the last time in the 80's, my eyes were WIDE open after a very long and heated interaction that ended with grab that box we are going!
Lol

I did, I remember you as I was working there then. I also mentioned bill and Harvey who were north Iowa

Yes Rich I remember you, I was working for Regan then, skinning and scraping and milking cows for myself also. Dean Hoffman was another buyer. Another life ago....Dean

Jim Messler another

russ cumberland a looong time ago in medford mn.i still visit his place to buy a few things from his sons jeremy an jayden,as far as selling i shipped to nafa the last time i sold fur for money,so as you know i havent sold any fur for a while,there was a guy from madison lake that my mom took me to even before that,but i cant remember his name,but i gotta tell you that guy bought my fur,even though it wasnt put up right and showed me things to make it better,he was a real nice guy.now its pretty much adc

wayne funk state center iowa was as nice as there was bought fur supply dealer and depot for north america

Back in 73 I skinned muskrats for 10 cents a rat for Roscoe Nare south of Wooster Ohio, dad also sold his coon to him.

I don't remember his name or even where he lived for sure. Thinking maybe it was the Middleport/Medina area in NY. I was NOT a very good trapper but finally had a season where I had enough fur to bother selling. I wasn't old enough to drive yet so had to talk my Dad into driving me out there. When we got there it was dark out, and he came out from inside and graded my very poorly handled fur in the driveway. I don't know if he gave me a good price or not but he was the only buyer I knew of and at the time I wouldn't even have knew what a fair price was, lol.

But my eyes had zeroed in on a pile of unskinned animals laying by a shed. There was 20 or so coon, and TWELVE red fox. I'd been struggling to catch any fox and think I had only one in my collection. I finally got up my nerve and pointed to the pile and asked had be bought all that fur? He laughed a little and said that that was his days catch! My eyes really bugged out then! I asked him how in the world he'd caught so many foxes and he told me that all that fur in the pile had been caught by setting 220s in trails, mostly where they went under fences. My mind was blown.

At that time I wasn't able to set 220s, didn't know the rope trick, and never even heard of trap setters. The internet hadn't been invented yet, lol. But after that I started setting a LOT more 1.5 coil springs in trails, and my catch of coon, and yes, even fox, went up significantly.

Second on Izzy's and Dick Shultz in La Crosse. Growing up on Brice Prairie there were more than enough 'rats for everyone. Literally.

Dad used to get his haircut at Izzy's. When he did he'd take whatever 'rats I had and sell 'em at the same time.

Selling fur to Dick Shultz was always a treat for the eyes. My most vivid image from the 60s selling fur to him was the mountain of carcass 'rats and the "old guys" sitting around on 5-gallon buckets skinning them. These fellas would be skinning 'rats on their laps and carcasses would go to another pile and fur to a smaller pile nearby. And yes it is interesting that when I've taken fur to Dan there now it's been 50+ years.

Sold to Preuss in Portage awhile, and also to Don Coleman in Lone Rock. Don was a big 'coon hunter but also bought fur including 'rats I would trap off Bakken's Pond.

Off topic there was Epstein's fish market in La Crosse. My younger brother and I ran set lines in our high school days summers, 800 hooks a day, 8 lines, a hundred hooks a line. Everything ordered from Herter's. Wasn't that like Christmas when those boxes would arrive. Epstein's paid out 27 cents a pound on catfish on the hoof, 8 cents for bullhead, carp was two cents and buffalo was a nickel. Sure beat mowing lawns or working at the can in Holmen.

Good memories for sure.

Where was Messler? That name rings a bell I think I may have sold to him when I trapped in Southeast Iowa.

Messler was in West Burlington Ia. He was an agent for an auction in Canada too.

Hmmm, wouldn't have sold furs there I don't think. I think he may have been one of the directors of the ITA in the 80's when I was. I was on the Iowa board from about 82-89 or so.

As a teenager, I sold to Mr. Brown in Seven Mile. After I started driving, sold a bunch of fur to Ron at Necina Fur Co. in Jamestown. Wanted to get in to raising some fur. That's when I met Mike Morford. Sold to and worked for Mike till he moved to Missouri. Mike taught me alot. Very smart man.

Rick Hemseth and Mike Mazur been around the buying game a long time also