We can help you sell your Antique
& Collectible Rat / Mouse and other Small Animal Traps!!
We Deal in, Buy & Sell early and patented and mechanical
mouse & rat traps traps. We can also help you buy
and
sell other unusual,
patented, graphic,
antique or primitive small animal traps. Not all traps were created
equal and there are some that are very common, and some that are very
interesting and hard to come by.
The
unusual cast iron open lattice work mouse trap with a heart shaped motif
cut-out at the top corner of the page is known as
the Royal and was patented
during the last quarter of the 19th century. It is an example of a great
and rare mouse trap worth several thousand dollars. The two mouse traps
just to the left on the
other
hand sell in the 5-10.00 range. The trap just to the right might
fetch closer to 100. It is all in the details.
We are very interested in helping you
sell unusual antique mouse
and rat traps from the same era as the Royal. Please contact us a
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com with any
interesting or different examples of small animal traps that you want to
sell.
History
Eliminating mice seems to have been a
challenge for mankind since the
beginning of time.
Examples
have been found dating from the
earliest civilizations, right up to the new and innovative devices that are
being produced (in China) and marketed today for the American consumer.
The earliest primitive traps often operated on the deadfall
principle crushing the
creature who ventured into uncharted territory looking for a morsel to eat.
Primitive deadfall traps can be found sized for critters as small as
mice to those for men or even larger prey.
Most mouse traps that are found today are from a much later period.
There are many interesting patented varieties available from the
heyday of development in the late 19th century. The
typical wooden Victor Mouse Trap which cost just pennies to buy essentially
won the battle to develop the "best" / cheapest trap and most of the
would-be competitors
quietly disappeared forever and their attempts at better ideas have now become collectibles.
Values of Traps
There is no real price or value guide available for these devices
and members of the
Secret Society of Trap Collectors are
usually closed mouthed with any real info.
There are price guides from the 70's & 80's but the pricing info in them is irrelevant. EBay
can be a good source of current information for individual traps, but now you only get to see
7 days worth of past results, and that usually consists of
a couple that do OK and 400 or more that are nothing. I
recently saw where one of the largest and oldest mouse trap
collections
around has been put up for sale, and the owner indicated in the ad he had had his
collection appraised for close to half a million. I am not sure if
anyone fell into that trap.
Over the years I have found some
good traps for as little as
$1.00 but paid a horrible price for the one up
in t
he top corner
known as the Royal. I sold it for over $1000, and probably
undersold it at that time. Today, I am not sure. I have bought and sold many
mouse traps in the $100 - 200
range and a few others at the $1000 or over level. There
is a lot of
middle ground between those numbers and I can
help you determine which are
which. In general any cast iron trap is going to be pretty good. The
odder looking the better. Figural is great, newer and typical looking not
so good. It is all in the details.
Many of
these vintage mousetraps look very similar to
each
other, but each one pictured is
different, and many of these traps
have patent dates or catchy names like
Cat's
Paw, or Can't Miss Trap. I am not sure
where the old phrase to
"make a better mouse
trap" came from, but the sheer number of different mouse traps that are out
there attest to the fact that a lot of people sure were willing to try
over the years.
The
best working mousetrap I ever had was an economy
size half gallon jar of
grape jelly I left on the counter one night
after
making a before-bed
P B & J sandwich. When I got up the next morning to make my lunch
before work I did not see what was going on at first, but as I was making
the sandwich, out plopped this little purple blob. Both it and my sight
were kind of fuzzy at first, but then I saw what it was and looked harder
in the jar, and I had gotten 18 of them in there overnight. They were all purple
jellied drowned and dead little mousers. There are several traps
based on drowning the victim, but this was an odd way to go, and no others that I know of
are based on sugar overdose. I
went out and got a cat, a few traps as
insurance, and some new jelly that day. And so began the desire to collect,
buy, sell, and find the perfect vintage
mouse
trap, and to always have a cat around.
The
yellow plastic trap in the picture to the right was made here in
California during the 60s or
70s and is a scream. They can be found in several colors.
It is actually
more of a joke than an actual working trap as its spring is too weak to
work well. These have been known to bring $50.00 or more on a good
day as a collectible.
The next trap is
a bit unusual because it is a 5-hole model and
the base is made of
metal. The choker trap similar to this with a wooden base and only
4 holes is more
common. There is also a plastic or Bakelite version that is
also very similar to this that is pretty common as well.
None of them sell for much more than $20.00 these days and are
frequently found .
Finally, the days of setting traps
out as users around here are over for the time being. Buster, the fellow
below does a masterful job on them and the only ones we ever get to see
since getting him are the dead offerings he brings in and leaves around
the house.
We showed him his first
mouse the day we brought him home at 6 weeks out in the field and he knew just what to
do. He does not do as good a job with the voles, moles or rats, and they
are all over the gardens, and so we are interested in buying early patented
versions of traps aimed at these critters as well. Buster said that they don't taste
that good, and that
they are not part of his job description anyway. I do not need any more
cats, but if you have any unusual small
animal, rat, or mouse traps that you are looking to sell, please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
The Mouse & Rat traps you see here are examples
of the caliber, condition and quality that
we primarily deal in and can help you sell. Mouse
traps and Patent Model Traps we have previously sold are found on the
PAST SALES TRAP PAGE
To see past sales
results of antiques we have sold in the past,
please see the Sales Archive Pages in the right column.
If you have traps
similar to those that you see on this page that you want to sell,
please contact us at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com providing me with as many details as possible.
To see examples of traps that I currently have for sale,
please go to our sister site at www.Patented-Antiques.com and visit the sales pages found there. Thank you!!
Larry & Carole
