Cord prices falling like dominoes...

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stihlfanboy

stihlfanboy

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I still sell it for the same I did last year and I'm about 20 miles from the op. 100$ a rick delivered and stacked. Do about 30 cord a year. Only sold about 15 ricks till this week when to snow finally came in. Now I got 14 loads to deliver tomorrow
 
STLfirewood

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I'm turning people away. I just don't have the supply this year. We had a flood and I had 70 plus cords wash down the creek. We got 7 -8 inches of rain in 2 hours. Now I'm drying everything in my kiln I'm selling. I'm barely keeping up with restaurants and bakeries. I'm getting 420-500 a cord. I usually pay 90 a cord for unsplit blocks loaded in my trailer and 120-140 a cord for split wood loaded in my trailer.

Scott
 
Circle B MN
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I'm turning people away. I just don't have the supply this year. We had a flood and I had 70 plus cords wash down the creek. We got 7 -8 inches of rain in 2 hours. Now I'm drying everything in my kiln I'm selling. I'm barely keeping up with restaurants and bakeries. I'm getting 420-500 a cord. I usually pay 90 a cord for unsplit blocks loaded in my trailer and 120-140 a cord for split wood loaded in my trailer.

Scott

That flood loss is a pretty big hit. Been there done that. I got in pretty deep on a tree farm venture and got flooded first year. Not a good thing. Best of luck to you.
 
STLfirewood

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Thanks Guns. We lost 6 head of cattle also. It me ese up my dump truck a little flooded my delivery truck and moved my brand new lt40 40 feet. Luckily it didn't hurt the Woodmizer.

Can't dwell on it just have to power through. I spent several days just fixing fence.
 
chipper1

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I was getting $150 a face cord delivered, for oak. I put a picture of my truck with a face cord in it on face book buy/sell /trade. Ready to go, can deliver anytime!..
..no one trusts Craigslist anymore.
Blaster and svk you stay away from craigslist, thanks;).
That's interesting that FB is the way to go now for firewood.

I'm on a couple of FB buy/sell sites. I've scored a couple of "you suck" deals including a $450 outboard for $100 and a free basketball backboard/pole/base for my kids.
 
chipper1

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You have to use the GM business model from the 80s & 90s. Make up for the small per unit loss by doing higher volume ;)
Consider who's business model you criticize, I think he's doing just fine.
I do some of what your talking about, but without the volume.
I do agree with valley though. Selling processed wood for 100 hardly pays for me going to get it, bucking it up, high risk no reward.
How many cords do I have to cut/process to make 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k...... you get the picture(show me the ROI in your math). If not I can do the long math for you, just let me know.
I normally sell green boiler cords for 130 if they are in route. The only reason I sell it that cheap is because it is on the way home, other than that I would just leave it lie in the woods. Here it would be more profitable to have a semi load delivered and get paid to process it then sell it PU only. The money is in the processing and transport not the wood(btu's).
I personally do a lot of things on the cheap, hardly any labor charge(mainly for friends). It allows me to own the equipment I have and continue to buy more equipment/upgrade. Doing it this way I have the equipment available to use on the high dollar jobs when they come along, and that is where the profit is, not on high volume for low$.
 

sb47

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Consider who's business model you criticize, I think he's doing just fine.
I do some of what your talking about, but without the volume.
I do agree with valley though. Selling processed wood for 100 hardly pays for me going to get it, bucking it up, high risk no reward.
How many cords do I have to cut/process to make 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k...... you get the picture(show me the ROI in your math). If not I can do the long math for you, just let me know.
I normally sell green boiler cords for 130 if they are in route. The only reason I sell it that cheap is because it is on the way home, other than that I would just leave it lie in the woods. Here it would be more profitable to have a semi load delivered and get paid to process it then sell it PU only. The money is in the processing and transport not the wood(btu's).
I personally do a lot of things on the cheap, hardly any labor charge(mainly for friends). It allows me to own the equipment I have and continue to buy more equipment/upgrade. Doing it this way I have the equipment available to use on the high dollar jobs when they come along, and that is where the profit is, not on high volume for low$.



People dont understand, there not buying wood, there paying for labor.
 
chipper1

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:baba:
People dont understand, there not buying wood, there paying for labor.
+1
Labor, fuel, oil, equipment, maintenance, risk, liability.............
Wether they understand or not, I can make more money doing other things if I can't get 130 cord delivered(in route, no special trips) of bucked wood, not split.
Unless the economy totally tanks, and there is no work paying 10hr or more I'll pass.
1000 cords at 100 bucks, now your talking, what's it take to do that right:badpc:.
 
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:baba:
+1
Labor, fuel, oil, equipment, maintenance, risk, liability.............
Wether they understand or not, I can make more money doing other things if I can't get 130 cord delivered(in route, no special trips) of bucked wood, not split.
Unless the economy totally tanks, and there is no work paying 10hr or more I'll pass.
1000 cords at 100 bucks, now your talking, what's it take to do that right:badpc:.
Hardwood logs go for $90-105 a cord here and going price for seasoned hardwood firewood is $150-200 delivered. Assuming the low spread, $45 bucks a cord is definitely not a ticket to prosperity.

Back to the OP I'd expect that price of wood should be going down up here as well. Loggers have had very little snow or severe cold to deal with. Only negative is swamps were real slow to freeze.
 
square1

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Consider who's business model you criticize, I think he's doing just fine.

foghorn-leghorn-meme-generator-its-a-joke-son-i-say-a-joke-bab807.jpg
 
Oldman47

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People dont understand, there not buying wood, there paying for labor.
No, people are buying BTUs.
Sellers are selling labor and similar expenses. When they can no longer justify selling in the present pricing market they need to quit spending money or time making a product nobody is willing to pay for to cover their expenses. At that point maybe you start to actually season wood for a day when the market dynamics change and a BTU is worth more than it is today. That would take a lot of working capital though and the payback is probably years in the future.
 
chipper1

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Senseless to argue on here. I would wager I am one of the higher volume firewood dealers that is on this website, yet I guess I'm doing it wrong.
No, you may have misread the post of square1 as I did.
I also agree with what you are saying and I think others agree as well:).
It's all good, because your making good money at what your doing, hard to argue with that:).
Wisdom is proven right by her deeds.
I always say you either bring the market to the product, or the product to the market. You are in a great market for what you are doing, the original poster does not apear to be. That being said I sell many things when people tell me it can't be done and no one will by. Just like the guys above stating that no one trust craigslist sellers, I've sold on craigslist for yrs and sales aren't slowing.
If you want to sell in Cleveland then your business model will need to be different than the others.
So when you do your craigslist ad you will have to spell chord without an h lol, and by doing so let people know you also know what a real cord of wood is;).
 

bck

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No, people are buying BTUs.
Sellers are selling labor and similar expenses. When they can no longer justify selling in the present pricing market they need to quit spending money or time making a product nobody is willing to pay for to cover their expenses. At that point maybe you start to actually season wood for a day when the market dynamics change and a BTU is worth more than it is today. That would take a lot of working capital though and the payback is probably years in the future.


To the administration, please do not
Check price of heating oil or propane vs what they want for wood. It is time to put some discipline back into wood selling. Wood is a commodity and sellers need to learn that.

Oldman47, you are not intelligent. Oil in not wood. Oil can not be burned in a fire place, oil can not be burned in a brick oven, oil can not be burned on an out door patio fire pit. People that I sell fire wood do not use it to heat their home. They buy it for pleasure, its almost like a luxury. People that do heat their home with fire wood typically buy log lengths or they manage to find wood and split their own.

Every drop of oil you buy will be the same, whether its diesel or gas its all the same product, which is reflected in the price per barrel. Fire wood is never the same from load to load. Type of wood, length, seasoned or not, kiln dried wood ext... and people are willing to pay for a premium product, you get what you pay for.

Firewood does require labor or equipment to manufacture, it just doesn't flow out of the ground, if it did it would be cheap like oil. No matter how you slice it, one cord of wood requires energy to produce, and that isn't free.

I would say stop blabbing about how firewood should only cost the same by BTU as oil but you're ignorance of what firewood is almost comical and entertaining, it's very apparent that you have never split any wood at all. Which also begs the question why you are aloud to comment with your ignorant post on an arborist forum. I bet you're the kind of person that hires illegal immigrants to do work because you think a legit outfit is to expensive, and the fire wood they sell.

To the administration, please do not remove my post, I bet many agree with what I say.
 
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