What gives in the firewood business? When every redneck is doing it in this town and one or two undercut you and at the price they charge, is not worth your time? How do you make it worth your while?
Trevor
Trevor
Tough Business
- Thread starter coolbeans
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AOD
Addicted to ArboristSite
When everyone is getting laid off, your time gets cheaper and cheaper. When the alternative is make peanuts selling wood or make nothing at all, it's an obvious choice.
I could easily see the market being flooded with the stuff, literally faster than it can be burnt, in other words enough firewood around to keep every operating wood burner fed for the next 2 seasons.
I have never seen so many guys out cutting as I have in the last few weeks.
I could easily see the market being flooded with the stuff, literally faster than it can be burnt, in other words enough firewood around to keep every operating wood burner fed for the next 2 seasons.
I have never seen so many guys out cutting as I have in the last few weeks.
whiting-5
ArboristSite Operative
today i came to a relization going price right now for a rick of nice hardwood split and stacked for 35.00$ another month it will be 25.00 im going to be buying up a bunch i cant justify my time gas,equipment maint.,chains,etc. of doing it myself will i still cut wood off my property and enjoy it ?yes.but it will be nice to have some extra time to fool wither other stuff . just my 2cents.
dingeryote
Blueberry Baron
Timmy the Tax cheat, ran his lips about taxing the crap out of the petrolium industry and Carbon emitters. He will get the taxes in place. Heating oil,propane, and energy in general is about to go WAAAAAY up.
Next season will be a good year to have a mountain of split wood to sell.
The folks in the woods all of a sudden ain't new. Folks without a job still need to heat the house. Same thing happened when Carter screwed us back in the day.
GM is about to file bankruptcy, and the woods will just get more crowded soon after.
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
mtfallsmikey
Addicted to ArboristSite
Lots of wood around here for sale, no price war yet...$115-130/cord. No one's selling much tho...too many ripoff artists.
FIRESMOKE
ArboristSite Member
I think I posted before somewhere that the going rate for a cord around here is $120 - $140. Not alot of coin for the work and investment of equipment but the other choice is nothing at all. It seems every other house or farm has a pile of wood sitting out for sale. I used to sell wood to a BBQ supply store (apple , hickory, etc.) but with the USDA limiting these sales to kiln dried wood I've lost my cash cow as far as firewood goes.
savageactor7
ArboristSite Guru
Those are what you call 'market forces' coolbeans. As more folks get laid off guys will get together and cut for some extra coin...it helps supplement their unemployment insurance.
avalancher
Arboristsite Raconteur
I really feel sorry for some of these guys that are trying to make a buck selling wood. Yesterday it was a little over 70 degrees here, and the local farmers market was plum full of guys sitting in their trucks trying to sell pickup loads of wood for 40 bucks delivered. I talked to a few of them a couple of weeks ago, a lot of em said they spend a half a day cutting and splitting the wood, then sit at the farmers market for sometimes several days trying to sell that one load of wood.
I hope I never find myself amongst their company at the market.
I hope I never find myself amongst their company at the market.
Raymond
Addicted to ArboristSite
It ain't just firewood they're hustling. They also bid tree jobs without even knowing what kind of trees they're doing. Free climbing, cutting off a ladder, etc.
Then they rip off a gutter right off the bat and get ran off by the customer. That's when they call us and expect us to finish the job for the stupid little money they quoted.
Then they rip off a gutter right off the bat and get ran off by the customer. That's when they call us and expect us to finish the job for the stupid little money they quoted.
Butch(OH)
Addicted to ArboristSite
I too wonder about the sanity of people who would do what it takes to assemble a pick up load of firewood and then deliver it to me for $40 but none the less it is being done here too. Not quite down to $40 yet but headed that way. My farm is 4 miles from the house and I realy dont think I can get there, cut and split and bring back firewood for that kind of money everthing considered. Last time I was in the local saw shop, about a month ago, it was full of guys picking up and dopping off saws and chains. When it cleared out a bit I asked the owner what gives?? He said, laid off and looking to make a buck,,, for $40 a load I might just help some of them out.
thejdman04
Addicted to ArboristSite
I dont get it. Around here 50 was the going rate all winter. I was charging between 95-125 delivered and stacked and ran out. People sometimes cut their own throat just trying make a buck. The people pry got more business then I did, but I worked 1/2 as much and made the same money. Granted, my wood was a true face cord, and it was actually seasoned. Many of the guys around here got laid off ran out cut it and sold it green. They also had ford rangers etc would drop 1/2 a face off get the money and never come back with the other 1/2. Suddenly 50 bucks a face wasnt a good deal, you didnt get a face or seasoned wood. Only a few of my customers realized this though. Unfortunatly the ones who got burned were calling me for wood, too late after I was out.
Wet1
Addicted to ArboristSite
It seems insane to me that anyone would C/S/D a cord of quality hardwood firewood for under $100. 
mtfallsmikey
Addicted to ArboristSite
Desparate times = desparate measures
:agree2:
:agree2:
Butch(OH)
Addicted to ArboristSite
It isn't all people out to screw somebody on quanities or quality. You can go to any one of several "farmers markets" or weekly commodity sales around here and there are many, many loads of firewood, not S-10s or Rangers but 3/4 tons with BIG loads of hardwood, some aged, some not. I am guessing at least 2/3 -3/4 cord on a overloaded 3/4 ton? Green or not, if hardwood gets to $40 they will be dumping some at my place for next year. Cheapest I have heard for big loads of good wood has been $60. Of course there are the ones with half S-10 loads of sycamore too and they will take next to nothing for it especialy if they can throw it over on your truck or trailer and not have to deliver it.
woodbooga
cords of mystic memory
It seems insane to me that anyone would C/S/D a cord of quality hardwood firewood for under $100.
I think we're looking at some regional differences of wood quantity - cord versus face cord.
No one up here (that I know of) sells in terms of face cords. Everything is bought and sold in cords or fractions of a cord defined as 128cf. Prices listed in the classifieds are still in the $200-$250 range for a full cord, c/s/d.
Butch(OH)
Addicted to ArboristSite
May be someplaces but not here. Full 4x4x8 cords of seasoned hardwood delivered anywhere in county $100, been in the paper since December. The guys at the weekly auctions are even cheaper, tough times and bills to pay, or hungry?
Larry Ashcraft
ArboristSite Operative
I don't buy wood, or sell it, but the going price around here seems to be $160 delivered for a full cord. Probably cottonwood and pine, quality hardwood would probably be double that.
woodbooga
cords of mystic memory
Wow. That's peanuts. I cut and split all my own, so I'm out of touch regarding what prices the dealers are actually getting, but all the ads (which have been running since the fall - probably by contract) still advertise in the $200 range.
Maybe things will improve via the supply and demand mechanism if a lot of people take advantage of the green energy incentive, assuming that consumers choose wood over that fuel that looks like rabbit scat.
"People sometimes cut their own throat just trying make a buck"
Couldn't have said it better myself.
For a while the going rate around here was 75 per face cord, and some at 60.
fair enough, but then you got these guys that come in and say,
I'll do it for 50!
Whatever i guess I'll just keep stock piling for next year.
Trevor
Couldn't have said it better myself.
For a while the going rate around here was 75 per face cord, and some at 60.
fair enough, but then you got these guys that come in and say,
I'll do it for 50!
Whatever i guess I'll just keep stock piling for next year.
Trevor
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