Helping Out Our Fellow Wood Burners On Craigslist

[Nonprophet]

As the temps fall it seems to draw the firewood scammers out from under their rocks!

In the past two weeks I've seen several BS posts on CL for firewood, including one guy who's trying to sell a Toyota pickup load of loosely stacked splits of Doug Fir for $130---by my calculations that comes out to about $400 a cord!!

Anyway, I decided that I'd put together some of my own hard-earned lessons with the many things that I've learned here and put out a "Firewood Buying Tips" post on CL so that folks could get an idea of what to look for and what to look out for.

Here's a link to the post I made, maybe others could post something similar on their local Craigslist in an effort to keep the scammers at bay and help more people to have a positive experience buying and burning wood.

Also, if you have any suggestions to what I could/should have written, just let me know!

NP

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Wow! Outstanding informational ad for Craig's List. You will really help some folks with this. I imagine your work will be widely copied and/or adapted. Good work, guy.

Only change I could suggest- say more about how some are truly ignorant sellers and not necessarily dishonest. And point out further how being a well- informed consumer ought to enable folks to bargain down when confronted with a financially bad deal concerning otherwise acceptable wood. In other words, point out that there is no harm in accepting unseasoned wood per se, it's just that you need to then season the stuff yourself. And that probably applies to most of what's sold. Inform your newbie buyers and soon, all the sellers will have to adjust in the direction of fuller disclosure or (gasp!) outright honesty. Heh!

 

[Summertime]

Great idea, Would you mind if others cut and pasted this to thier local Craigslist areas?

 

[smokinj]

Wow! Outstanding informational ad for Craig's List. You will really help some folks with this. I imagine your work will be widely copied and/or adapted. Good work, guy.

Only change I could suggest- say more about how some are truly ignorant sellers and not necessarily dishonest. And point out further how being a well- informed consumer ought to enable folks to bargain down when confronted with a financially bad deal concerning otherwise acceptable wood. In other words, point out that there is no harm in accepting unseasoned wood per se, it's just that you need to then season the stuff yourself. And that probably applies to most of what's sold. Inform your newbie buyers and soon, all the sellers will have to adjust in the direction of fuller disclosure or (gasp!) outright honesty. Heh!

+1 very nicely done!

 

[WoodPorn]

You should be commended for your time and effort!

Great job!

 

[Highbeam]

I would need to measure to be sure but the load pictured in your add looks to be way over a cord. If those are 8' beds and stacked over the cab height.

 

[Nonprophet]

Great idea, Would you mind if others cut and pasted this to thier local Craigslist areas?

Thanks everyone for your comments! Feel free to cut and paste and post in your local CL, just bear in mind that I geared this towards folks in here in Oregon, i.e. referring to Oregon law and Oregon wood species.

Also, once you post it, have your friends flag it "best of Craigslist" (top right corner of the CL page) this will help make sure that the scammer wood sellers don't team up to flag it and get the post removed........


NP

 

[Nonprophet]

I would need to measure to be sure but the load pictured in your add looks to be way over a cord. If those are 8' beds and stacked over the cab height.

I can't tell from the pics if those are 8' beds or not. I was looking for firewood on CL last year for a friend of the family who lives in the Spokane area, and I came across this guy's posts. He went out of his way to explain what a true cord really is and what seasoned wood really is, obviously someone who takes a lot of pride in their work!

NP

 

[Skier76]

That was really cool of you to put that together. Excellent work.

 

[Slow1]

Great post and if I get some time I plan to localize and repost to my area.

I am a bit confused about the statement "An unseasoned cord of white oak weighs even more, and has greater volume too" - since a cord is by definition a measure of volume an unseasoned cord of any type of wood cannot have greater volume. Granted, it will take greater volume unseasoned to dry and shrink down to a seasoned cord, but a cord of unseasoned white oak will still be 128 cuft just as a cord of anything else. I realize I'm being picky but...

 

[Nonprophet]

Great post and if I get some time I plan to localize and repost to my area.

I am a bit confused about the statement "An unseasoned cord of white oak weighs even more, and has greater volume too" - since a cord is by definition a measure of volume an unseasoned cord of any type of wood cannot have greater volume. Granted, it will take greater volume unseasoned to dry and shrink down to a seasoned cord, but a cord of unseasoned white oak will still be 128 cuft just as a cord of anything else. I realize I'm being picky but...

I agree he could have said it a little better..........I think that what's he's saying is that wood looses volume and weight as it dries. So, if you buy 128 cf of wet white oak, once it dries you'll have only say 118 cf because of "shrinkage."

BTW, I can't even say that word anymore without thinking about that Seinfeld episode..........

NP

 

[CarbonNeutral]

Great post and if I get some time I plan to localize and repost to my area.

I am a bit confused about the statement "An unseasoned cord of white oak weighs even more, and has greater volume too" - since a cord is by definition a measure of volume an unseasoned cord of any type of wood cannot have greater volume. Granted, it will take greater volume unseasoned to dry and shrink down to a seasoned cord, but a cord of unseasoned white oak will still be 128 cuft just as a cord of anything else. I realize I'm being picky but...

Nice Slow1, give me a shout if you need a hand at all for MA. Shoot me a line when you post it as well, I will flag it for you

EDIT: This is what I found for MA regs

http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/dos/firewoodsales.pdf

 

[YZF1R]

Excellent post and very good of you to do that Nonprophet!

Steve

 

[Slow1]

Great post and if I get some time I plan to localize and repost to my area.

I am a bit confused about the statement "An unseasoned cord of white oak weighs even more, and has greater volume too" - since a cord is by definition a measure of volume an unseasoned cord of any type of wood cannot have greater volume. Granted, it will take greater volume unseasoned to dry and shrink down to a seasoned cord, but a cord of unseasoned white oak will still be 128 cuft just as a cord of anything else. I realize I'm being picky but...

Nice Slow1, give me a shout if you need a hand at all for MA. Shoot me a line when you post it as well, I will flag it for you

EDIT: This is what I found for MA regs

http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/dos/firewoodsales.pdf

Looks like someone beat me to it:

http://worcester.craigslist.org/mat/1380938609.html

I flagged "best of Craigslist" - I don't know how that system works... but I get the feeling it is some sort of popularity contest eh?

 

[Heem]

+1 "Best of"

 

[CarbonNeutral]

I just reposted to boston craigslist

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/mat/1381530379.html

using the same as the wos one.

If you could flag please.....

 

[Pagey]

Good post, good idea. Now let us hope that people actually read it and put it to good use. I've been checking my stacks like an obsessive compulsive disorder addict this year, and yet I still see people who are just now hauling in loads of green wood. And some have yet to start. I talked to one guy who swears he wants to burn green because it lasts longer. What can you do, really, to change a man's behavior? Still, that's a noble effort.

 

[Nonprophet]

I'm glad to see that folks are picking this up and posting on their local CL, the more we spread the word the more people who won't get ripped-off by unscrupulous wood sellers!

If you post this (or something similar) on your local CL, please post a link here so that we can flag it "best of CL" and keep the post from getting removed by the bad guys!

NP

 

[cmonSTART]

Nice work! Good to see someone setting things straight on CL.

 

[Dune]

This should be a sticky

 

[Tony H]

Good idea , we actually have one wood seller on our local list that gives some of the same info on volume to make a cord ect.
Many of the other sellers are nothing but crooks I got a "cord" last year and it did not even fill my 6x8x2 trailer so it was about 2/3 of a cord and I have to sic the local sheriff on him to get my money back

 

[newstove]

Looks like these are getting flagged for removal - the Worcester one is showing flagged for removal.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

Looks like these are getting flagged for removal - the Worcester one is showing flagged for removal.

That annoys the living &%^$&^$% *&^%& out of me.

 

[Slow1]

When they do, does the poster get a notice saying why?

 

[CarbonNeutral]

Nope, no justification. Mind you, no penalty for reposting either