Highway Robbery

[Caw]

Guy down the street from me put this nice cubby up the other day. Never met him, maybe he's a nice guy, and I can't blame him for trying to make a buck but jeez...that's a ripoff. At least fill up the cubbies man!

If I can get $20 for like 12 pieces of wood I've got $10,000+ out back and need to get selling. We can run the heater 85 all winter and the AC in 65 all summer!

 

[Prof]

Wow, and I thought the $6 for a bundle at the grocery store was nuts. My cousin posted a pic around Christmas and I noticed that she had a bundle of store bought wood beside her fireplace. I told her we can't be cousins anymore if she buys wood at the store. I offered her $200 worth of wood in her world for free---this is actually just the amount I can fit in the 5ft bed of my Tacoma. Your neighbor does have a nice little shed built for his business though. Do you live near a campground?

 

[Caw]

Being near a campground would make a little more sense with supply and demand, but I live smack in the middle of suburbia. He's on a woodsy street but it's one of the busiest streets in town.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Around me that sells for $7. Which is still the most profitable way to sell wood.

 

[stoveliker]

Wow.. I've also calculated how rich I am when looking at the bundles at our grocery store. But man, $20 for that and I'll reach retirement sooner...

 

[Caw]

A grocery store bundle around here is advertised as $7 for 0.6 cu ft which extrapolates to $1,493.33 per cord.

If we assume these bundles are the same size...which looks about right...$20/0.6 x 128 = a whopping $4,266.66 per cord.

 

[Prof]

I know this has been floated around the forum before, but I think this guy is selling artisanal firewood:

 

[clancey]

I think all you people are doing your firewood the wrong way for you all need is to get out those small scissors and the nutmeg and spray and fix all your wood. lol lol...Happy wood hunting and Prof and Caw you all could become millionaires if you did your wood the right way...clancey..

 

[Prof]

I think all you people are doing your firewood the wrong way for you all need is to get out those small scissors and the nutmeg and spray and fix all your wood. lol lol...Happy wood hunting and Prof and Caw you all could become millionaires if you did your wood the right way...clancey..

Can I put you down for a cord--say 5K if you pick up

 

[jetsam]

Home Depot sells "Real Birch Firewood Logs" (it's little mesh bags full of the birch branchwood that would normally get chipped) for $12.

I worked out the volume of a pallet of the stuff, comes out to about $2200/cord.

They also sell bags of little kindling sized microsplits for like $7.50, which is still north of $1000 a cord.

There is a cartoon lumberjack on the bag, presumably wondering where his life went so wrong that he is shilling toothpicks to apartment dwellers.

I always laugh when I see someone grabbing that stuff. Probably about the same price range per cord as those big $20 bags, at a guess.

 

[clancey]

These highway robbers always take advantage of anything that is small in quantity and that a person needs maybe for a one time use and so glad that you wood heaters cut your own wood for you save a whole bunch of money like that and if you didn't you be like a fool like me buying smaller quantities but we do not burn like you do either..but then again I can imagine a young beau impressing his girlfriend with a fire that smells like peppermint or nutmeg as a once time thing--that's what you call romancing and maybe for special occasion burn some for your wives for valentine day or something just for the romance of it.. lol lol I bet she laughs after she see's it and the price as well. I laugh thinking about it...lol What a rip off but its a job for the person and he likes playing with wood..He's addicted too...Now Prof I"ll take bargain you offer...lol lol..but you will have to wait a long time for my payment...no big thing...clancey...

 

[peakbagger]

My area is the ATV mecca of the northeast. Lots of folks with expensive trucks and trailers with new or near new ATVs drive up every weekend to go playing in the woods. Many stay in motels but many "camp". Some buy cheap homes and use them for weekend places. Frequently one person owns or has access to a lot and invites their buds to join them. Usually there is fire ring and maybe they chip in for Porta potty or they stay at a local campground. There also was a donation based campground where folks camp where they want and make a donation to the owner (to avoid state regulations and income taxes to the owner). With the exception of the motel folks, they all want firewood. The local convenience stores sell bundles of dry firewood but the stores are not convenient to many of the campers. There is an arborist near the campsites and they advertise a buck a stick and seem to have customers. Get a gang of campers, beer and a fire pit and they easily can go through 1/4 to 1/2 cord in weekend so cost of those firewood bundles is a big cost for weekend. There is probably a business for someone to sell pallets of dry firewood to the various campers as typically when they come up cost is no object.

The bummer is many of the folks come from Mass and some percentage bring their own firewood. Its against the law to bring it across state lines but its poorly enforced. Mass had had outbreaks of the Asian Longhorn Beetle and the entire state has EAB. The first outbreaks of EAB in NH was at a Nascar racetrack in Southern NH and it was traced to out of state campers hauling in firewood.

 

[Caw]

We definitely have wide spread EAB. I can see 5 long standing dead ash just from my kitchen window here. I've seen folks out setting traps for ALB just in the next down over to monitor for activity. Definitely not smart to transport firewood out of state, or even more than a county away really. The responsible thing to do would be to source it up there and store/dry yourself if you own property. Doesnt help the regular folks though who are just passing through. If people are going to charge $1 a stick or $20 a bundle its kind of hard hard blame people for bringing it even though it's irresponsible.

 

[jetsam]

Campgrounds have trees, trees fall over eventually.

Pack an axe.

If there's not enough deadfall for a campfire, you may have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Warning signs of this include the ground being paved and a big sign reading "WAL-MART" at the campground entrance.

 

[Caw]

All fair points. I personally don't camp ever so I'm really not qualified to comment. If I were to camp though I'd plan on scrounging to burn...that's just my wood guy instinct .

I wonder if I should make a wood stand for $18 a bundle and undercut him. Haha.

 

[blades]

let the spit wood wars begin.

 

[peakbagger]

Campgrounds have trees, trees fall over eventually.

Pack an axe.

If there's not enough deadfall for a campfire, you may have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Warning signs of this include the ground being paved and a big sign reading "WAL-MART" at the campground entrance.

You would be surprised. Around most established campgrounds in the area is a human browse line, where every piece of dead wood gets grabbed and then a bunch of live trees with stubs of branches pulled off them. On federal property like the nearby national forest, its legal to pick up dead wood but picking up deadwood on private property in the area is not recommended as the owner may take offense. When my development first went in off the local major east west highway, there very very few houses, folks with out of state plates would pull off an grab whatever was near the road including piles of firewood. I was slowly clearing my lot and making wood piles in the woods. I learned pretty quick that anything someone could see from the road was fair game. I eventually would pile up junk wood in piles near the road and they would get grabbed in a few weeks. The good stuff got thrown farther in my property.

When I camp at Baxter State Park in Maine, the browse line is obvious at their campground. I just bring a hand saw and stop a quarter of a mile from a campground. I get all the wood I need and do not contribute to the browse line.

 

[jetsam]

let the spit wood wars begin.

After years of relentless price wars, the price dropped so low that the bottom fell out of the entire market, supply collapsed, and people were forced to spend 5 minutes picking up their own little sticks as the savages once did.

We'll always remember the good times when civilized man could pay $10 for a little mesh baggie of sticks, though.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

Well, all I can say to this is knowing how people are in my city, I could likely put one of these stands up in front of my house, sell wood for double what the photo in the first post wants, and people would be foolish enough to pay for it. But I would be nice though, they'd be real splits and would be sub 18% moisture. No punk or rotted stuff.

 

[hawkeye4771]

I'm not far from a few camp grounds and as I live on a main state highway, I've had bundles of firewood on a pallet out by the road in years past. It was always the odd shaped pieces and I would tie up each bundle with clothesline. I'd have 6 bundles on a pallet and since I have a milk door on the front of my garage I'd have a sign noting to put the firewood money inside the milk door. I'd price the bundles at $5 each. Some years [ summers ] I'd make $300 but then over time I'd see more and more homes up and down the road selling firewood. I'd have top notch good cured hardwood of beech, hickory, ash, cherry, and yellow birch. I priced my wood at $5 since everyone has a $5 bill on them whereas as $8- $12 requires exact change on their part or yours to give them change. Even when working an overtime 3-11 shift I'd pull in the driveway and notice a bundle or 2 missing and sure enough the correct money would be inside my milk door. I think there was maybe only 2-3 times I deducted that I didn't get paid for a bundle of wood. Those $5 bills add up to allow ya to get a new chain or 2 for the chainsaw and or use for gas money etc.

 

[MoDoug]

That is highway robbery, I can't believe people actually charge that much, and it's even harder to believe people pay that much.

About the campgrounds, in the State Parks here you can't scrounge. We live near Mark Twain State Park and I called the office about grabbing some near the highway, I got a firm no because if it's good enough to burn they sell it to the campers. On the other hand, we also live near federal lands (Coprs of Engineers) with several campgrounds, you can scrounge and they cannot sell the firewood, because it's public lands.

 

[Grizzerbear]

No price is too high for the convenience of man. Not too far from me down 64 highway is Bennett Springs state park and it is surrounded with other private campgrounds. You will see those prices pretty regular from your average joe on your way to the campgrounds and to be honest they seem to sell a lot of them. I see one fellow regularly restocking during the summer month's is why I say this.

I don't know the rules as far as scrounging at Bennett since it is a state park but at the private campgrounds it's free game and their is a browse line as y'all say. Though I wouldn't consider these areas real camping...to me camping is done somewhere in a private setting away from other people.....even the "campgrounds" normally less used have been scavenged pretty noticeably in the last year.

 

[sweedish]

As far as around campgrounds, by the time you figure 25k+ for the camper, 40,000.00+for the truck, $400+ for groceries and 150 bucks for the gas to get to and back from said campground, that firewood is honestly the cheapest thing they will buy on the trip.

 

[Caw]

As far as around campgrounds, by the time you figure 25k+ for the camper, 40,000.00+for the truck, $400+ for groceries and 150 bucks for the gas to get to and back from said campground, that firewood is honestly the cheapest thing they will buy on the trip.

Sounds more like glamping to me!

 

[firefighterjake]

As far as around campgrounds, by the time you figure 25k+ for the camper, 40,000.00+for the truck, $400+ for groceries and 150 bucks for the gas to get to and back from said campground, that firewood is honestly the cheapest thing they will buy on the trip.

Not my style of camping.

2 man tent my sister bought me from Mountain Hardware close to 15 or 18 years.
11-year old pick up.
Typically $50 in groceries and $30 or so in gas.

And yeah, I tend to bring my own firewood providing it is allowed.