$600 a cord? Some rediculous prices on CL...

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StihlHead

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This is posted on CL in the Seattle area *cough*:

(broken link removed to http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/for/4033055059.html)

Greetings
We have a very limited supply of this hard to find fruit wood for sale. The wood is between 12" and 16" in length & split very well. No further splitting should be needed. No Junk. No sticks. No rot. Just good solid wood.
1/8 cord $100
1/4 cord $175
1/3 cord $225
1/2 cord $325
full cord $600
Price includes delivery to most of King & Snohomish counties. Delivery outside the central king & snohomish county area available with an added fuel surcharge. Stacking available for $30 an hour.

The same (insane) people want $600 a cord for GREEN apricot wood.
 
What kind of fruitwood is it? Must be real hard to find. Some uninformed wood burner will buy it. Such a shame.
 
Oh, its apple... the most common fruitwood in the PNW. But even in eastern WA state they want over $300 a cord for it.

I can get oak or madrone here for $300 a cord (they both burn hotter and have more heat). I use my own apple tree prunings for apple smoking wood. You can also get 3 cords of Doug fir for $525 with the same heat per cord as apple.
 
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If you've got only a small amount of a good product, it makes sense to target the least price-sensitive customers. Seems like a better deal than the kiln-dried stuff they sell in the grocery store; it's better wood (assuming it's actually dry) and includes delivery.
 
bout the same price as the 1cu ft gas station bundles around here,
 
It's 400 and 450. For oak here.
 
Apricot wood doesn't seem too good.
 
Oak, hickory, and other top shelf hardwoods sell for $450-$650 a cord split here in Utah. Needless to say, I burn primarily Lodgepole and Pinion Pine.
 
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Anybody ever sit down and figure out what they would charge for a cord of wood, wood seems high priced but you figure the time and gas involved maybe not as overpriced as we think.
 
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You can get green cords of oak for $110 delivered down here if you buy 3+... hardly worth gathering yourself unless you enjoy it (which I do).
 
oldspark said:
Anybody ever sit down and figure out what they would charge for a cord of wood, wood seems high priced but you figure the time and gas involved maybe not as overpriced as we think.
Click to expand...

What someone else charges because of their costs($$ cost, and opportunity cost) doesn't matter to me.

All that matters to me is MY cost.
I get wood dropped in my driveway from my local arborist that I have become friendly with. Then My cost is Splitting and stacking time, but I split and stack as exercise so that is worth $60/month in reduced cost for the gym membership, and the time is a draw as I would be working out regardless.... So anything other than delivered split for $10 a face cord, or $30 a full cord is too expensive, for me only.
 
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oldspark said:
Anybody ever sit down and figure out what they would charge for a cord of wood, wood seems high priced but you figure the time and gas involved maybe not as overpriced as we think.
Click to expand...

I am amused with all the support for these high wood prices. My wood supplier (when I have to buy it) makes a good profit selling 2 year barn seasoned Doug fir at $175 a cord, delivered. $600 a cord is price gouging, plain and simple. I doubt that they sell much wood from that ad, and they do not have much to sell anyway. Even in Seattle you can get better firewood for half that price.

Gas for my free wood costs me about $20 a cord. I can gather and haul 3 cords here in 8 hours. Figure processing and stacking and unstacking and delivering add another 4 hours per cord. There is minimal splitting for fruitwood, its mostly branches. Gas to deliver is another $20 a cord. 3 cords is 20 hours processing/delivering, or 6.7 hours per cord and $40 in gas. $600 a cord would be $560 net after gas, or $83 a hour! Which is more than I made as an engineer in the Silicon Valley. I also "only" made $100 an hour when I was climbing, and I charged $75 an hour for chipping with a Bandit chipper. At the more reasonable rate of $200 a cord, my net on a cord would be $160 after gas, and the hourly rate would be $24 an hour. If $24 an hour is some kind of underpaid cheap chump change, I wanna know. Also most of these guys do not pay any income tax on these cash sales. Likely these guys also make money for clearing the orchards as well, and this is all gravy.

$600 a cord is more overpriced than I thought...!!!
 
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"I am amused with all the support for these high wood prices"
Who's supporing high wood prices, I asked a question on how much people wood charge for a cord of wood.
 
I've always thought that this was vanity selling to the wealthiest neighborhoods. I'll bet it gets to be a bragging right on Mercer Island. Gotta have something to grouse about over that $90 bottle of wine.
 
Just encountered an ad asking $375/cord for Pinion Pine here in the Salt Lake Area. That might be even more outrageous than $600 for a cord of oak.
 
Apple, not oak... and yes, the boutique market is certainly there in Seattle, the land of money.
 
Ahh yes, well the fruit woods command a major boutique premium. Is having better smelling stovepipe emissions worth it to you?
 
If we could sell wood at those prices, it certainly would put lots of folks to work fast!
 
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Wow ..! i could get 10 cords of a log load for 600.00 Mixed hardwoods
 
That particular seller is always asking high prices,
He also has cords of fresh cut Alder for $350
fresh cut Honey Locust for $600 a cord
Eastern Wa Fir for $475 a cord
fresh cut Beech for $195 a FACE CORD

They are a local tree service that process the wood they cut and re sell it, Evidently they must have some Eastern Wa connections for the fruit wood and they usually have a posting up for lodgepole pine for outrageous prices

here are their postings
http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/?areaID=2&subAreaID=&query=flame+on+firewood+llc&catAbb=sss
 
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When I lived in MN my boyfriend and I sold seasoned (2 yr), split, delivered oak for $120/cd, 5 years ago. When I lived in Philly, 2 years ago, I'd giggle with excitement when I'd see ads on craigslist for free oak/maple split sitting at the end of a driveway. I'd drive my little ranger over and they'd thank me for taking it away...we had quite a stockpile behind our city lot house and since we didn't have a woodstove we burned oak/maple in a firepit! Now, in Maine, I'm getting a good deal if I find it GREEN for under $250. It's amazing how much prices differ by location for the same amount of work and relatively the same expenses.
 
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