Scary Pre-Buy Prices in South Central MA

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mccabedoug

mccabedoug

Member
Nov 12, 2008
65
Central MA
Starting to get quotes (and calling around) for pre-buy pellet prices. Frankly, they are not much different than the $6/bag price I paid all winter. None of the prices below include shipping.

1) Called the shop I bought my 61A from last year and they quoted me $285/ton for NEWP. Stated that the price is not going to drop this summer.

2) Got email from Wood Pellet Experts in Oxford, MA and Uxbridge, MA. Prices ranged from $260/ton for Apple County to $325/ton for Green Supreme, Freedom, Blazer, etc. Ouch.

3) Pellets Direct are priced around the same: $260/ton and up.

4) Pellet Sales prices are inching up all the time with LG Pellets now costing $270/ton.

For those people believing that lower pellet prices are coming, I am skeptical at least for New England. Why WOULD the retailers lower prices when ALL of them are priced the same and people are buying the pellets? In other words, the demand is high, the supply is what it is, and every retailer is charging the same price.

If anyone who lives in south central MA has a better/cheaper source for pellets, I'd love to hear about it....
 
Yeah, Robbins Garden, AKA Wood pellet experts, are ridiculous with their prices. I have no idea why anyone buys from them. Their April prices range from $299 - $359. Way too much.

Pellets direct has a few cheap brands, Palmetto and ACP. Unfortunately I can't find any info on Palmetto and what I read on ACP brand, they are terrible. But they could have had a bad batch, who knows.

But nobody is cheap in Central, SE Mass. No one.
 
If you have a commercial location that can unload a box truck safely give me a call and I will see what I can do. No promises but I might be able to save you a few dollars. I do have a couple extra loads available.

Eric
330-448-0300
 
Dojistar said:
Yeah, Robbins Garden, AKA Wood pellet experts, are ridiculous with their prices. I have no idea why anyone buys from them. Their April prices range from $299 - $359. Way too much.....
Click to expand...

Are sure you got their name right? maybe it's "Robbers Garden".... :gulp:
 
Here in Ct, I just bought 8 bags to finish out my heating season. LG at $7 a bag. For a ton they want $331. Absolutely ridiculous. Time to surf Craigslist and look for pellets. Bought about 3 tons off craigslist for about 4.50 a bag.
 
This just might be the year to return to using fuel oil. With pellet prices at that level, even if fuel oil goes over $3 a gallon, it will be a wash and a lot less work and a the whole house will be warm. If fuel oil stays under 3 bucks, and pellet prices are $275 or more, then the pellet manufacures are gonna have a boat load of unsold pellets sitting around.
 
Last summer everybody was cussing the oil man. This summer everybody will be cussing the pellet man. :mad:
 
Wet1 said:
Real easy solution, dont give them your money.
Click to expand...

That's where I'm at. Looks like oil this year unless pellet prices crash. Nice to have options.
 
Looks like I picked the wrong time to get back into pellets (owned a Whitfield Advantage IIT back in the late 90s). What fries my butt is the price differences between the Midwest and New England. I do not buy shipping cost differences as the reason since there are pellet plants here in the East.
 
I am getting NEP from my local guy at 249..
of course won't tell you who that is...because i want to him to still have pellets....not have the pellet pigs descend on his place like flies to a carcass!
 
SparkyDog said:
of course won't tell you who that is...because i want to him to still have pellets....not have the pellet pigs descend on his place like flies to a carcass!
Click to expand...

Be careful....we're watching! LOL

And as for why the prices in the NE are so much higher than in the Mid-West, it's the same thing as why gas prices are higher here (except NJ).....their feeling is that people in the NE are all RICH, and can afford to pay more....
 
kinsman stoves said:
If you have a commercial location that can unload a box truck safely give me a call and I will see what I can do. No promises but I might be able to save you a few dollars. I do have a couple extra loads available.

Eric
330-448-0300
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind offer, Eric. Unfortunately the pellets would have to be delivered to my home, and thus, I would not be able to safely unload a big truck. Cool idea, though.
 
Around my part of NYS NEWP are $249 per ton and Bearfoot at $269 per ton. The dealer has 6,000 tons of NEWP and 3,000 of Bearfoots about half are gone.
 
Last time I checked, Squire Lumber in Monson has pellets at $239/ton. Delievery to Charlton for 6 tons was $70.00 (total).
 
I've been saying it all along. Tons of people bought pellet stoves last year. The pellet manufacturers saw the spike in stove sales, so why not raise the price. With that moany stoves out there, people will pay for pellets. Remember, they're in it to make $$$. You won't see prices much lower than this at all...
 
cncpro said:
Wet1 said:
Real easy solution, dont give them your money.
Click to expand...

That's where I'm at. Looks like oil this year unless pellet prices crash. Nice to have options.
Click to expand...


Options are great to have. I bought 4 tons of greene team pellets back in July from lowes and paid about $270 per ton. I still have 20 or so bags left, but I am burning them until they are either depleted or when spring arrives. With oil being so cheap, I would be much better off saving the pellets and burning oil, but I want to recover my space in the garage. I recently added yet another heating option. I had a 15 SEER AC/Heatpump unit installed this week. Based on a calculator that I found online, I would be better off using the heatpump when oil goes over $2.50 per gallon. I am going to have to think long and hard about buying pellets for next year.
 
Mike J said:
cncpro said:
Wet1 said:
Real easy solution, dont give them your money.
Click to expand...

That's where I'm at. Looks like oil this year unless pellet prices crash. Nice to have options.
Click to expand...


Options are great to have. I bought 4 tons of greene team pellets back in July from lowes and paid about $270 per ton. I still have 20 or so bags left, but I am burning them until they are either depleted or when spring arrives. With oil being so cheap, I would be much better off saving the pellets and burning oil, but I want to recover my space in the garage. I recently added yet another heating option. I had a 15 SEER AC/Heatpump unit installed this week. Based on a calculator that I found online, I would be better off using the heatpump when oil goes over $2.50 per gallon. I am going to have to think long and hard about buying pellets for next year.
Click to expand...


Pellets stoves are SUPPLEMENTAL heat and not intended to heat the entire house. I bet your owner's manual with tell you this. My suggestion is to use your furnace to heat the house and the pellet stove to provide a boost or help save money when everyone is home. No one likes a cold house and anything below 72 is cold, unless you are running the A/C.

Eric
 
kinsman stoves said:
My suggestion is to use your furnace to heat the house and the pellet stove to provide a boost or help save money when everyone is home.
Click to expand...

Furnace? What's a furnace? :coolsmirk:
 
Mike J said:
cncpro said:
Wet1 said:
Real easy solution, dont give them your money.
Click to expand...

That's where I'm at. Looks like oil this year unless pellet prices crash. Nice to have options.
Click to expand...


Options are great to have. I bought 4 tons of greene team pellets back in July from lowes and paid about $270 per ton. I still have 20 or so bags left, but I am burning them until they are either depleted or when spring arrives. With oil being so cheap, I would be much better off saving the pellets and burning oil, but I want to recover my space in the garage. I recently added yet another heating option. I had a 15 SEER AC/Heatpump unit installed this week. Based on a calculator that I found online, I would be better off using the heatpump when oil goes over $2.50 per gallon. I am going to have to think long and hard about buying pellets for next year.
Click to expand...

I also have a 15 SEER heatpump and live in Georgia. Even down here it gets COLD. We had a 13" snowfall a few weeks ago. At anything below about 40 degrees the heat pump is pretty useless unless you use the heat strip supplemental heat, which is really going to hurt your pocket book, especially if the rumored huge bump in electric rates goes into effect. I found that for above 40 degrees, you get about a 50 degree boost in temp at the registers versus outside air temp, FYI.
 
Gee this is a no brainer. Buy oil for the rest of the heating season cheaper than pellets. DUH Force the price of pellets down. What evers cheaper.
 
macman said:
SparkyDog said:
of course won't tell you who that is...because i want to him to still have pellets....not have the pellet pigs descend on his place like flies to a carcass!
Click to expand...

Be careful....we're watching! LOL

And as for why the prices in the NE are so much higher than in the Mid-West, it's the same thing as why gas prices are higher here (except NJ).....their feeling is that people in the NE are all RICH, and can afford to pay more....
Click to expand...

It's not that we are rich...it is because we are more educated....
and can grasp higher numbers I guess!
 
We had to run the propane furnace (now gone) to supplement the pellet stove when the temps went below 30. Now the pellet stove is out and the heat pump is in. For us, it's doing a better job at lower cost.

Our system has an 17 SEER heat pump in a much more northern climate. It was the first that our installer had put in of this series. The first winter, it was good down to about freezing. This year the installer came out for yearly service and spent about an hour tweaking it. As he left, he said, you might notice an improvement when it gets cold. That was an understatement. It has held up pretty well even at 24 degrees. We had a burn ban during a stagnant cold spell and I was impressed with how well it heated. Yes, it ran long cycles, but it did the job without switching over to the resistance heaters. At 35 degrees we are getting about 112 degree air from the registers.
 
BeGreen said:
We had to run the propane furnace (now gone) to supplement the pellet stove when the temps went below 30. Now the pellet stove is out and the heat pump is in. For us, it's doing a better job at lower cost.

Our system has an 17 SEER heat pump in a much more northern climate. It was the first that our installer had put in of this series. The first winter, it was good down to about freezing. This year the installer came out for yearly service and spent about an hour tweaking it. As he left, he said, you might notice an improvement when it gets cold. That was an understatement. It has held up pretty well even at 24 degrees. We had a burn ban during a stagnant cold spell and I was impressed with how well it heated. Yes, it ran long cycles, but it did the job without switching over to the resistance heaters. At 35 degrees we are getting about 112 degree air from the registers.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is REALLY GOOD!!! What brand is that 17 SEER???
 
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