SO I posted my own CL out of sheer frustraion...

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shawneyboy

Minister of Fire
Oct 5, 2010
1,592
NE PA
Probably won't have any effect but maybe, just maybe someone will learn something....

http://poconos.craigslist.org/mat/2054148022.html

Ad reads.......


First off a cord of wood is measures 4x4x8. NOT LESS !!

Second, for wood to be seasoned it should have a moisture content of no more than 20% !!! NOT ABOVE !!!

3rd, Seasoning begins when the wood is bucked, and split. A log that sits un-bucked over the summer is NOT SEASONED !!!

4th, depending on the wood depends on what "seasoned" is.... OAK needs in general to be bucked and split for 2 years before the moisture content is under 20%. Nothing bothers me more than seeing these CL ads that say they are selling seasoned wood and when it gets delivered it is obvious that it is not seasoned. A friend of mine just bought what was called seasoned oak that had a moisture content of 35%. THIS IS NOT SEASONED !!!!! This is not even effeciently burnable.

5th, If you are buying unseasoned wood you are wasting your money. You are using up more BTU's to dry the wood before you are gaining any heat.

Oh and Lastly..... Please dont try and make me pay to come clean up your yard, as seen in another post here today. If I were to buy wood I could get unseasoned (although they call it seasoned) wood that is bucked, and split and delivered for 150 - 200, why oh why would I pay the same or more to come to your property and spend my time, my gas, my money, to clean up your yard? I mean really? $100 for a pickup truck load? that is 1/2 a cord, so you want me to PAY you $200 a cord for unseasoned, unprocessed wood...???? I mean REALLY ????
 
Consider yourself blacklisted by the poconos area firewood dealers association (PAFDA).
 
Wood Duck said:
Consider yourself blacklisted by the poconos area firewood dealers association (PAFDA).


Damn, and just before the annual Christmas party??? What was I thinking???
 
lol, was that before or after your morning coffee?
 
Well one thing for sure you got a lot of firewood sellers to choose from. I did a quick search for firewood in that Poconos CL and come up with this http://poconos.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=firewood&srchType=A&minAsk;=&maxAsk;=
With that many firewood dealer there is obviously a lot of competition, and usually when there is lots of competition there are some guys more desperate to make a sell more than the other guys. I say work with it, play them off one another until you get one of them to sell you their wood so cheap they won't even be able to afford put gas in their chainsaw.
Around here there is only a handful of firewood ads selling firewood, and because of that lack of competition there are only one or two that really make any money at it, they pretty much have a monopoly on firewood sells.

The logistics of splitting and storing firewood for 2 years will preclude most small time dealers from selling "seasoned" firewood. The best you could hope to do is find someone who doesn't heat with wood anymore, or bought a house with a stack of wood they want to get rid of, or something along those lines. Otherwise you are looking at small timers looking to make a "quick" buck, and you can't make a quick buck by hanging on to firewood for two years. Any bigger companies that might actually split and store their wood for two years will know what their firewood is worth and be asking top dollar.
 
Carbon_Liberator said:
Well one thing for sure you got a lot of firewood sellers to choose from. I did a quick search for firewood in that Poconos CL and come up with this http://poconos.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=firewood&srchType=A&minAsk;=&maxAsk;=
With that many firewood dealer there is obviously a lot of competition, and usually when there is lots of competition there are some guys more desperate to make a sell than the other guys. I say work with it, play them off one another until you get one of them to sell you their wood so cheap they won't even be able to afford put gas in their chainsaw.
Around here there is only a handful of firewood ads selling firewood, and because of that lack of competition there are only one or two that really make any money at it, they pretty much have a monopoly on firewood sells.

The logistics of splitting and storing firewood for 2 years will preclude most small time dealers from selling "seasoned" firewood. The best you could hope to do is find someone who doesn't heat with wood anymore, or bought a house with a stack of wood they want to get rid of, or something along those lines. Otherwise you are looking at small timers looking to make a "quick" buck, and you can't make a quick buck by hanging on to firewood for two years. Any bigger companies that might actually split and store their wood for two years will know what their firewood is worth and be asking top dollar.


The funny thing is I don't buy my wood. I am just so disgusted by some of these guys, I know more than a few people who have not gotten the amount nor the quality that they were told. Just sheer frustration..... not for me but for those who have gotter ripped off. My friend now gets his wood from me, at no charge.

I believe what you give comes back 10 fold, so I hope someone else may learn and then I will get back 10 times the knowledge.
 
shawneyboy said:
Carbon_Liberator said:
Well one thing for sure you got a lot of firewood sellers to choose from. I did a quick search for firewood in that Poconos CL and come up with this http://poconos.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=firewood&srchType=A&minAsk;=&maxAsk;=
With that many firewood dealer there is obviously a lot of competition, and usually when there is lots of competition there are some guys more desperate to make a sell than the other guys. I say work with it, play them off one another until you get one of them to sell you their wood so cheap they won't even be able to afford put gas in their chainsaw.
Around here there is only a handful of firewood ads selling firewood, and because of that lack of competition there are only one or two that really make any money at it, they pretty much have a monopoly on firewood sells.

The logistics of splitting and storing firewood for 2 years will preclude most small time dealers from selling "seasoned" firewood. The best you could hope to do is find someone who doesn't heat with wood anymore, or bought a house with a stack of wood they want to get rid of, or something along those lines. Otherwise you are looking at small timers looking to make a "quick" buck, and you can't make a quick buck by hanging on to firewood for two years. Any bigger companies that might actually split and store their wood for two years will know what their firewood is worth and be asking top dollar.


The funny thing is I don't buy my wood. I am just so disgusted by some of these guys, I know more than a few people who have not gotten the amount nor the quality that they were told. Just sheer frustration..... not for me but for those who have gotter ripped off. My friend now gets his wood from me, at no charge.

I believe what you give comes back 10 fold, so I hope someone else may learn and then I will get back 10 times the knowledge.

Yeah, I understand, to tell you the truth I wouldn't heat with wood unless I could cut it myself, and I mean head out into the bush and drop trees and do it all myself (with my boys that is). That's half the fun of it, spending time with my kids (sometimes other friends) and making a day of it outdoors accomplishing something that pays back in such a nice warm way when it's cold as hell outside.
The whole idea of having some stranger, who's only reference is Craigs list, come to my door with crappy wood (casing my joint) and supplying me with questionable heating fuel for the winter just doesn't have the appeal of the former. In fact it kind of repulses me.

I've never paid for wood, but I have met one of the larger local suppliers, he's a nice guy and what he sells isn't a bad deal. Still, it should be bought ahead of time and allowed to season for the summer if you really want decent wood to burn for the winter. I think this is the key for those who want to (have to?) buy firewood. Plan well ahead, find a good dealer you can trust, buy your wood sufficiently far enough ahead that it will be seasoned for when you need to burn it.
Those people you know who are buying at the last minute are learning (maybe the hard way) what is involved in wood heating, the smart ones will learn and start planning ahead, the others may just give up. You know as well as I do, that your CL ad, though noble and justified, will likely have little effect on the reality of the situation.
 
nice. you can add a cord of wood will not fit in a pick up. stay away from people that sell wood by the "chord". i want wood, not music.

and "free firewood" is not a tree that fell down on your property that is still lying untouched. thats just still called a tree. most adds on craiglist should really read "free logs that are cut into random legnths, cut just over the legnth you would really like."

i love craigslist.
 
I dont buy firewood either, but I go on CL everyday to look for scrounges. And EVERYDAY, I see ads for "seasoned, in log form" firewood , and other ridiculous listings. It puts my panties in a bunch, and I often e-mail these crooks just to catch them in a few lies- sometimes followed up by an ad of my own telling good folk to stay away from said 'dealer'.
 
Wood, what an interesting commodity. I know of few other materials that provoke such emotion and the propensity to rip people off. I have my own tree company and I will not sell the wood I cut. I can not see the labor involved. I use it in my own home for one and I could not stand dealing with the customers who might try to accuse me of shorting them or wood quality or,or,or. The typical CL customer must believe there is always something for nothing, The typical CL poster must believe they are sitting on a gold mine.
 
Cheers! Good post but they wont listen, there are two many suckers out there.
 
RNLA said:
The typical CL customer must believe there is always something for nothing, The typical CL poster must believe they are sitting on a gold mine.

That about sums it up.
 
shawneyboy, I liked it. Kudos for letting them know whats up!
 
I've seen some similar posts in the columbus craigslists, I mean someone posting warning about how sellers are ripping folks on and the true definition of cord and seasoned... wonder if its someone on here?

I think its bad, but then again there are lots of folks out there who honestly dont even know the difference, both sellers and buyers. Kinda like dad, I try to say what a real cord is and he wont hear it. But, if the guy selling a thrown in heaping truckload cord is charging $75 and the guy with the real cord is charging $200 then I'll take the fake cord. Regardless of what you call it, just be sure to understand how much it is before ordering.
 
shawneyboy said:
Probably won't have any effect but maybe, just maybe someone will learn something....

http://poconos.craigslist.org/mat/2054148022.html

Ad reads.......


First off a cord of wood is measures 4x4x8. NOT LESS !!

Second, for wood to be seasoned it should have a moisture content of no more than 20% !!! NOT ABOVE !!!

3rd, Seasoning begins when the wood is bucked, and split. A log that sits un-bucked over the summer is NOT SEASONED !!!

4th, depending on the wood depends on what "seasoned" is.... OAK needs in general to be bucked and split for 2 years before the moisture content is under 20%. Nothing bothers me more than seeing these CL ads that say they are selling seasoned wood and when it gets delivered it is obvious that it is not seasoned. A friend of mine just bought what was called seasoned oak that had a moisture content of 35%. THIS IS NOT SEASONED !!!!! This is not even effeciently burnable.

5th, If you are buying unseasoned wood you are wasting your money. You are using up more BTU's to dry the wood before you are gaining any heat.

Oh and Lastly..... Please dont try and make me pay to come clean up your yard, as seen in another post here today. If I were to buy wood I could get unseasoned (although they call it seasoned) wood that is bucked, and split and delivered for 150 - 200, why oh why would I pay the same or more to come to your property and spend my time, my gas, my money, to clean up your yard? I mean really? $100 for a pickup truck load? that is 1/2 a cord, so you want me to PAY you $200 a cord for unseasoned, unprocessed wood...???? I mean REALLY ????

Yup. You really made a difference.
 
Bigg_Redd said:
Yup. You really made a difference.

Redd, if only 1 person reads this and learns something then I made a difference. That is all I can ask for.
 
shawneyboy said:
First off a cord of wood is measures 4x4x8. NOT LESS !!

Second, for wood to be seasoned it should have a moisture content of no more than 20% !!! NOT ABOVE !!!

3rd, Seasoning begins when the wood is bucked, and split. A log that sits un-bucked over the summer is NOT SEASONED !!!

4th, depending on the wood depends on what "seasoned" is.... OAK needs in general to be bucked and split for 2 years before the moisture content is under 20%. Nothing bothers me more than seeing these CL ads that say they are selling seasoned wood and when it gets delivered it is obvious that it is not seasoned. A friend of mine just bought what was called seasoned oak that had a moisture content of 35%. THIS IS NOT SEASONED !!!!! This is not even effeciently burnable.

5th, If you are buying unseasoned wood you are wasting your money. You are using up more BTU's to dry the wood before you are gaining any heat.

Oh and Lastly..... Please dont try and make me pay to come clean up your yard, as seen in another post here today. If I were to buy wood I could get unseasoned (although they call it seasoned) wood that is bucked, and split and delivered for 150 - 200, why oh why would I pay the same or more to come to your property and spend my time, my gas, my money, to clean up your yard? I mean really? $100 for a pickup truck load? that is 1/2 a cord, so you want me to PAY you $200 a cord for unseasoned, unprocessed wood...???? I mean REALLY ????

Preach it! Amen, brother! Let's line up the converted and make them members of hearth.com! :)
 
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