Selling fur today to GFW in Harrison, MI

Piled it up for loading. 10 red fox, 9 coyote, 19 muskrat,14 coon(I think), 25 Beaver (7 not in picture, frozen in grease. GFW said only a couple bucks difference for all the work) and one sealed Bobcat. Will post a tally of what I sell and what I took for them later today. I know everyone wants to know what fur is worth but nobody knows until sale time. Wish me luck....

Good luck bud. May it be worth your gas.

Prices not the best. Guess that is what it is. Didn't feel like hauling stuff home to put in bags for nafa next week. They still have 3 fox of mine from last year unsold. The bobcat was a little disappointing. Especially since my buddy sold his yesterday for $100 on carcass. All together I covered my gas and a little extra. Good thing I don't trap for.a living. Gotta say it is one of the few hobbies I have that has any monetary return. Still have about 3 phone unds of castor to sell also.

I am not an authority. I try to just sit and observe. But that price for a bobcat seems like they robed you. Every thing looked alright for what you can expect.

got a close up pic of that finished cat? Nice $12 coon and $5 rat!

Don't have any pictures of the cat. His explanation was the belly was narrow and that is where the money is. He told me to take it home if I thought I could get more but I didn't. The buyers name was Brice. He said if the belly would have been wider he would have about doubled the price. Guess my wife only gets a $90 Christmas present instead of 150. Lol.... I didn't sell because I needed money, good thing too.

Ouch! Thank you for the information, Strike2x.

Makes me glad I shifted most (but not all!) of my focus from fur trapping this season,

$7.00 reds? Thats exactly why I was releasing mine.

Great catch though, youre definetely a well-rounded trapper.

-NC

Thanks for sharing. It could be worse in my opinion. GFW does not pay much more for put up beaver. I heard they prefer them frozen because they are very efficient in putting them up at headquarters. I still put them up and just suffer two dollar increase when I sale to GFW. Good looking lot of fur you have there sir.

Nice mixed bag of furs. Those $2 coyotes hurt!!!!! Had 1 go for .25 a few years ago at NAFA.

Waiting to hear Beav's opinion.

$50 yotes helped you big time

Pretty nice looking Northern beaver for a $7 and change average.

That's what I thought too wolfer.Someone is making some money.

its had to say based on the picture but for most everything you had I think you would have did better at the state fur sale last Saturday at clare...

Gfw won't pay much for beaver. I think just trying to cater to the hatter market. Sold them 10 put up for 10$ a piece that we're large or bigger. Also sold 19 med or smaller that we're frozen. My sort must have been off cause I got 9.00 for 2 in that bunch.

Utah cats are different then Michigan cats.
Until you’ve seen them it’s hard to understand

The reds all come from my mom's back yard. I used to trap a golf course for them also and may again just because it is fun. The ones from my mom's is like a challenge to see if I can get more than last year. I have taken about 50 from there in the past 4 years. Sets in the same spots every year. I should have held onto the Beaver and sent to nafa. The $2.00 coyote was not even as big as the fox. Don't know why I even skinned it. As far as the Bobcat, at least I got one in my 10 day window. Not everyone that had a tag can say that. I think the coolest thing about trapping is getting an animal that roams the woods to step on a very small pan. I have to thank David Duncan for introducing me to trapping some 40+ years ago. I always enjoyed the outdoors but trapping keeps.me.more in tune with my surroundings. Funny how I can spot coyote scat on a 2 track while going 35 or so running my line.

My stuff was not ready last week. I took 3 fox, the cat, 4 coon and 6 Beaver off boards at 9 this morning and if I would have bad time a few of those would have stayed a couple days more.

You had some good looking fur there Strike.Nice mixed bag.
Just go trap some more when the price is down,lol

Yep! I'm not a golfer but sort of the same thing, a good golfer can start with this little 2 inch ball 300-400 yards away from a 4 inch hole and in 3-5 swings get it in there.

We certainly don't have those color of beavs around here. Nice looking stuff.

P.S. Can you guys in MI sell your skulls? If you can, clean them up and you can make some more cash from them.

Northern MI fur I assume
19 rats averaged $2.02 which to me says you have some typical smaller rats like we do in areas of northern WI as well.
You sold 9 coons (put up) at $6.50 per coon. You indicated that you thought you had 14 did you not have 14 or were there 5 that were not sold?

Bobcats in our region don't have the spots or the color as to many of the western cats. I would not be as concerned regarding a $90 cat as I would the lower prices for the staple goods that are common in our area. Some day that will turn around hopefully.

Bryce

How do they want them frozen?

I sell frozen green beaver to Groenewold. I fold them in half lengthwise, meat to meat and lay them flat in the freezer and let them freeze. Take them to the truck still frozen.

Nice mixed catch. I wish I had known Groenwald was coming again this year. My bad because I just assumed with the market in the tank they wouldn't make the drive. I've sold to them at the Harrison stop several times and was always satisfied. The MTA sale at Jays last week was the worst (fewest seller and fewest buyers and lowest prices) association sale have seen in almost 50 years of going to them.

mifox: I don't know where you were that Saturday??

There was 15 or more buyers there. Prices for rats were above what was expected from the world information.

I have attended the sales for over 30 years and yes, I have seen better. Also worse.

There wasn't as many sellers as past history. They were done early afternoon.

Don't BAD MOUTH the MTPCA for all their effort to benefit the sellers and buyers.

All who work there are volunteers.

I too have sold to GFW before. Every time they always down grade the rats to give $1.00 for some.

If I took 10 XXL rats up there, 2-3 would be graded down.(averaging COST down)

So you take your chances either with GFW or the association sales.

Usually the December sale at Jay's in Clare is a good season indicator on the prices.

The years that the sale starts at 9:00am and ends at 7:00pm are history. Not saying it couldn't happen again.

But hoping for renewed interest in our fur is what everyone wants.

Compare the prices at the Clare sale last Saturday with the GFW prices.

32.50 for a muskrat? Is that an error?

He didnt badmouth anything or anyone. All he did was share what he seen. In no way did he say anything regarding the volunteers integrity whatsoever. Go take a midol and change your tampon.

Was at the stop in Indian River today and the boy sold 303 rats for a $3.05 avg ( caught the last week of oct ) and two mink for $5 each . I also sold some of my fur ,102 rats for a $2.80 avg ( caught same as the boys ), 8 mink for $5 avg and 30 beaver for $9.00 ave . Beaver were 2/3rds larger ones and 1/3rd smalls . All fur was put up .

Hartman were the 303 rats put up or green? If put up did you notice any significant issues in the put up versus those that you sold for $1.80 more per rat that were similar harvest dates?

Bryce

The 303 were a $3.05 avg and the 102 were a $2,80 avg so the difference between the two averages was $.25 . All rats were from the same place and time and all put up by me . The difference was the boy sold his entire share from what we caught in that area and I just took a random 102 from my share as a last min decision . We have more rats from a different area and the 200 left of my share from this area we are sending to NAFA along with another 30 beaver and a few more mink .

Sorry I miss read your post. That seems pretty good for northern early rats. My bad on the read.

Bryce

No,..that sounds reasonable Bryce,..not pretty good!

I will sort my early rats out and put them in a separate lot to see if they are reasonable or pretty good.

Bryce

That sounds informative Bryce,...looking forward to your results!

Was there no otters sold there that day? My buddy was there and mentioned seeing a few smaller looking ones but couldn’t remember what they sold for.

Has anyone sold weasels this year?

Like somebody said they like them folded long ways flesh on flesh (like a hot dog bun). Thats how I delivered them last season and they were appreciative. I think it was on their website or social media that they wanted the beaver brought in like that. Just helps keep longer while on truck and on the road.

c

Doesn't muskrat season open Nov.1st in the northern section of Michigan?

October 25 in zone 1 UP. Maybe they came from. Over the bridge.

We have been going north for the opener for many years . Would have been a rough year for just trapping zone 2 with ice starting and staying right after the opener this year .