Stacks of wood .. any idea what value?

[M.D. Vaden]

The stacks of lumber is next to a workshop I helped to reorganize at a camp where our son and his wife moved. It's been stored outdoor, under cover, and appears to have very little cracks. It seems to be in excellent condition, straight, and stacked on an even surface. The property has pine, incense cedar and Douglas fir. It does not look like pine, could be incense cedar, but I'm guessing Douglas fir. About 2/3 of the tall stack boards are 12 feet long, the rest 8 feet long, milled to about 1 inch and 2 inch thick, and 6 inch and 12 inch widths. The shorter stack to the left, are mostly 2 inch thick, and 8 feet long.

Any suggestions on what the stacks are worth, in case they decide to post an ad to sell these?

They don't need the wood, but could use the money for other improvements to the cabins and old historic house.

 

[JOEY JENKINS]

Most of the lumber sold by home improvement stores is Fir. I haven't bought or priced any for some time but I would think it should be worth at least what the stores are charging for the same dimensions. But at this point in this crazy world we live in I am reminded of what my father told me when I was showing him something I bought for what I believed to be a great price and told him it was worth however much more than I had paid for it. He told me, "Son, it's only worth what you can get for it. What makes you think that you can get more than they did out of it?"
It all depends on how much the person buying it wants or needs it and how bad the seller wants or needs the money. People aren't spending much money on anything they don't desperately need r

 

[grizz55chev]

Most of the lumber sold by home improvement stores is Fir. I haven't bought or priced any for some time but I would think it should be worth at least what the stores are charging for the same dimensions. But at this point in this crazy world we live in I am reminded of what my father told me when I was showing him something I bought for what I believed to be a great price and told him it was worth however much more than I had paid for it. He told me, "Son, it's only worth what you can get for it. What makes you think that you can get more than they did out of it?"
It all depends on how much the person buying it wants or needs it and how bad the seller wants or needs the money. People aren't spending much money on anything they don't desperately need r

Went to Home Depot last week for the first time in 6 weeks for some much needed home supplies , the line was stretched across the front of the store and doubled all the way across again! They’re only letting so many people in at a time, I bet you could get better than HD prices with a little word of mouth advertising. Needless to say, we didn’t get in to HD that day!

 

[M.D. Vaden]

It all depends on how much the person buying it wants or needs it and how bad the seller wants or needs the money. People aren't spending much money on anything they don't desperately need r

That's why I"m curious about the ballpark price. Because we can wait weeks or a year .. no rush.

We won't be looking for bargain hunters or someone in dire straights, but a local purchaser who is one of the probably 50% who have rock solid finances. Some businesses and professionals here are seeing a 25% increase in income and business at the moment. So again .. the starting point is what a stack of wood like that may be worth, average.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Went to Home Depot last week for the first time in 6 weeks for some much needed home supplies , the line was stretched across the front of the store and doubled all the way across again! They’re only letting so many people in at a time, I bet you could get better than HD prices with a little word of mouth advertising. Needless to say, we didn’t get in to HD that day!

You are right . Home Depot is swamped.

Actually, one Home Depot person asked me to talk to the Pro Desk about this wood. Don't know why, and the woman at the desk was perplexed why the co-worker sent me there. But she did search their stock out of curiosity for rough cut lumber, and couldn't find anything similar in their products. They just had the standard 2 x studs and other standard boards for framing, cedar fencing, etc..

 

[JOEY JENKINS]

Value is completely relative. I barter whenever possible because more often than not both parties receive something more valuable to them than whatever it is they are trading. If you can put the lumber in front of someone who wants or needs it then the value is much higher to them than it would be to someone who doesn't. The person who wants or needs the lumber may have a stockpile or excess amounts of something that you want or need more than the lumber. I have even bartered with services and/or labor. I repaired a person's old backhoe in exchange for a circle sawmill. We each feel that we got the better bargain.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Value is completely relative. I barter whenever possible because more often than not both parties receive something more valuable to them than whatever it is they are trading. If you can put the lumber in front of someone who wants or needs it then the value is much higher to them than it would be to someone who doesn't. The person who wants or needs the lumber may have a stockpile or excess amounts of something that you want or need more than the lumber. I have even bartered with services and/or labor. I repaired a person's old backhoe in exchange for a circle sawmill. We each feel that we got the better bargain.

That''s a good suggestion.

Hadn't even considered trade.

But your note jogs my memory. Years ago, I traded a solid oak bookcase build for pruning, and also a .308 rifle from a gunsmith for pruning. And a 12' fiberglass canoe for 1/2 payment toward pruning work.

 

[kimosawboy]

To me you cannot compare box store wood to '''milled'' wood. No if ands or buts... Up here in Canada most all "'commercial '' lumber is SPF (Spruce/pine/fir) and that in turn means 90% Pine. Grading has gone to crap, way more knots/ knot size does not seem to come into to play. Cupped /bowed/twisted wood is somewhat common.
I will take ''milled'' full dimensional lumber over that any time..
It looks like you have a nice pile of full dimension fir that looks relatively clear with good grain-- easy $2.5/B.ft
For comparison I checked a crap box store and they wanted $9.49 for a 2"x6"x12'..............your price would be $30.

 

[rarefish383]

I go to farm auctions almost every weekend year round. Lots of the farms have old circle mills, now and then a nice band mill. Piles of lumber like that would sell for a few hundred bucks at best. I'm not arguing what they are worth, I'm just stating what I see it sell for. If I were building a wood shed, or run in barn for the horses, and I needed 2X6X12's, I'd get the ones from home depot. The wood pile and horses don't care. To get $30 a board you need a special person with a need for that specific pile of lumber. It's hard to find that one person. The thing you have, is time is on your side. Another thing, I'm in the Mid Atlantic area, all of that lumber would be Oak, Cherry, Poplar, and Walnut, if it makes any difference.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

To get $30 a board you need a special person with a need for that specific pile of lumber. It's hard to find that one person.

That .. I disagree with for maybe 95% of whatever is for sale. A big reason .. the one person is often on the lookout for whatever the thing is.

For example, I wanted an older 15mm Canon fisheye lens, but didn't like the idea of a used one. Just happened a guy had one on Ebay, and it was refurbished in like-new condition, with receipts from Canon USA. All the seller had to do was get the text online, in this case Ebay. Then I found it in a matter of a couple days. The search engine tools these days really pull parts of the world together.

People who get low dollar are often ones who want to sell fast. We've got all year or more if we want. If the one person is a custom interior designer than wants that exact sort of wood product, and they don't look until next November .. waiting is no problem.

But we're also not in a pinch for money either. Selling at a lower price wouldn't be a problem.

 

[rarefish383]

That's why I said I'm not arguing what they are worth, only stating what I see it sell for. I go to auctions because they are absolute, today, and sell cheap. I also had a friend whose father scrounged up all the Chestnut studding, flooring and trim boards from old houses for years. He had a garage full, because he knew the value. When he died, the kids had a giant bon fire.

 

[rarefish383]

Check this guy out, he gets top dollar for his products. Very pleasant fellow. I travel from MD to NC just to buy exotic stuff I've seen no where else. Maybe he would give some pointers on moving your product.
https://scroungersparadise.com/

 

[Marine5068]

To me you cannot compare box store wood to '''milled'' wood. No if ands or buts... Up here in Canada most all "'commercial '' lumber is SPF (Spruce/pine/fir) and that in turn means 90% Pine. Grading has gone to crap, way more knots/ knot size does not seem to come into to play. Cupped /bowed/twisted wood is somewhat common.
I will take ''milled'' full dimensional lumber over that any time..
It looks like you have a nice pile of full dimension fir that looks relatively clear with good grain-- easy $2.5/B.ft
For comparison I checked a crap box store and they wanted $9.49 for a 2"x6"x12'..............your price would be $30.

I have 2 Mennonite millers near me that I buy my Eastern White Pine from here north of Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
They sell Pine for $0.75 a board foot.
They also mill Maple and other hardwoods and do custom milling too. (large band-saw mills).
I just bought a 5' x 10' trailer load of milled Pine for $120 that I'm using to make plank-board feature walls in my basement recroom to hang all my Muskie fishing rods on.
It was cut for a customer that never picked it up or even contacted the sawer back.
So I got it for about $0.40 a board foot.
Told him I'd bring him some fresh Walleye next time I stopped in.
Definetly bartering to be had out there.