Pellets, Pellets everywhere...

So back in March I was paranoid about being able to get pellets at a decent price for this heating season. I was listening to all the "shortage" talk and frankly was a little worried. Ended up getting a decent deal on pellets from a local dealer. Not a month later a new pellet mill opened up and started selling premium hardwood (I think) pellets at $250/ton. Had I know he was going to open a month later I would have waited and supported a local guy-oh well.

Now flash forward 6-7 months and everywhere I go is selling pellets either by the ton or by the bag and they have PLENTY of them. Our HD has rows of pellets as does TSC and the local dealer I mentioned. The prices are still anywhere from $24--$300/ton but you can get them no prob.

Even our gas stations are selling them, and today when I hit Price Chopper (grocery store) they had a pile sitting at the end of the Pet aisle, Inferno's (I think that's what they were) for $5.99/bag. So supply seems to be up but price has not come down a whole lot, at least not in Central VT.

Yes, PC has Infernos for sale here too.....DO NOT BUY THEM JUNK! :sick:

The PC by me has had the same 2 tons sitting outside for a month. They WOULD be good as weight in the trunk for winter, or to spread under tires for snow traction, or as kitty litter....but that's about all.

It cracks me up that grocery stores and even gas stations are selling pellets now. Sunoco has them $5.97/bag, not sure what brand. WOnder if you get a free bag with a fill up!

Ahh NO. My cats refused to go in the box with them in there. Not even worth peeing on I guess. :sick:

If consumption stays low all winter just imagine the low prices in the spring and the amount of new and happy pellet pigs on board!

WOW...that's about as bad as it gets. 8-/

As long as oil prices stay steady, we'll see $150 a ton pellets again, best spring deal i bought was $100 a ton from walmart maybe 6 years ago, they had 18 tons left and the reg price then was $146.

maybe in the midwest, but I doubt even that. And in the Northeast, never happen, IMO.

No that's a salesman. A guy who can convince a gas station to carry pellets. Not exactly the impulse buy of the week, but.... Around here they sell shrink wrapped splits of firewood. Runs about 10lbs for $8.00. There is a big supplier that has the contracts all locked up to supply the corp. stations. Man what a racket.

Last Spring, I didn't buy. I made a commitment to my supplier to buy when he called in the Fall. Paid $155.00 per ton. Price rose to $225., but it is falling again. I knew there would be some serious corrections, so I held off. I was prepared to pay a premium, if they went up, but the speculations in the Spring were all whacked up. I am going to predict the prices will stay moderate through the next year as NO One knows what the economy as a whole will do.

I predict $199.00 a ton deals in the spring, Heck a lot of us picked up pellets at $229.00 $239.00 per ton this fall.

Yeah, I found Maine Woods pellets (not the Maine Choice-white bag with green letters) for $229/ton and at that price I beat oil at $2.17/gal which was my pre buy price. I don't beat it by much but I like not having to run my furnace, now if they would just make my car run on something other than oil I would be in business.

Going back to the other post about it not being profitable for a pellet mill to be in biz with pellets under $200/ton, at what point does it stop being profitable to the mill? This is only my second season burning pellets, last year I paid $239/ton and missed out on the deals of $150-$200/ton so I am just curious.

A local liquor store now carries pellets...

On a side note, my son, who's also a trucker like me, is working on a deal to haul sawdust from Wisconsin to another new pellet mill set to open this winter in the UP of Michigan...

Pellets are still running 279-315 ton around here. I don't see prices dropping at all even though there appears to be a "glut"

WOW...those are the highest prices I've heard about in a while......don't you have a Tractor Supply or HD, or Lowes near you? TSC is selling at $249, and HD & Lowes have quantity deals too.

253.90 - 299.00 a ton up this way.

I haven't figured out the Lowes $269 with discount.

The highest price I've come across is for Okanagan and Barefoot at $299 you pick'em up. Delivery is available for $25 + $1 mile one way.

The pallets of pellets are all over the place, but then I've never had a problem finding pellets.

I don't know, it may be, then again.

I wonder what my chickens would say about them.

Krooser:

So you can get your anti-freeze and warm up at the same place? What a deal. Pepper Snapps flavored pellets. MMM-MMM-Good.

Second is the hauling saw dust question. How far are they hauling chips? Out here they can't make money over about 100 miles. Our South state forests are beetle killed and going to waste. Not enough for a new plant, and too far away to haul here. What's the max distance they are hauling there.

He'd be hauling from NE Wisconsin to around Newberry, MI... maybe 250 miles... you can gross 98,000 lbs. with a 9 axle trailer (12 axles total) with raw forest products... if they had to stick to 80K gross it would never pay.

I would love to pay $249 a ton! My local TS has only one brand of pellets for sale for $289 a ton. Granted they are Rocky Mountain, but that's high!

HD is 279.00 cheapest around. I looked at them and they were some off brand. Decided to get some Oakies and some rocky mountain. Paid 289.00 picked up for both products. I will need 1 more ton before the spring so I am going to hold off to see if the prices drop.

There's the difference. Load limits here. Because of the stink over Coal Hauler in Southern Utah tearing up the roads, there's no exceptions. You haul legal limit only, or it's. "Why can't we, if they can???". Still seems like a good distance, but probably cheaper than relocating, particularily if the supply is limited.

I saw the Inferno pellets for sale in Stew Leonards in Yonkers location for $9.99 per bag....not kidding

Joe, Adams farm market here in New Windsor had a ton of Warm Front for 6.99/bag.....most of the ton was still there. And this was after I asked them in August if they planned on selling any pellets....they said, "no, no plans to sell any pellets"......LOL.

Me too, BTU.....but you have to remember.....we're talking about YONKERS.....most people there would have NO IDEA if that was a good price or not. Their still paying about $2.90-3.00/gal for gas.

And besides, Stew Leonards is where the "upper crust" shops.

I just paid $215.50 ($222.04 tax) for a ton of Somersets at Menards in Big Rapids, Mi. on Monday 11/23/09. They must have 4-5 truck loads there. Pennywise, Somersets, and Ozarks.