Selling fur--current prospects?

[eco2pia]

Hi! I have a question about how/where any of you manage to sell fur or fur products.

I am in the heart of a fur UNFRIENDLY city, where I might legitimatly be attacked just for wearing fur, but thanks to widespread shipping and the internet, I do not imagine I am limited to my local market.

Does anyone sell furs or fur related items? My goal is to use as much of any rabbit I harvest as possible, so this would be an occaisional thing, as I would mostly be harvesting fryers, but I can still forsee eventually having more furs than I can personally use.

 

[a7736100]

I looked at what's available on the internet and decided it's not worth the trouble for me to sell furs. However if you are very efficient processing furs it may be worth it for you.

 

[eco2pia]

Fair point. I have noticed rabbit feet key chains sell for more than furs. I suspect rawhide cat toys (with fur on) might be a cleverly marketable item, with less input than tanned garment quality fur. Plus I could use fryer skins. I will go that route I think, and save the gament quality hides for me. I am always cold.

 

[Tom in Kingman]

I have done research on this. It seems that the fryers have a very thin skin which makes them useless for clothing. Tabletop uses such as under a lamp or some other ZERO wear and tear uses are all they are good for. In France and surrounding countries they let them grow out to 6 months and then stew the meat. This gives them a good strong pelt. They are usually shipped to Korea where they have a HUGE pelt program and make tons on clothing and such. The clothing is then sold worldwide. If someone wants to do this as a cottage industry all they need to do is learn the methods to process the pelt and then sew them together for whatever you want. Jacket, hats, muffs for hands and such. Of course, you must stew the meat for consumption.

 

[hotzcatz]

There's some folks sending some sort of boiler plate legislation to various state houses to get them to ban fur farming. It showed up here in Hawaii and didn't make it through the legislative process, but we have zero fur farms around here, not even sure why it was even introduced as a possible law. But, it may be a good idea to keep an eye on what sort of legislation is being worked on in your state. Had this bit of nonsense gone through, we wouldn't have found out about it until anything furry was banned in our state. That law included things made of fur and brought into the state, so someone out there is trying to ban all fur and doing it via legislation.

 

[eco2pia]

I have done research on this. It seems that the fryers have a very thin skin which makes them useless for clothing. Tabletop uses such as under a lamp or some other ZERO wear and tear uses are all they are good for. In France and surrounding countries they let them grow out to 6 months and then stew the meat. This gives them a good strong pelt. They are usually shipped to Korea where they have a HUGE pelt program and make tons on clothing and such. The clothing is then sold worldwide. If someone wants to do this as a cottage industry all they need to do is learn the methods to process the pelt and then sew them together for whatever you want. Jacket, hats, muffs for hands and such. Of course, you must stew the meat for consumption.

Yeah, I have tanned fryer pelts before. It is not garment quality, and tanning is a lot of work. rawhide pet toys however, are a consumable that is really only about drying the skin. I suspect I could sell strips of fur on an elastic string or a thin wand as a cat toy and make probably just a little more than shipping would cost. However, I may try that, because I am a little bit crazy. Sometimes I hit on a winner and stuff I think is garbage sells like hotcakes, other times things I am sure I can sell I can't give away. Shrug. It is a weird city where a high quality fur garment would get you stoned, but people are willing to pay more to feed their dogs raw food than they will for people food...

 

[Ducklove74]

Just an idea but my daughter made these from fryer hides...she and her friend processes the rabbits for food and so as not to waste made these for her friend as a momento to keep of their experiences and the bunny's life to hang from car rearview or whatever decoration etc...you can also use as a center for a mandela dream catcher type decoration...there are many ways to make use of even the small fryer fur

 

[hotzcatz]

Hat pompoms? At the end of a string to tie the hat on? Or one on the top of a hat?

 

[Ducklove74]

Any and all things you could think of to use pom for...ends of laces on a cute pair of mocassin or calf high boots, keychains, etc...this pair was a play on the old school fuzzy dice for rear view mirror in car

 

[Tom in Kingman]

Just for the record. Do NOT forget that even though the rabbits you dispatch at fryer age are NOT good for fur the rabbits that you have used to breed with and have outlived their usefulness will be more than adequate for fur. They will be old enough to offer good sturdy fur for projects. Just not a lot or quickly.