Avoid select cutting!
From my experience I would never do a select cut. From my education in forestry classes, my experience living in a high density commercial forest and logging area, and my experience being a woodland manager of 105 acres of trees that were select cut 20 years ago (what we 'high grading' here), I would not do a select cut or high grade, ever. Unless you prescribe the cut for thinning and cutting the smaller and weaker trees that would be natually be thinned out by the larger trees. You will also tend to damage the roots and bark of the leave trees during select cutting, and you will tend to compact the soil during the harvesting process.
Basically what happens with select cutting is you take the best trees off the property. That leaves the weaker trees to grow that would naturally be thinned out... to live longer. Not only are the weaker trees less marketable over time, they usually will not grow as large as the better trees that are removed, and (bad bad bad) they will be the trees left to reproduce. That leads to a weaker stand overall, and you will just get lower and lower quality lumber, trees and wood over time.
One reason that clearcutting is favorable is that you can cut all the wood, good, so-so and junk, market it, clear the land, sub-soil and replant superior quality stock, mix species in a ratio that you want, and you will get more premium and better marketable lumber off your land over time. You will also pay a lot less to have it cut, becasue it is far more expensive to do select cutting. Selecting off the lesser quality stuff is usually not profitable, and thinning usually costs money to the owner or is break-even at best. After our having to deal with what we have here, 80 acres or so that was high graded, all we have now is unmarketable timber. We have weaker spindly trees with bad crowns or canopy, diseased trees, wolf trees, split trees, poor lumber species trees, and trees with various faults that could have been removed in a clear cut.
Best practice here is to clear-cut leaving select trees for wildlife (leave trees), sub-soil the ground, plant high quality mixed species well suited to the site ASAP, release those trees the first and following year by spraying or weeding, feed those trees any limited nutrients, and thin them when they get too crowded. I would clear cut 10 acres here per year for 8 years... if it were my land. My S.O. owns it so I cannot make the Rx for cutting, though I may get 6 acres cut becasue thinning is too expensive and we do not have the resources to do it ourselves. We have a forest plan that was required becasue when the S.O. bought this property, the previous owners did not pay the 6% tax on the trees that they cut... she could sue in a big legal battle and get nothing from the sellers (they are now broke), or she could go with a forest plan Rx and replant the area in 3 years time. She chose the later. She planted 2000 trees 2 years ago. We planted 2000 trees here last winter. 3000 more to go this winter. We had a forest planer up to walk the property this spring. He is pretty cool and is allowing us to have open areas and he is allowing for cutting out doug firs and saving a large grow of old growth black oaks.
If you want money from your stand, you are not apt to get money for keeping a better stand for the future. They will always want the best stock today, and leave you holding the bag. You can try to cut any deal you can. Get bids from several places. Call a professional logger/broker that manages cutting and selling logs to mills. You can sell your trees as a stand, or as logs. Personally, I would sell my trees as a stand and let the buyer deal with selecting, cutting, trucking, mill sale, piling up and burning or chipping and distributing slash, pay the taxes (6% off the top), grade, rock or restore the roads, get permits, etc. etc. People tend to think that they can make a fortune off cutting, and then they get screwed. They get a sawyer that cuts the logs the wrong length. They get buried in the permit process. They sell to a mill that does not pay the best price. They overpay for trucking to a mill that is farther away. They get the wrong type of equipment in there and bang things up. I have friends that turned $400k stands here into $200k in return after trying to manage the process themselves. One friend had his logs cut too long, and the mill knocked off money becasue they had to cut them to the length that hey can deal with them. He lost money on the lost length as well, becasue he hired an inadequate sawyer. There are just so many details in the whole process.
So again, do not select cut. Sell the trees as a stand if you can, and let someone else deal with all the details and issues, and pay the taxes. If you don't sell the stand and want to sell logs, if you do not have experience, hire a professional manager to deal with the mills, sawyers, trucking, permits, sale, cleanup and all the paperwork. The devil is in the details, and no matter how small, the whole process can be really complicated and there are many ways to lose you arse in the whole mess. And if you want to manage the process yourself, get a good sawyer, get bids from several mills, make sure your logs are the RIGHT LENGTH, and well, good luck dealing with it all.
My take on this subject...
