# $600 a cord? Some rediculous prices on CL...



## StihlHead (Sep 15, 2013)

This is posted on CL in the Seattle area *cough*:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/for/4033055059.html

Greetings
We have a very limited supply of this hard to find fruit wood for sale. The wood is between 12" and 16" in length & split very well. No further splitting should be needed. No Junk. No sticks. No rot. Just good solid wood.
1/8 cord $100 
1/4 cord $175 
1/3 cord $225 
1/2 cord $325 
full cord $600
Price includes delivery to most of King & Snohomish counties. Delivery outside the central king & snohomish county area available with an added fuel surcharge. Stacking available for $30 an hour.

The same (insane) people want $600 a cord for GREEN apricot wood.


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## NortheastAl (Sep 15, 2013)

What kind of fruitwood is it? Must be real hard to find. Some uninformed wood burner will buy it. Such a shame.


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## StihlHead (Sep 15, 2013)

Oh, its apple... the most common fruitwood in the PNW. But even in eastern WA state they want over $300 a cord for it.

I can get oak or madrone here for $300 a cord (they both burn hotter and have more heat). I use my own apple tree prunings for apple smoking wood. You can also get 3 cords of Doug fir for $525 with the same heat per cord as apple.


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## Luigi (Sep 15, 2013)

Oak is $300 a cord out west?? They give it away here on the east coast!


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## Treacherous (Sep 15, 2013)

Sounds about right for the Seattle area.


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## Jon1270 (Sep 16, 2013)

If you've got only a small amount of a good product, it makes sense to target the least price-sensitive customers.  Seems like a better deal than the kiln-dried stuff they sell in the grocery store; it's better wood (assuming it's actually dry) and includes delivery.


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## blades (Sep 16, 2013)

bout the same price as the 1cu ft gas station bundles around here,


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## Paulywalnut (Sep 16, 2013)

It's 400 and 450. For oak here.


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## Paulywalnut (Sep 16, 2013)

Apricot wood doesn't seem too good.


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## BCC_Burner (Sep 16, 2013)

Oak, hickory, and other top shelf hardwoods sell for $450-$650 a cord split here in Utah.  Needless to say, I burn primarily Lodgepole and Pinion Pine.


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## popeyed05 (Sep 16, 2013)

Oak/Maple mixed hardwood is going for $250 green, $300 seasoned here in Maine. I thought these prices were ridiculous.


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## oldspark (Sep 16, 2013)

Anybody ever sit down and figure out what they would charge for a cord of wood, wood seems high priced but you figure the time and gas involved maybe not as overpriced as we think.


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## jeffesonm (Sep 16, 2013)

You can get green cords of oak for $110 delivered down here if you buy 3+... hardly worth gathering yourself unless you enjoy it (which I do).


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## StihlHead (Sep 16, 2013)

Paulywalnut said:


> Apricot wood doesn't seem too good.


 
It is slightly more heat than apple. I burned a lot of it in California with apple and there was narry a difference. $600 a cord for green wood.... *cough*.


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## Augie (Sep 16, 2013)

oldspark said:


> Anybody ever sit down and figure out what they would charge for a cord of wood, wood seems high priced but you figure the time and gas involved maybe not as overpriced as we think.



What someone else charges because of their costs($$ cost, and opportunity cost) doesn't matter to me. 

*All that matters to me is MY cost. *
I get wood dropped in my driveway from my local arborist that I have become friendly with. Then My cost is Splitting and stacking time, but I split and stack as exercise so that is worth $60/month in reduced cost for the gym membership, and the time is a draw as I would be working out regardless.... So anything other than delivered split for $10 a face cord, or $30 a full cord is too expensive, for me only.


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## StihlHead (Sep 16, 2013)

oldspark said:


> Anybody ever sit down and figure out what they would charge for a cord of wood, wood seems high priced but you figure the time and gas involved maybe not as overpriced as we think.


 
I am amused with all the support for these high wood prices. My wood supplier (when I have to buy it) makes a good profit selling 2 year barn seasoned Doug fir at $175 a cord, delivered. $600 a cord is price gouging, plain and simple. I doubt that they sell much wood from that ad, and they do not have much to sell anyway. Even in Seattle you can get better firewood for half that price.

Gas for my free wood costs me about $20 a cord. I can gather and haul 3 cords here in 8 hours. Figure processing and stacking and unstacking and delivering add another 4 hours per cord. There is minimal splitting for fruitwood, its mostly branches. Gas to deliver is another $20 a cord. 3 cords is 20 hours processing/delivering, or 6.7 hours per cord and $40 in gas. $600 a cord would be $560 net after gas, or $83 a hour! Which is more than I made as an engineer in the Silicon Valley. I also "only" made  $100 an hour when I was climbing, and I charged $75 an hour for chipping with a Bandit chipper. At the more reasonable rate of $200 a cord, my net on a cord would be $160 after gas, and the hourly rate would be $24 an hour. If $24 an hour is some kind of underpaid cheap chump change, I wanna know. Also most of these guys do not pay any income tax on these cash sales. Likely these guys also make money for clearing the orchards as well, and this is all gravy.

$600 a cord is more overpriced than I thought...


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## oldspark (Sep 16, 2013)

"I am amused with all the support for these high wood prices"
Who's supporing high wood prices, I asked a question on how much people wood charge for a cord of wood.


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## begreen (Sep 16, 2013)

I've always thought that this was vanity selling to the wealthiest neighborhoods. I'll bet it gets to be a bragging right on Mercer Island. Gotta have something to grouse about over that $90 bottle of wine.


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## BCC_Burner (Sep 16, 2013)

Just encountered an ad asking $375/cord for Pinion Pine here in the Salt Lake Area.  That might be even more outrageous than $600 for a cord of oak.


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## StihlHead (Sep 16, 2013)

Apple, not oak... and yes, the boutique market is certainly there in Seattle, the land of money.


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## BCC_Burner (Sep 16, 2013)

Ahh yes, well the fruit woods command a major boutique premium.  Is having better smelling stovepipe emissions worth it to you?


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## Backwoods Savage (Sep 16, 2013)

If we could sell wood at those prices, it certainly would put lots of folks to work fast!


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## JOHN BOY (Sep 16, 2013)

Wow ..!  i could get 10 cords of a log load for 600.00  Mixed hardwoods


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## Elderthewelder (Sep 16, 2013)

That particular seller is always asking high prices,
He also has  cords of fresh cut Alder for $350 
fresh cut Honey Locust for $600 a cord
Eastern Wa Fir for $475 a cord
fresh cut Beech for $195 a FACE CORD

They are a local tree service that process the wood they cut and re sell it, Evidently they must have some Eastern Wa connections for the fruit wood and they usually have a posting up for lodgepole pine for outrageous prices

here are their postings
http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/?areaID=2&subAreaID=&query=flame+on+firewood+llc&catAbb=sss


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## popeyed05 (Sep 16, 2013)

When I lived in MN my boyfriend and I sold seasoned (2 yr), split, delivered oak for $120/cd, 5 years ago. When I lived in Philly, 2 years ago, I'd giggle with excitement when I'd see ads on craigslist for free oak/maple split sitting at the end of a driveway. I'd drive my little ranger over and they'd thank me for taking it away...we had quite a stockpile behind our city lot house and since we didn't have a woodstove we burned oak/maple in a firepit! Now, in Maine, I'm getting a good deal if I find it GREEN for under $250. It's amazing how much prices differ by location for the same amount of work and relatively the same expenses.


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## JOHN BOY (Sep 16, 2013)

popeyed05 said:


> When I lived in MN my boyfriend and I sold seasoned (2 yr), split, delivered oak for $120/cd, 5 years ago. When I lived in Philly, 2 years ago, I'd giggle with excitement when I'd see ads on craigslist for free oak/maple split sitting at the end of a driveway. I'd drive my little ranger over and they'd thank me for taking it away...we had quite a stockpile behind our city lot house and since we didn't have a woodstove we burned oak/maple in a firepit! Now, in Maine, I'm getting a good deal if I find it GREEN for under $250. It's amazing how much prices differ by location for the same amount of work and relatively the same expenses.




So true   !  Popeyed05  Hay and welcome to the forum


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## PapaDave (Sep 16, 2013)

If I could get that for my dry Oak, I'd sell a bunch and start collecting again while burning natty gas and wood.
Nobody gets that kind of moola around here for firewood.


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## Mr A (Sep 16, 2013)

Let's see. I am 800 miles away from Seattle. My truck gets 15 miles per gallon, I'll need 54 gallons of gas at $212.00. My truck can tow 2 , 2-1/2 cords worth of oak weight. I get the wood for free. 20 hour drive round trip, plus the few hours I already have in it collecting and splitting, another few hours stacking at the end point. $1500 profit minus expenses- coffee, a few meals, maybe a motel. that would be good few days work, in my dreams.


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## StihlHead (Sep 17, 2013)

Elderthewelder said:


> here are their postings
> http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/?areaID=2&subAreaID=&query=flame on firewood llc&catAbb=sss


 
I see they have a wanted post in east WA for fruitwood. So they do not even process that, they just buy it.

Boutique firewood... who would have thunk it?


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## firefighterjake (Sep 17, 2013)

popeyed05 said:


> When I lived in MN my boyfriend and I sold seasoned (2 yr), split, delivered oak for $120/cd, 5 years ago. When I lived in Philly, 2 years ago, I'd giggle with excitement when I'd see ads on craigslist for free oak/maple split sitting at the end of a driveway. I'd drive my little ranger over and they'd thank me for taking it away...we had quite a stockpile behind our city lot house and since we didn't have a woodstove we burned oak/maple in a firepit! Now, in Maine, I'm getting a good deal if I find it GREEN for under $250. It's amazing how much prices differ by location for the same amount of work and relatively the same expenses.


 
Agree with your post . . . but $250 a cord for unseasoned firewood seems a bit steep . . . although perhaps it is more expensive where you are . . . Maine is a fairly large state and things can be quite different on the coast, islands or down south vs. inland, in the County, downeast, etc.


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## popeyed05 (Sep 17, 2013)

firefighterjake said:


> Agree with your post . . . but $250 a cord for unseasoned firewood seems a bit steep . . . although perhaps it is more expensive where you are . . . Maine is a fairly large state and things can be quite different on the coast, islands or down south vs. inland, in the County, downeast, etc.



I am near the coast. This is my first year needing to buy wood here - and I did manage to find a guy selling for $225/cd semi-seasoned. It's a one time thing and a limited amount as he had cleared some of his own land. All of the craigslist firewood listings near me are 250-300. I'd be glad to hear of a better source if you know of one, but I'm a couple hours from Bangor.


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## firefighterjake (Sep 17, 2013)

popeyed05 said:


> I am near the coast. This is my first year needing to buy wood here - and I did manage to find a guy selling for $225/cd semi-seasoned. It's a one time thing and a limited amount as he had cleared some of his own land. All of the craigslist firewood listings near me are 250-300. I'd be glad to hear of a better source if you know of one, but I'm a couple hours from Bangor.


 
No real sources, but I see a lot of flyers in the local general stores . . . you can also ask the local woodstove shop.


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## Mr A (Sep 19, 2013)

firefighterjake said:


> No real sources, but I see a lot of flyers in the local general stores . . . you can also ask the local woodstove shop.


Keep an eye on Craigslist free section. I found cut, split, and seasoned wood, just had to go pick it up. I scored like this just once, but I have seen several similar posts. People have to move,  sold the house, just don't want it,etc. I have a creek that runs through the middle of town. I have pulled dead logs out of there that are 10% MC.


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## firefighterjake (Sep 19, 2013)

Mr A said:


> Keep an eye on Craigslist free section. I found cut, split, and seasoned wood, just had to go pick it up. I scored like this just once, but I have seen several similar posts. People have to move,  sold the house, just don't want it,etc. I have a creek that runs through the middle of town. I have pulled dead logs out of there that are 10% MC.


 

That may work . . . but honestly right now up here with so many folks that burn wood it may be pretty tough to get free wood. I very rarely see free listings for firewood during the year . . . much less right now when many folks are so "diligently" working on building their wood supply for this coming winter.


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## Mr A (Sep 19, 2013)

firefighterjake said:


> That may work . . . but honestly right now up here with so many folks that burn wood it may be pretty tough to get free wood. I very rarely see free listings for firewood during the year . . . much less right now when many folks are so "diligently" working on building their wood supply for this coming winter.


Yea, we can get by here without any heat. Sweaters blankets and temps 30s-40s are mild comparatively. Maybe that is s why my oak seasons in a year, it never freezes for months at  time.


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## StihlHead (Sep 19, 2013)

CA has mostly NG heating, its a lot warmer and there is a lot of good high heat firewood there for the taking (at least in my experience) if you know where it is and how to hunt for it. Also in places like the SF bay area there are bans on new building or remodeling with fireplaces/wood stoves. I used to get firewood from my boss when I lived in Los Gatos. He was in Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and I could get all the madrone that I wanted. His wife did not like the trees after one of them fell on their house in a storm. I had a fireplace that was pre-ban and grandfathered there. I also used to get wood from the Gilroy area when they were turning orchards into condos and housing developments. And I got a lot of eucalyptus from Big Sur from a guy I knew that wanted to get rid of it all. That was all before Criagslist was invented. Firewood there generally sell for a high price, about $300 a cord. Though I see that Dean is giving away 'Tree of Heaven' on CL for free in Sunnyvale... oh are those people in for a big disappointment burning that stuff.


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## Highbeam (Sep 19, 2013)

I don't think it is gouging or being bad to ask too much money for your wood. It is bad to lie or misrepresent your product. The apple wood is priced way too high for me since I don't value apple wood as highly as he apparently does so we won't be doing business.

Nothing wrong with the guy that wants 1000$ per cord for cottonwood, his only problem is that he won't sell much.

I've sold plenty of wood at 200-250 per cord. I wanted it sold fast so I priced competitively.


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