Bundled wood $2. dollars a bundle

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

arlen

Me and my wife at Wild Amimal Park San Diego
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
394
Reaction score
21
Location
Escondido California
Could I make any money if I sold wood bundles for $2.- dollars a bundle ?
I have one customer who would buy 100 to 200 bundles a week if I will sell them to him for $2-. dollars apiece. His store is 20 miles away from my home, he has a second location 6 miles further.
He wants them delivered and stacked in his store he pays cash with no receipt. I bundle with stretch wrap and staple on a handle. I can buy eucalyptus cut and split for $160.- a cord delivered to my home. I don't know how many bundles are in a cord. I think I have 10 plus cords of wood now with a small percentage of it split. David
 
Its a personal call... Where I'm from there is no proper measure of firewood :confused: its sold by the bag or trailer load...and they're all different.

I do feel that cords are important, and if you want to sell in the manor you describe if a suitable net / bag / wrap could be used that was a division of a cord it would be very fair on your part, even if those buying them would be paying a premium for the convenience. AIMHO of course, I've though about doing similar, but its a lot of work without a proper firewood processor.

Cheers

:)
 
Depends

If it were me I would.

Not sure how big your bundles are, I sell 1 row in the back of a pickup along the tailgate from the hing to the top of the gate for $10.00.
 
I think you guys are low, last I knew around here [a few years ago] those little bundles of campfire wood brought 4.00 - Adjusted for inflation, etc, they're probably 5.00 now, but I haven't been camping [thank God] in awhile.
 
Could I make any money if I sold wood bundles for $2.- dollars a bundle ?
I have one customer who would buy 100 to 200 bundles a week if I will sell them to him for $2-. dollars apiece. His store is 20 miles away from my home, he has a second location 6 miles further.
He wants them delivered and stacked in his store he pays cash with no receipt. I bundle with stretch wrap and staple on a handle. I can buy eucalyptus cut and split for $160.- a cord delivered to my home. I don't know how many bundles are in a cord. I think I have 10 plus cords of wood now with a small percentage of it split. David

If your bundles were 1.0 cubic feet ( norm for here ) you would have approx 128 bundles at $2.00 each. That amounts to about $256.00 with $160.00 cost in the wood itself. Take out gas for delivery, time stacking , shrinkwrap , handles and anything else that comes to mind and your profit starts diminishing quickly.

You could make money at it, probably wouldn't get rich at it this way.

Dont forget to put a label on there stating the size of the bundle and where it came from. Ask the store owner if he wants the label to have his price on it to so he doesnt have to price each one individually. That way you might get calls from the people buying it and side-line a few at retail price instead of all in bulk. The label gets the word out that you are supplying wood bundles.

Hint: Sell smaller bundles. 0.75 cu. ft. is also accepted as "a bundle of wood".
 
kaboodle bundle

This year I started supplying some bundles. Everything I can jam halfway into a 5 gallon bucket, and then shrink wrapped on both ends. Makes a nice package, and they are pretty uniform. somewhere around .8 to .9 CF, I think.

I am getting $3 each, and they are selling for $4 :clap:

So far, over 120 sold.

$2 each??? It would be tough to make much. The rolls of 4" wide shrink are about $8 or so each, and you can get over 50 per roll.....
Time is the problem. I have some ideas on how to build a "bundler" and might do that this winter.

-Pat
 
I have only made and sold 63 bundles on Saturday. I drove around the local area with my mini van and small 8x4 trailer and sold 6 bundles for $ 3.- dollars a piece, at a small grocery store, And 57 bundles for $2.- dollars apiece at a camp store I am trying to make the bundles smaller not filling up the bundler all the way. after I bundle it I staple a nylon rope handle on it. The customers and the store owners seemed to like it. They are selling bundles for $5.99 plus tax. in the camp store I saw a lot of oak bundled for the same price. There were probably 300 bundles at the camp store. I asked around at the local markets and was told they pay $2.- to $2.50 a bundle. The customer who I sold the $3.00 dollar bundles to said he could not buy them that cheap. I was also told they sell better in the winter. I went to the beach on Friday and people were using firewood and quite a few were using bundled wood, I did,nt get any sales that day. I am buying a used 16 foot dbl Axel trailer 7000 lbs rated so I could deliver 200 bunldes, in one trip. I want to sell bundles retail for $5.00 apiece there would be more profit, but I believe less quantity.:monkey: David
 
Too bad something other than plastic shrinkwrap couldn't be used for the bundles? Something you could burn in the fire, or use to start it? Baling twine comes to mind.

I saw bundles wraped with bailing twine. I do think it would be kind of sloppy in the customers car and in the store with the bark sawdust etc. Just my opinion David
 
I saw bundles wraped with bailing twine. I do think it would be kind of sloppy in the customers car and in the store with the bark sawdust etc. Just my opinion David

I have to agree here... look at the people buying this bundled wood.. ( target the customer) most of them are the kind that buy wood for camping... or a fire pit at a party or the fireplace for that romantic evening, or big get together. these usually are not the type that will buy a cord or loos wood.. and they definitely don't want the mess..they don't want to clean wood debris out of their pile carpeting in the back of their SUV:dizzy:
as for a bundler .. you can check out Ebay for units and for plans look for firewood bundler or wrapper
 
First off I don't sell firewood. There is 3 campgrounds within 10 miles from my house and all the party stores and gas stations sell their bundles for $4.95 each.
There is one guy I know real close to the entrance of the state park and he sells 1/2 a face cord for $40.00 that is 4' by 4' by 16" all day long.
 
My first time order price is $2.25 after that it's $2.75. Arlen I think $2.00 is a bit low. I find 100 bundles = about 1 cord of wood.

I would like to make more money for a bundle. I don't have a wood processor just a chainsaw and a mingo marker so the ends of the logs are a little longer or a little shorter. I am making the bundles 16" long. I measured the inside of my bundler it is 10 1/2" x 10 1/2" square. The bundles seem kind of large and really heavy if I try and make a full bundle. I take a few pieces out. How much cubic feet or fraction of ,is it ?
Is this the industrial math 10.5 x 10.5 x 16 divided by 12 to get the answer ?
:confused: thanks David
 
Last edited:
David. Since you have a bundler I would just fill it up, as 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 sounds about right. If people complain about the bundles being to heavy, you can always take a few pieces out. It's heard to get a solid figure when dealing with wood, just get as close as you can.
 
Last edited:
I would like to make more money for a bundle......
Is this the industrial math 10.5 x 10.5 x 16 divided by 12 to get the answer ?
:confused: thanks David

There are 1728 cu inches in a cubic foot ( 12 X 12 X 12 = 1728 )

10.5 X 10.5 X 16 = 1764 cubic inches . You arent shorting the customer any if you are advertising 1 cu ft. of firewood, just yourself.

Are your bundles squar or more roundish ? If they are round or more rounded and 10.5 Dia. X 16 length they are getting .8 cu ft in the bundle. At 14 " lengths they are getting .7 cubic feet so you are in the ball park for 3/4 cu ft bundles.

Edit : Bag the short pieces and sell them as chimenea chunks.
 
Last edited:
There are 1728 cu inches in a cubic foot ( 12 X 12 X 12 = 1728 )

10.5 X 10.5 X 16 = 1764 cubic inches . You arent shorting the customer any if you are advertising 1 cu ft. of firewood, just yourself.

Are your bundles squar or more roundish ? If they are round or more rounded and 10.5 Dia. X 16 length they are getting .8 cu ft in the bundle. At 14 " lengths they are getting .7 cubic feet so you are in the ball park for 3/4 cu ft bundles.

Edit : Bag the short pieces and sell them as chimenea chunks.

Are your bundles square or more roundish ?[ quote ]
some are square some are roundish. sometimes when I remove the square bundle it gets loose and becomes round.

Bag the short pieces and sell them as chimenea chunks
what kind of bags do you use where do you buy them and how much do they cost ? If you don't mind me asking.?

Thanks for the math and the advice on the short chunks. I am throwing them in a big pile to sell as stove wood under 12"

The broken chunks and the bark than come from the splitting I put in trash cans. I was told I could sell it for $5.00 a can. I have burned three of four of them up so far having an outdoor fire in my small fire pit when it gets down to coals it is good for cooking. I can also give them away to some neighbors or put them out for green waste to be picked up by the trash man. I have a lot of weeds maybe I will spread some around on the ground for weed abatement. If I owned a good chipper I could toss them in and make some mulch. David
 
Last edited:
David. Since you have a bundler I would just fill it up, as 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 sounds about right. If people complain about the bundles being to heavy, you can always take a few pieces out. It's heard to get a solid figure when dealing with wood, just get as close as you can.

Thanks for the advice the eucalyptus is heavy dense and not completly dried.
If I used pine it would be lighter. Mostly I have eucalyptus at this time. So that is what I will use.
 
I havent sold a bundle yet. I'm not in that business.

I see quite a few here and there. And kicked around the idea of supplying some to a few places. We have a few festivals in the area that last upto a week. One guy is getting $8.00 a bundle for twine tied oak. After about the 5th day he is sold out. Hardware stores and some convienence stores have them and are in the $4.00 neighborhood for Elm. Smoking wood is bringing a premium of $12.95 for a .75 cu. ft. sack in stores.

I don't have a source for sacks ATM, haven't really looked into it. We scroung boxes regularly for kindling boxes and chimenea chunks. Liquor stores have an abundance of these boxes and it doesnt take long to fill one. We offer a box to anybody that buys wood for $5.00 as "starter stuff". We take 1-2 with us when we deliver a load. Some buy some dont.

Glad to share any ideas I come up with.
 
I would like to make more money for a bundle. I don't have a wood processor just a chainsaw and a mingo marker so the ends of the logs are a little longer or a little shorter. I am making the bundles 16" long. I measured the inside of my bundler it is 10 1/2" x 10 1/2" square. The bundles seem kind of large and really heavy if I try and make a full bundle. I take a few pieces out. How much cubic feet or fraction of ,is it ?
Is this the industrial math 10.5 x 10.5 x 16 divided by 12 to get the answer ?
:confused: thanks David

Arlen, according to my math you have just over 1cf in your bundles (the product of your dimensions divided by 1728 which is the number of inches in a cubic foot). BTW, I'm no math expert so I may be doing this wrong, if so hopefully someone will point it out.

I'm in San Diego County also and am selling bundled wood wholesale for $3 a bundle (approx. .75cf bundle). I couldn't make money selling it for $2 a bundle considering the price of fuel and the labor involved in making the bundles. I don't have a bundling machine, I made a crib I stack the wood in and wrap it. It takes me 4-5 minutes to pick out the wood, wrap it, and staple on a handle. You can probably do it faster with your machine. Figuring 12 bundles an hour plus the time and fuel involved cutting, splitting, and delivering, I definitely need $3 a bundle.
 
Back
Top