Burt- You must have missed my multiple postings over the 2nd half of 2015 that the wild fur market is basically in the toilet such as metal recycling. From near record highs (in 2013 dollars) in Feb. 2013 to much lower prices or no offers by the summer of 2015. My raccoon skins typically have high grades and are from the 2 most desirable coon "regions" for contemporary use. The prices I received in 2015 weren't overly bad but my clearances were low, only about 35%, meaning the minimum bid that the big fur auction house (largest in North America) thought they were worth weren't met. So the others remain in storage at their facility awaiting the first auction of 2016 in 2 months. The main problem is that the 2 largest countries that buy wild fur were either no shows in 2015 (the Russians) or didn't want to pay out what they did in 2013 and 2014 (the Chinese). Most of the guys in the East, South, and West Coast didn't even get offers for their coon fur in 2015. Right now, the only way for those guys to make any money over a buck or two for a raccoon is to charge or trade for ADC work or if they have an informal meat economy going on (which is non-existent here). Perhaps luckily what looks like a decent El Nino snowy winter may be limiting the harvest in the better coon regions and new fur for the other depressed species for the 2016 auctions may be limited as well. We'll see...
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