# Anyone sell firewood in bulk?



## Firewoodnewbie (Apr 14, 2013)

I currently have about 150-200 chords of already split oak wood sitting around. I don't really have the patience to sell it all to people a chord at a time. Has anyone ever sold this much wood in bulk? Do you have any advice on how to find a buyer or even how much it's worth?


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## zogger (Apr 14, 2013)

wish I had that problem....I have no experience doing this, but some thoughts.

Bulk, they load? Maybe half local going rate?

One cord at a time, ya, a lot of deliveries, but perhaps it you could deliver 4 cord at a time and offer a discount to people maybe that could work.

Another thought, look for maybe an unemployed person with large truck, not just a pickup, at least a one ton with a flatbed and sides, if not a small dump, something reasonable, say be able to hold at least a full cord or two, who would sell wood, buy it from you at wholesale discount, and he finds the customers and makes the deliveries and gets paid whatever he can get. Then only one person to deal with, he hands you cash in advance for every cord he takes.


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## rarefish383 (Apr 14, 2013)

There were a couple by the tractor trailer load guys on the way up to my farm in WV. I've been curious how the Emerald Ash situation has affected them with cross county and state line sales. That might hurt you a bit, Best of luck, Joe.


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## farmer steve (Apr 14, 2013)

1st off welcome to AS.find out what firewood is selling for in your area. there will be many variables,delivery,distance& so on.you know how much work u put it that pile so dont rip yourself off.Craigslist is one place to think about. set your prices,people always ask for discounts on quantity. you pay the same for a gallon of gas as you do 10. IMO i wouldn't cut prices for less than 4-5cords . if you have quailty f/w u wont have a problem selling it. as rarefish said u might want to check state regs. i sell about 25-30 cords a year and never have enough wish you were closer. keep us posted as to what you come up with.FS.


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## Firewoodnewbie (Apr 14, 2013)

Well it's all oak wood so there shouldn't be any EAB issues to deal with but I'll have to look up Illinois/Indiana laws on firewood sale and intercounty and state transfer. 

I really wish I could find a guy with a tractor trailer to come pick it all up but I do like the idea of finding a guy or two with a pickup to sell it by the chord for me. I'll have to set up a Craigslist ad.


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## leon (Apr 14, 2013)

*firewood*



Firewoodnewbie said:


> I currently have about 150-200 chords of already split oak wood sitting around. I don't really have the patience to sell it all to people a chord at a time. Has anyone ever sold this much wood in bulk? Do you have any advice on how to find a buyer or even how much it's worth?





It is either an opportunity or a curse for you. 

A lot of restaurants and pizza parlors are buying 
wood for cooking and baking pizzas. 

You could sell it at a five ton minimum for X dollars, 
but the issue is what your time is/was worth and how 
much time it took you to process the oak.


We have a local here that buys firewood logs for $33 dollars+- a ton and sells 16-18 inch firewood at 2.5 cord loads for $195.00 a cord plus fuel tax, 14-16 inch wood is $205.00 a cord. 

All depends on your market and the local economy and what you have to deliver it with.

You could sell it all to a kiln dried firewood operator/reseller and have very quick sale for it all to get rid of it.


the issue is its value to you versus what someone will pay for it. If its slash from clearing
hardwoods it will lose very little value.


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## ponyexpress976 (Apr 14, 2013)

Just make sure you sell what you're advertising. Most of my new customers have been ripped off by short loads or green sold as seasoned. If you have no insurance issues, let them pick it up. I like the idea of finding a "middle man" that you can trust.

How does a person get 200 cords and not have a way/plan for moving it? Not trying to be critical, critical just curious.


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## Firewoodnewbie (Apr 14, 2013)

ponyexpress976 said:


> Just make sure you sell what you're advertising. Most of my new customers have been ripped off by short loads or green sold as seasoned. If you have no insurance issues, let them pick it up. I like the idea of finding a "middle man" that you can trust.
> 
> How does a person get 200 cords and not have a way/plan for moving it? Not trying to be critical, critical just curious.



We just kind of started splitting one week to fill a few small orders and before we knew it we a accidentally had a couple giant woodpiles :msp_scared:

I found a semi local distributor who says he's selling face cords of oak for around 150. He didn't list what he's buying for but I'm going to shoot him an email an see what he'd offer me.


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## ponyexpress976 (Apr 14, 2013)

Selling some is more money in your pocket than this time yesterday. I don't have near your volume . I sell green mostly and advertise as such. I also have a list of people that buy every year and like to buy it a year ahead. So probably 60% of the wood I touch is on the property for less than 72 hours. I don't bother pushing the seasoned stuff until mid season. Make sure I get top dollar for it.


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## indiansprings (Apr 14, 2013)

We have tried to sell semi-truck loads in prior years to no avail. The issue of truck/fuel cost always have been an issue.
Even our best customer who has historically purchased 55/60 cord + a year just wants no more than five to eight cord on his premises due to storage constraints. We found that it is hard for most people to come up with the coin to buy large quanities of wood. Most will be repeat buyers of small amounts of wood. There will always be a market year round for wood, as some have said restraunts, camp grounds and resorts will be your best bet in the off season. Don't get discouraged by slow spring and summer sales, the leaves will be falling before you know it, as long as you are competitive, wood is like money in the bank. After selling wood for many years, we're seriously debating getting out of the business, in our area there is no shortages of places to cut, the last couple of years has brought out more and more weekend cutters willing to sell as low as 50-60.00 for a cord of oak picked up and we're not compromising on price.


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## zogger (Apr 14, 2013)

indiansprings said:


> We have tried to sell semi-truck loads in prior years to no avail. The issue of truck/fuel cost always have been an issue.
> Even our best customer who has historically purchased 55/60 cord + a year just wants no more than five to eight cord on his premises due to storage constraints. We found that it is hard for most people to come up with the coin to buy large quanities of wood. Most will be repeat buyers of small amounts of wood. There will always be a market year round for wood, as some have said restraunts, camp grounds and resorts will be your best bet in the off season. Don't get discouraged by slow spring and summer sales, the leaves will be falling before you know it, as long as you are competitive, wood is like money in the bank. After selling wood for many years, we're seriously debating getting out of the business, in our area there is no shortages of places to cut, the last couple of years has brought out more and more weekend cutters willing to sell as low as 50-60.00 for a cord of oak picked up and we're not compromising on price.



Well, thats capitalism. Just how it works, some people can make some money by working cheaper, see overseas labor prices for example. You can either do things the same way and drop prices, meaning less or no profit to compete on price, or get more efficient somehow by some innovations and drop prices but still make a profit. Or go out of business and concede to the other guys. We see it all over in every industry, just how it goes. With wood, it is hard to get more quality then well seasoned oak or some other topnotch product.You cant make it any better than that, so all you can do is be more productive somehow. 

Its pretty hard to beat a motivated good working guy laid off from his real job and staring at a house note, truck note, getting some groceries, etc. Hes gonna work as hard as it takes with very minimal tools and price his product to sell today, and thats about it. Even if he only makes 50 bucks working all day, its better than zero bucks. He can title pawn his truck and pawn his saw, or go work his truck and saw, about the only two choices he has. One choice gives him some nice money for a few days, the other choice will bring in some steady, low, but steady money. I know which one I would try.


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## philoshop (Apr 14, 2013)

+1 on all of what Zogger has said. Especially the idea of finding someone else to do the sales and delivery, with you being the distributor/wholesaler.
A couple of good straightup college kids with a pickup could probably go nuts with it for the summer. The problem is finding 'em. Not an easy task.
Then there's always the liability issue on your property.
I wish I had your problem, but then again I wouldn't have any place to park the tractor .


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## blackdogon57 (Apr 14, 2013)

I have a funny feeling the op is talking 200 face cords - not real cords. Should be no problem to sell. Part time sellers usually realize that they are better off doing other work and move on. Power to you if you can make some money. The only way to make real money in firewood is mass production and even then the pickings are slim.


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## WOODSMAN416 (Apr 15, 2013)

Sell it by the pickup load at a set price. Discount price, buyer picks up and loads. It should go pretty quick in season.


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## shelbythedog (Apr 15, 2013)

I met a local logger over the weekend who sells cut and split firewood in bulk. Around here a 20 cord grapple load of 8' logs sells for $1600 delivered. He will deliver that same amount of wood in 4 dump truck loads for $2200. In both situations it works out to 15 or 16 cord of wood when processed and stacked. The cut and split wood is Oak, Ash, and Hard Maple, he will do any mixture of the three species, a custom blend if you will. Also, the purchaser can choose 16, 18, or 20" wood. He claims that he has a steadily increasing customer base of older folks who can no longer commit the time, or no longer have the health to process their own wood. His customers see him just like they see the propane man, a fuel salesman. There is still a cost savings to be had vs. fossil fuels, probably on par with buying wood pellets.


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## blackdogon57 (Apr 15, 2013)

shelbythedog said:


> I met a local logger over the weekend who sells cut and split firewood in bulk. Around here a 20 cord grapple load of 8' logs sells for $1600 delivered. He will deliver that same amount of wood in 4 dump truck loads for $2200. In both situations it works out to 15 or 16 cord of wood when processed and stacked. The cut and split wood is Oak, Ash, and Hard Maple, he will do any mixture of the three species, a custom blend if you will. Also, the purchaser can choose 16, 18, or 20" wood. He claims that he has a steadily increasing customer base of older folks who can no longer commit the time, or no longer have the health to process their own wood. His customers see him just like they see the propane man, a fuel salesman. There is still a cost savings to be had vs. fossil fuels, probably on par with buying wood pellets.




Glad that guys not selling processed wood my area. I wouldn't be in business's long if guys were willing to process and deliver wood for a extra 40 bucks a cord.


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## indiansprings (Apr 15, 2013)

You can definetly see the difference in geographical wood pricing. This year we bought ten wheeler loads stacked off, mainly whiteoak and redoak 15 cord loads delivered ran between 300.00-375.00 depending on where the log truck was coming from, all cull logs with hollow spots in them ranging from 18"-25". It was the easiest cutting we have ever done. No limbs, no fuel cost going to and from the woods, it made for a more profitable year. I don't think most weekend operators or guys out of work understand the true cost of their product, they don't factor in their fuel cost, chain cost, bar oil, mix, and dang sure don't figure in any labor cost. They just know they put 50.00 in their pocket.


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## woodman6666 (Apr 16, 2013)

indiansprings said:


> You can definetly see the difference in geographical wood pricing. This year we bought ten wheeler loads stacked off, mainly whiteoak and redoak 15 cord loads delivered ran between 300.00-375.00 depending on where the log truck was coming from, all cull logs with hollow spots in them ranging from 18"-25". It was the easiest cutting we have ever done. No limbs, no fuel cost going to and from the woods, it made for a more profitable year. I don't think most weekend operators or guys out of work understand the true cost of their product, they don't factor in their fuel cost, chain cost, bar oil, mix, and dang sure don't figure in any labor cost. They just know they put 50.00 in their pocket.



I agree!


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## Swamp Yankee (Apr 17, 2013)

indiansprings said:


> You can definetly see the difference in geographical wood pricing. This year we bought ten wheeler loads stacked off, mainly whiteoak and redoak 15 cord loads delivered ran between 300.00-375.00 depending on where the log truck was coming from, all cull logs with hollow spots in them ranging from 18"-25". It was the easiest cutting we have ever done. No limbs, no fuel cost going to and from the woods, it made for a more profitable year. I don't think most weekend operators or guys out of work understand the true cost of their product, they don't factor in their fuel cost, chain cost, bar oil, mix, and dang sure don't figure in any labor cost. They just know they put 50.00 in their pocket.



Agreed

Wish I could get my tree length for that price. I've been getting grapple loads of tree length, averaging 8 to 8-1/2 cord split and stacked, for $725. 

I see a lot of firewood sellers that work for next to nothing based upon productivity. All the time spent felling, getting the hang ups down, cutting and getting the brush out of the way, skidding and / or moving the wood out to be processed, and just the road time to and from the woodlot isn't free. 

Now if you're cutting saw logs and are pulling some tree length to the landing with each hitch that's indeed a different situation. Topping on these jobs usually means just making sure the brush is below contract height, usually 3 feet, so that does make for faster production.

I guess it all depends on what each person figures his time is worth and what the selling price that market will bear.

Take Care


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## mainewoods (Apr 17, 2013)

If you are just looking to get rid of the oak and don't want to truck it, then put the wood on CL - "load yourself for $----- a cord". Weekend warriors with pickups will come if the price is less than delivered prices. You determine the price -it usually doesn't need to be much less. There are many carefully stacked 1/2 cord pickup loads on the road up here on any given weekend. Just a thought.


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## TeeMan (Apr 17, 2013)

I wish I could take a few truck loads off of your hands, but in Louisiana that is not going to happen! 

You could try searching for companies that sell bundled firewood in your area to grocery stores. These businesses (at least down here) use local people to cut and process the wood, buy it from them, then re-sell to grocery stores. As stated earlier in this thread, there are certain regulations for cross state distribution. Just a thought if you can't push it on craigslist.

Something like this; close to your state:
MOUNTAIN WOOD PRODUCTS HOME PAGE


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## winland (Apr 17, 2013)

Firewoodnewbie said:


> I currently have about 150-200 chords of already split oak wood sitting around.



Going to need photos of this or it ain't so. :chainsawguy:


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