Fur Pricing and Grades

Trapping Possums

First you will need to go out and buy some approved leg hold possum traps such as these. Note: Do not use gin traps as they are illegal. 

You may need to make a significant one-off investment if you want to get good quantities of of fibre. Let's say 50 - 100 traps.

Usually when laying the traps you follow a ridge line, fence line or a GPS marked line - you need to make it easy for yourself to find the traps and you never want to lose them. - How you lay them is up to you, and your method will improve with experience. Look for tracks often and you will see warn paths that a possum will use each night as they return to a tree to feed. Make sure you secure the trap by its chain, by either using a strong peg or a fence staple to the base of a post or tree.

To help your chances to trapping a possum you need to you bait to lure them toward the leg hold trap. The most common possum bait is a mixture of flour and icing sugar approximately 5:1 with flour the main ingredient. Other baits include peanut butter, jam, fresh fruit and commercial based pastes.

Once you have found an area where you believe there are a good number of possums, lay out your traps in a way that they are easy to locate, place the bait and set them. Then, you are good to leave them for a night. Always make sure you check the traps early in the morning to ensure the animal is not suffering too long.

In the morning check your traps. If there is no possum in the trap release the trap and take it with you or move it to a new position. For any traps that have a possum in, you'll need kill the possum as quickly and humanly as possible. Most people choose to either shoot the possum with a .22 or a high power air rifle, or to hit the possum over the head with an object that will kill the possum instantly. 

Hand Plucking Possum Fur

It is much easier to do this when the possum has just been killed - there is a window of a couple of minutes where the fur will pull out easily. To do this, lay the possum on its front and pluck from the back quarter to the front, holding the animal by its back legs. If you intend to sell the fur you must make sure that the fur is clean and free of all debris. The fur must be at least 2cm in length - during winter months the furs are in their best condition. Lastly, don't pluck the tail as the fur to too coarse.

If you really wanted to get serious, you can buy plucking machines for about $2,200 which do all the work for you. 

Selling Possum Fur

Possum fur generally gets around $110 per kilo however prices can reach up to $150. It usually takes anywhere between 15 - 20 Possums for a kilo so therefore there for there is opportunity for money to be made. 

You can do an internet search to find buyers. It pays to do your research and find a buyer before you invest in the traps. 

Selling Rabbit Fur

Rabbit fur generally gets around $110 per kilo however prices can reach up to $130.

Possum Skin Sizes
X LARGE - Over 62 cm from base of tail to ears
LARGE - Over 57cm from base of tail to ears
MEDIUM - Over 48 cm from base of tail to ears
GRADE CRITERIA
1st grade	Fur: No sign of re growth , good shine, good density, even fur length
	Pelt: may contain minor flaws, 2-3 inkspots acceptable
2nd grade	Fur: Minor regrowth evident, good shine, even fur length
	Pelt: some repair required, inkspots acceptable
PELT PREPARATION
Dry Skins
Open skinned (pinboards) or sleeve skinned (sleeve boards or wires)
Air dried, not sun dried; all  flesh and fat removed
Green Skins
Skins must be fresh when frozen and showing no signs of deterioration Fold individual skin  length wise pelt to pelt Roll into loose ball starting at head Freeze individually and bag when completely frozen