Gas Station Bundles

[firecracker_77]

I laugh everytime I see these bundles at grocery stores or gas stations. Little planks of wood bundled for $5. It's very well seasoned, but wouldn't even be enough to really warm the stove much. Who buys this stuff? Way overpriced

 

[wishlist]

I'm thinking campers and such. I always see them as well and think now I believe I have $ 500,000 worth of wood in the backyard. All I need is some wrap and I can retire! Lol....:D

 

[Gark]

But some of the bundles have little handles on 'em, easy to carry. The handle is worth $3.50.

Wishlist - perhaps you need an electrified fence around the backyard and armed guards.. half a million bucks bucks is nothing to take chances with these days...LOL

 

[NYLife]

The funny thing is that the tree company that sells it to these gas station are making a hole lot of . The gas station by me goes thru those bundles like dunkin donuts goes thru coffee. What a rip off. I may put a sign on my front lawn and start selling it with out the wrap and handle for $5 not tax

 

[jharkin]

Lots of folks that have a plain old fireplace and only use it a couple times a year for ambiance probably buy these on their way home from work. People who live in planned developments where the homeowners association wont let them keep significant amounts wood stored outside, etc..

Probably a much bigger market for it than us hearth types would expect.

 

[firefighterjake]

Fireplace burners and campers -- not folks who are serious about heating their home.

 

[gzecc]

They are selling convenience. Real wood burners do nothing for convenience? Or maybe convenience is relative!
What is the actual cost of a split of oak, that has been bucked, split, trailered, stacked for 2 yrs, brought into the house, then loaded into a heating implement, then removed (ashes)?

 

[NextEndeavor]

They sell em here too. Believe it or not, a Des Moines big box lumber yard had a pile of them where they sold wood stoves. I had to go look/feel a $5 bundle looking for the gold plating. Can't imagine running those to heat my house. Had to fight off the urge to split one but didn't have my moisture meter. Bet they are kiln dried to kill any trace of bugs.

 

[ColdNH]

yah, i know people who buy these things for 7$ a whack cause they are looking at a convienent way to have a fire once or twice a year in their fireplace. They dont want to spend a couple hundred for a cord of wood and dont want to deal with the mess.

Alot of home owners near where I used to live would sell small bundles along the roadside as there was a few campgrounds right off the main road.

 

[peakbagger]

In most of the northeast there are bans on bringing wood from out of state. Folks used to bring firewood up to the whites in NH from mass and now they legally cant. So the campers have to buy local firewood and the gas stations are about the only option. At least some of the vendors sell good wood, many vendors take the junk slabs from their sawmill and cut it up. Its usually softwood and mostly bark and doesnt burn very long. I expect the gas station does a pretty hefty markup.

I talked to one supplier once and he had his kids do all the work. Sort of like a paper route,

I have seen ads before selling vending machines for firewood

 

[firecracker_77]

If I was an occasional fireplace guy, I'd buy a face cord for $75 and have wood for years. I know these are seasoned, but they're not even decent sized splits. Just little planks

 

[fire_man]

Those bundles are used by Hearth.com members, too. A common suggestion when someone is frustrated with their stove, is to go get some bundles of wood from the store and run a load. It the stove burns good, it was the wood! To coin a new saying: "It's the wood, stupid!"

 

[jcjohnston]

overheard a salesman where I work on the phone to his wife, honey go to the gas station and get 5 bundles of wood as they are calling for a storm!! I kept walking and smiling

 

[begreen]

It's like paying $1.50 a liter bottle for water out of a vending machine.

 

[Shadow&Flame]

Lots of folks that have a plain old fireplace and only use it a couple times a year for ambiance probably buy these on their way home from work. People who live in planned developments where the homeowners association wont let them keep significant amounts wood stored outside, etc..

Probably a much bigger market for it than us hearth types would expect.

My Mother has a couple of friends who come and get kindling and a little wood from me every year. They have fireplaces and just want to light it a couple times a year...for Christmas and such. Its funny to have them looking thru the stacks for pretty logs...ha They just dont want the hassle of dealing with wood all year I guess.

 

[quads]

The gas stations, grocery stores, walmart.......they all sell them around here for $5 per bundle. My bundles are bigger and I sell them for $2, plus it's some of my best seasoned oak that I split smaller and tie baler twine around while making loops to be use as handles. They buy them from me like crazy! And i still make more money off of them than what I sell my regular cord wood for. But I won't knock it, it's cash in my pocket. (hey, that rhymes)

 

[ScotO]

Imagine folks, $5.00/night to keep your house warm (actually probably closer to $10.00/24 hr burn) mutiply that by 30 and you get 300 bucks a month. Almost makes buying oil seem like a bargain!

 

[Wood Duck]

I have bought those bundles before. When you're far from home and want a camp fire, what are you going to do? In many places you can't collect firewood, or there just isn't any opportunity to collect. Ever been to southern California? You need to have a fire on the beach to end the day right, but you aren't going to collect your own firewood.

 

[ScotO]

I have bought those bundles before. When you're far from home and want a camp fire, what are you going to do? In many places you can't collect firewood, or there just isn't any opportunity to collect. Ever been to southern California? You need to have a fire on the beach to end the day right, but you aren't going to collect your own firewood.

I agree, those bundles do have their place. We went to Watkins Glen this past summer for the weekend, and camped while there. We didn't take any wood with us, so we stopped at a local place in town up there and paid around 5 bucks a bundle for, no chit, POPLAR......YUCK! So AFTER already purchasing the wood, we drive down the road and there, on the side of the road, is a guy selling it from his garage for 10 bucks a big TOTE FULL. Three times as much wood, same price. And the kicker, his was oak, maple, ash, etc.

I guess, even with the wood bundles, you gotta shop around sometimes!

 

[basod]

Talladega race is Sunday ~9mi from the house. The fans are already packing in, grocery store had a fresh pallet of the bundles $5.95ea. mid last week.
Guys set up on the roadside into the track with stacks of wood 10-20splits for $10/15. They should do well this week, as Sunday morning temps are expected to dip in the mid/low 40's.

Last time I was at my mother's house in Maine during the winter she had 2 bags of the stuff in the garage, while the stack of wood I cut ~6yrs before I had moved onto my own life down south still sat neatly in the log rack on the other side of the garage. Of course it burned in an open hearth heat sucker for the Saturday night ambieance fire.

 

[JP11]

I was just at the Fryeburg fair. Guy was selling those bag/pallet systems. 8 bucks for a quarter cord bag. he says you sell firewood loose stacked in them.. with a 10 dollar deposit on the bag.

He sells a stand and little bags for 80 cents apiece. Told me to go into business supplying wood to stores and stuff.

Money is there to be made.. I don't have time for it. I did really like the look of his firewood processor. 13k though.. you GOTTA sell some wood if you wanna buy one of those. I'll stick with my splitter and U's made from 3 pallets for now.

JP

 

[Jack Straw]

$75 for dinner
$45 for a bottle of wine
$5 for a bundle of dry wood

Taking a lovely lady back to your condo for a romantic fire (+?)......priceless

 

[clemsonfor]

People get those on the way home from work. They put them in a sac at one station i stop at during the day. folks get those to sip there wine in front of and to set the "romantic" mood. People will buy them that can have a wood pile delivered and peck at it for a few years? I see them all the time as well and think i should try and get the local contract to supply a store round here. Our local grocery only goes through like a pallet or pallet n half a yr. Last winter i debated about once it got warm offering $20-40 or so for the remaining half a pallet. Never did and not really sure where it went as by the time i was thinking about doing it we were not having fires to often.

Seriously it would take 2 of those bundles to fill my stove up, i may have a split or 2 left over but thats it!! and even in my EPA stove if its cold i might get between 8-12 hours out of it!!

 

[clemsonfor]

I have to get a few years ahead on my wood before i can spare any rreally dry wood to do this with though!!

This would be something that someone like Scotty or Backwoods or one of you other guys with huge hoards of wood should look into. Scoty especially since he is getting paid to cut and remove so much wood.

 

[Thistle]

They sell em here too. Believe it or not, a Des Moines big box lumber yard had a pile of them where they sold wood stoves. I had to go look/feel a $5 bundle looking for the gold plating. Can't imagine running those to heat my house. Had to fight off the urge to split one but didn't have my moisture meter. Bet they are kiln dried to kill any trace of bugs.

Yup. I see those little shrink wrapped bundles at Dahls,Hy-Vee,Fareway grocery stores here also for $4-4.50/bundle.

Insane. At least most that I've glanced at while walking in the store are decent hardwoods - Mulberry,Red Oak, some Silver Maple,occasionally a few pieces of Red Elm & Black Walnut.And at grocery stores its all 'local' wood & not shipped in from who knows where.....

I'm sittin' on a gold mine I tell ya!!