2015 Fur Price Lows – We’ve Been Here Before!

The late Parker Dozhier was a wise man when it came to the fur market, and he shared a lot of valuable information about the highs and lows of fur prices.  Parker was always pushing for trappers to catch more fur to bring to the market, believing strongly that the large quantities of fur produced during earlier booms attracted consumers in a way that would increase demand.  This was counter to the popular argument of simple supply and demand economics applied to furs.

Parker also expressed some particularly interesting insight on the fur market during the lows of 2009 – times that are similar to what we’re experiencing in today’s market.  I recently found an article he wrote for the Trapper and Predator Caller back in 2009 on the state of the market.  Here’s a bit of wisdom on the fur market:

While digging around in my archives looking for the fur markets historical ups and downs, I ran across a price list for wild furs I believe will be of interest to readers of this space.
The time frame is important. The price list was published by Funsten Brothers in St. Louis, Missouri on Feb. 27, 1926, three years before the stock market crash of 1929. It was intended for trappers and fur buyers in West Virginia.

The “Roaring Twenties” and the iconic ’coon-skin coat that was so popular with the affluent college crowd drove fur prices to astronomical levels. A respectable catch of 50 raw raccoon pelts sent to St. Louis, at $12 a copy, would buy you a new Model “A” Ford.
With only a few minor changes, their price list for 1927 could be republished today. Funsten was offering $15 for mink, $2.85 for muskrats, $28 for otters and $12 to $14 for red foxes. A week’s groceries for an affluent family was about $5. For a trapper’s family, the food bill was significantly less.

But then the stock market crashed on Black Monday in October 1929. Their fur price list changed. The stock market came back, as did the fur market. We’ve seen this before, and we’ll see it again. According to my archives, in 1982, a season’s catch of 25 nice, pale, well-spotted, high-country bobcats would buy you a new CJ-7 Jeep.

The world’s a big place. There are a lot of consumers out there and more entering their ranks each year. As capitalism spreads through the free-market systems now being enjoyed in China, Russia and Eastern Europe, demand for our wild furs will continue to grow.

We’ll get through this rough spot. We always have.

Click here to read the full article.