Has anyone purchased direct from the pellet mill, as a neighborhood?

I tried every mill down here in GA but they all said NO. Most of them just ship overseas and the others didn't want to be bothered.

I used to get 22 tons every so often from Eden (they owed me money on the robot system I installed for palletizing their bags).... I believe freight was around $850 from Chesapeake to PA. I sold them off to local folks, used some when I had my St. Croix.
This year I installed a giant Tarm boiler system and have an Accentra insert (not installed yet), and Eden folded up, shut the doors, and hosed me out of over 100 tons worth of pellets or the equivalent in dollars.... A new company has taken over the assets and will be operating out of the same plant. I will not be purchasing pellets from them..... I am going to try to get hooked up with a local manufacturer and set up as a dealer for the customers I had. Biggest issue is storage - I have 30k sq ft at my shop but it's pretty filled with equipment at the moment....Might have to build a barn.

Anyway - if you were able to develop a small LLC between yourself and a partner or two who also use pellets, find some more local customers who will use, then you can price them fairly, make a small profit, and use pellets for yourself at a reduced rate....It sounds like a hassle, but in reality it's not a huge ordeal at all.... Anything you can do to keep the price of heat down flys in my book, again as long as you do not gouge your local potential customers, they will come back for more.... But remember you have to carry good pellets.... Edens weren't spectacular but the local guys here liked them better than big box store pellets. I'd sell them at $200/ton which is extremely reasonable. My price was $180 a ton with freight factored in.

I have heard of folks forming a co-op for buying in bulk and I'm going to check that out later this year.

Michigan Hardwoods South of Muskegon, Michigan sells direct and I believe there is also a mill in White Pigeon, Indiana that does the same. They want to sell full truckloads (44,000 pounds 22 skids) at a time though and transportation costs are extra..Myself, I'm taking a hard look at an extruder and hammer mill. I have 4 pellet burners on my road alone.