Phone's Ringing Early

[Swamp Yankee]

In the words of Peter Boyle

Holy Crap

In the past 3 days I've received orders from new customers through referrals for 11 cord plus one of my regulars that takes 5 cord wants his delivered early so he can stack and cover it over the Labor Day weekend. I upped my price this year from $200 to $215 and haven't heard one whine.

I have another 12 cord of seasoned tree length that I can cut and split as these orders have wiped out my supply of speculation stock. Usually don't see this level of activity until after Halloween. Talked to a couple bigger dealers I know and they say their scheduled out through late September with deliveries / orders.

Looks like it may be a good year. Price of heating oil isn't terrible right now but it's still in the lower seasonal demand stage now.. Have noticed fewer CL hacks advertising so far this year

Anyone else seeing early activity and price increases in in their market, or is this a local thing?

Take Care

 

[thall4389]

Don't know of any activity yet but in my area it will be interesting to see how this years wood sales turn out. The freak snowstorm had the scroungers out in full force, ourselves included just on a much larger scale. The reason i think it will be interesting is, I would like to know if those guys who were hard at it day and night are planning on selling the stuff or were just stock piling it for the next few years. Don't know how bad the storm was in your area but in mine we picked up over 200 cord of log length off the side of the road (referred to us by the tree company that took it down) and that was just the big stuff. So, that being said i think there will be a flood of wood on the market, but i could be wrong seeing how most of our customers are loyal and are not the type willing to cut and split their own wood anyway

 

[lone wolf]

In the words of Peter Boyle

Holy Crap

In the past 3 days I've received orders from new customers through referrals for 11 cord plus one of my regulars that takes 5 cord wants his delivered early so he can stack and cover it over the Labor Day weekend. I upped my price this year from $200 to $215 and haven't heard one whine.

I have another 12 cord of seasoned tree length that I can cut and split as these orders have wiped out my supply of speculation stock. Usually don't see this level of activity until after Halloween. Talked to a couple bigger dealers I know and they say their scheduled out through late September with deliveries / orders.

Looks like it may be a good year. Price of heating oil isn't terrible right now but it's still in the lower seasonal demand stage now.. Have noticed fewer CL hacks advertising so far this year

Anyone else seeing early activity and price increases in in their market, or is this a local thing?

Take Care

Seems like the cold nites are making them to buy. Don't worry after November the price of fuel will go up.We may get a lot of snow this winter also.

 

[Whitespider]

Don't worry after November the price of fuel will go up.

I actually see the price of heating fuel dropping throughout the remainder of the year and into the New Year... at least in this area.
With no high demand (grain drying), a predicted late/mild early winter, and a glut of supply, the laws of supply and demand can only push the price down.
Bulk delivered heating LP can already be had for $o.99 'round here.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Don't know of any activity yet but in my area it will be interesting to see how this years wood sales turn out. The freak snowstorm had the scroungers out in full force, ourselves included just on a much larger scale. The reason i think it will be interesting is, I would like to know if those guys who were hard at it day and night are planning on selling the stuff or were just stock piling it for the next few years. Don't know how bad the storm was in your area but in mine we picked up over 200 cord of log length off the side of the road (referred to us by the tree company that took it down) and that was just the big stuff. So, that being said i think there will be a flood of wood on the market, but i could be wrong seeing how most of our customers are loyal and are not the type willing to cut and split their own wood anyway

Scroungers are scroungers

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Free wood is free wood, more power to them.

On the other hand in my experience scroungers usually don't buy wood, at least not this early in the year, and when they do purchase, it's usually just a cord to get them through.

Surprising to a lot of people after last year's 2 storms, there really wasn't the amount of wood available that you would think. In order to get clean up expedited anything that could go in a chipper was chipped and a lot of the bigger stuff went right into landfills to get it out of the way fast.

Take Care

 

[avason]

Scroungers are scroungers

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Free wood is free wood, more power to them.

On the other hand in my experience scroungers usually don't buy wood, at least not this early in the year, and when they do purchase, it's usually just a cord to get them through.

Surprising to a lot of people after last year's 2 storms, there really wasn't the amount of wood available that you would think. In order to get clean up expedited anything that could go in a chipper was chipped and a lot of the bigger stuff went right into landfills to get it out of the way fast.

Take Care

Funny you say that. After the storm the tree companies were picking that stuff up and who knows what they were doing with it. They weren't leaving it on the side or bringing it to the local landfills. Saw the town trucks many times loaded to the kilt but not delivering it to the landfill.

 

[Mac88]

Saw the town trucks many times loaded to the kilt but not delivering it to the landfill.

I bet some town employees will be quite warm this winter, with minimal heating bills. ;o)

 

[Dalmatian90]

I actually see the price of heating fuel dropping throughout the remainder of the year and into the New Year...

Depends.

Heating Oil right now is not following the cost of other fuels, and New England is predominantly heating oil (the breakdown is roughly 60% oil, 30% Natural Gas, 10% everything else including Propane).

Natural Gas prices have dropped precipitously while Heating Oil remains high. Propane I think remains constrained that we're sort of at the end of the road for it's distribution in the U.S. so they can't expand much.

Connecticut's main gas company is trying to get regulatory approval of a multi-billion dollar plan to radically expand the Natural Gas grid to go into many suburban areas they didn't previously serve with the goal of making NG 60% of our fuel mix.

Because Heating Oil is almost Diesel, it's price isn't set just by heating fuel demand but also transport demands -- rather then discount Heating Oil to compete with Propane/NG, they can spend a few more pennies and turn it into Diesel and sell it into the transport sector; and it's easy to transport to Europe where more cars burn Diesel then here.

NG on the other hand doesn't have the infrastructure yet for wide-spread use in transportation, nor are we setup to export it yet on a big scale, so it's a relative glut driving down prices here.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Funny you say that. After the storm the tree companies were picking that stuff up and who knows what they were doing with it. They weren't leaving it on the side or bringing it to the local landfills. Saw the town trucks many times loaded to the kilt but not delivering it to the landfill.

Chipping away

There were a whole lot of huge drum chippers brought into the state. They were set up in vacant building parking lots, gravel pits, etc. Most of what was trucked went to the drum chipper sites for quick processing and disposal. Chips equal fast dollars to those companies with bio-mass contracts.

Take Care

 

[ponyexpress976]

No calls yet for seasoned wood. So far this year I've already exceeded my total sales of last year in selling split-green wood. Almost every customer has said they are taking advantage of last year's low usage and leftover to try and get ahead. A lot more people preparring for a possible excrement striking the atmospheric distribution device moment. I like selling it that way since I get to store and handle a lot less.

 

[Dalmatian90]

There were a whole lot of huge drum chippers brought into the state. They were set up in vacant building parking lots, gravel pits, etc. Most of what was trucked went to the drum chipper sites for quick processing and disposal. Chips equal fast dollars to those companies with bio-mass contracts.

Part of that is there is less-then-a-handful of firms that specialize in "Disaster Recovery" -- i.e. they're passing around massive wads of cash in exchange for which they get VERY lucrative FEMA-funded contracts.

Go ahead and try to do the same work for a fraction of the cost -- FEMA will warn local municipalities that sure the FEMA contractors are much more expensive, but you probably don't know how to fill out the paperwork properly (wink wink) so you may end up with no reimbursement if you don't use the FEMA approved folks.

There is also a huge policy downside of this beyond just a few local woodboogas losing out. Much of the Federal money and almost all the profits from these operations go to companies from outside the disaster area, rather then going to help replenish the bank accounts of local workers & companies...meanwhile we're also putting extra Federal funds in unemployment and food stamps for the impacted area

 

[Dogsout]

I actually see the price of heating fuel dropping throughout the remainder of the year and into the New Year... at least in this area.
With no high demand (grain drying), a predicted late/mild early winter, and a glut of supply, the laws of supply and demand can only push the price down.
Bulk delivered heating LP can already be had for $o.99 'round here.

When you say "bulk delivered" you are talking a semi load correct? You sure as heck can not buy LP in central Iowa for $.99. Called today and the cheapest place in my neck of the woods is $1.29 cash delivered. Hard to believe there is that big of a price difference that close together.

 

[D&B Mack]

There was so much storm damage over the past year around here, I think orders will be lower this year. Many people had their tree service leave the wood and either rented a splitter or had someone come split it for them. The manager at TSC told me they had their best year in selling splitters from fall of '11 to spring of '12.

 

[chucker]

??????

standing in the middle of the tomatoe patch yesterday morning training vines an picking ripe fruit.... the wife hollars out to me to come to the phone? OK? .... early orders started to come in with the first client that had not ordered from me for the last two years! cheaper some where else he had told me priorly!! OK ! so with this new call claiming that he need dry oak? OK? i will need two cords of dry oak! OK ! whats the price ? $225.00 delivered!! "why so much" ?? wasnt that much two years ago!! nope!! your loss when you found better product for less funds!! mines more money as well as quality of product!! ?? "WELL ?? OK" I GUESS IVE LEARNED A CHEAPER LESSON DONT ALWAYS PAY IN THE END????........ "OK!! I WILL BE THERE IN THE MORNING WITH DELIVERY!! AND C.O.D. PLEASE!! LOL next client please!!:msp_wink:

 

[thall4389]

standing in the middle of the tomatoe patch yesterday morning training vines an picking ripe fruit.... the wife hollars out to me to come to the phone? OK? .... early orders started to come in with the first client that had not ordered from me for the last two years! cheaper some where else he had told me priorly!! OK ! so with this new call claiming that he need dry oak? OK? i will need two cords of dry oak! OK ! whats the price ? $225.00 delivered!! "why so much" ?? wasnt that much two years ago!! nope!! your loss when you found better product for less funds!! mines more money as well as quality of product!! ?? "WELL ?? OK" I GUESS IVE LEARNED A CHEAPER LESSON DONT ALWAYS PAY IN THE END????........ "OK!! I WILL BE THERE IN THE MORNING WITH DELIVERY!! AND C.O.D. PLEASE!! LOL next client please!!:msp_wink:

I can't count how many times that happens to us. I also cant count the number of times i have showed up to someones house with a cord of wood and they are taken back by how much it REALLY is. Cheaper is not always better i don't know why people seem to think that more often then not. All of our wood is stored in a greenhouse protected by the weather and they are always getting a guaranteed full cord, and we have to explain that to them when they gawk at the price of our wood

 

[lone wolf]

I can't count how many times that happens to us. I also cant count the number of times i have showed up to someones house with a cord of wood and they are taken back by how much it REALLY is. Cheaper is not always better i don't know why people seem to think that more often then not. All of our wood is stored in a greenhouse protected by the weather and they are always getting a guaranteed full cord, and we have to explain that to them when they gawk at the price of our wood

What does it sell for around there?

 

[thall4389]

235 delivered

 

[lone wolf]

235 delivered

Nice