Furs Sold in Rowley, New Report on Fur Prices

I had another set of furs that I sold this past Saturday and it was very interesting to see what the prices of fur have done. The fur market has correctly fallen in result of lower oil prices and the mild winter in Russia, which are the two driving factors that primarily determine the fur market’s strength or weakness. Both of these factors this year had a negative effect on the prices, or at least the market wasn’t as high as expected. In September and October reports were coming in the newspaper, magazines, word of mouth, and on the internet that there was going to be a boom in the fur market. Raccoon pelts were expected to be about twenty five dollars a pelt, compared to the last decade of prices being about ten or twelve dollars a pelt.

As I was driving up to Rowley, Iowa the dealer where I typically sell my cousin and my furs I was nervous enough that our pelts would fetch low dollar prices. Side note: I sell the furs in Rowley like I’ve previously stated, at the Northeast Iowa Fur Exchange on Main Street. I’ve read reports in the last couple of weeks that raccoon pelts were now fetching six to eight dollars and that coyote pelts (which my grandpa had shot one and had me sell) were worthless, and shouldn’t even bother being brought in to the exchange. This is almost the most depressing news that a trapper or hunter can get, as all his hard work may not even reimburse for the gas that was used when he was hunting or trapping.

I talked to the furdealer while he was grading my furs and had talked about how the fur prices had recovered some as there was still strong demand for furs in China and Italy and that as oil prices stabilized and gas prices went up slightly had helped bring the fur market back to the norms of which I had been used to in the last decade. I sold the furs at still low prices, but I received fifteen dollars for XXXL size raccoons and nine dollars for XXL size pelts. For the unskinned coyote my cousin got five dollars, which is by far better than nothing, and the couple of muskrats that m cousin had he got an average of two dollars or so. There is some rejoicing to be had in this news I thought, but yet this market falling out for a period of time still gives me fear that one day the pelts will be worthless and that will definitely be a sad day for trappers and hunters.