Not Happy With Pelletsales.com and Prices

[lad128]

I purchase 6 tons last year from pelletsales.com@
$249.00 a ton now i go on there site, there early buy
for my Zip Code is @ $299.00 without delivery..
Lasy year diesal was $5 a gallon now its more than half the price cheaper for there delivery
and they still have some b*lls to charge that much!

We cant win people they there starting to gauge theses pellets
just got oil the other day $1.69 gallon....... Cant win

Long Island N.Y anyone on LI no a good
pelletr place to purchase ill rent a truck
and pick up then pay $300 for a ton?

 

[TomPajak]

the prices on pellets seem to be crappy everywhere, even early buys right now. just dont buy any pellets at all, prices should crack mid summer

agree they should crack....let the surplus keep sitting there ..wait till late spring early summer..IMO..should drop to last years early buy prices of low 2's..just buy weekly for now or use the dreaded "O" word..oil

 

[NoMoreOPEC]

I think they charge more for Yankee fans

 

[www_godzilla]

SURPLUS???? If you understand how the pellets are made,then you will understand there isn't alot of surplus. The housing market down so much and saw/paper mills not operating at a high level. Means that there isn't alot of surplus.

 

[jtakeman]

I think they charge more for Yankee fans

Ouch! That hurt. :-/

SURPLUS???? If you understand how the pellets are made,then you will understand there isn't alot of surplus. The housing market down so much and saw/paper mills not operating at a high level. Means that there isn't alot of surplus.

Then the mills need to convert to using raw wood. There's plenty of wood out there, Just need to make there own sawdust. I think some have been using hammer mills to reduce the wood chips to dust!

jay

 

[JustWood]

No new houses=no logging=no wood= no chips= no sawdust=no pellets.
No landowner in their right mind is going to sell high grade saw logs at pulp prices. They will let it grow.
Culling pulp only from a woods is equal to a non-profit business. It's NOT going to happen on a large scale.

 

[muss]

Well, we just heard from the GRAND POOBA of pellets. He's saying the way things are, it would be a non-profit situation. Yeah right ! That's why their building pellet mills all around the nation . Muss

 

[thz123]

Here in the midwest pellets are $5.00 a bag, and I use 1.3 bags a day or $6.50 in pellets plus the electric cost. Natural gas is cheaper.

From now on, I am only running my stove between 4 PM (when I get off work) till I go to bed, just for atmosphere. The rest of the time I burn natural gas. The pellet mills are pricing themselves out of the market. If we all stop buying pellets till they come down in price maybe they will get the message.

People who burn pellets are not dummys, and we all burn pellets for a number of reasons. We all arn't doing it to spend more money to heat our homes.

I am done burning 24/7, untill the pellet prices come down.

I have 3 tons of pellets at home, and plan to save the majority for next winter. My pellet stove just became an expensive fire place.

 

[Kenny1]

I agree with Blah to a certain point.

There will be some whole tree processing plants. The one proposed near where I live is counting on getting the pulp wood that used to go into the paper mill. This pulp wood is grown on lots without the high value/hardwood trees. Just acres of nice straight lines of popular.

Having said that, I would assume that a whole tree processing plant would concentrate on making industrial grade pellets (e.g. not stripping the bark, etc). These would be sold to power generation plants (in the case of the pellet mill near me), or to other users that can handle the higher ash fuel.

I believe that one of the main issues in whole tree processing is the input energy required. If you buy the sawdust already dry and ready to use, OK. If you need to chip the tree, dry it, and hammer it before making the pellets, that is more manufacturing steps, more input energy, in short more input cost. This is true whether the source of the wood is beetle killed trees or pulp wood purposely grown.

Whether or not they can make a high grade pellet at a low price is the big question, but if I was putting up a new pellet plant, I would be focusing on longer term, more stable industrial contracts as opposed to the more fickle consumer market.

Another way to look at it is if the plants have relatively stable long term industrial contracts, it becomes easier for them to invest into consumer products (knowing they have the industrial side to offset any volatility in the consumer market).

However, all of this future talk does nothing to change the fact that many existing pellet mills cannot get raw material (sawdust).

Cheers

Kenny

 

[JustWood]

Kenny I agree 100%. With the exception that the number of pulp plantations in no way will fill the gap of pulp from logging operations.
Global demand for pellets is ever increasing and this is a reason for higher prices here also.

The idea that the reason for pellets being high priced is plain and simple greed or gouging is closed/simple minded .Too many people in this country have an "entitlement" type of attitude which quite frankly sickens me and is part of the reason this once great country is experiencing what it is now.

 

[JustWood]

Well, we just heard from the GRAND POOBA of pellets. He's saying the way things are, it would be a non-profit situation. Yeah right ! That's why their building pellet mills all around the nation . Muss

Wasn't talking about the profitability of pellet mills Muss.
I'm talking about a logger investing $1.5+ million in equipment to get $40/ton for chips in a woods were you have to work around high value trees that need to be left to grow undamaged because of no sustainable markets. It's not gonna happen.No landowner in there right mind is going to allow this to happen for a few dollars.No logger is going to invest that kind $ for such a small return.

 

[jtakeman]

Well, we just heard from the GRAND POOBA of pellets. He's saying the way things are, it would be a non-profit situation. Yeah right ! That's why their building pellet mills all around the nation . Muss

Wasn't talking about the profitability of pellet mills Muss.
I'm talking about a logger investing $1.5+ million in equipment to get $40/ton for chips in a woods were you have to work around high value trees that need to be left to grow undamaged because of no sustainable markets. It's not gonna happen.No landowner in there right mind is going to allow this to happen for a few dollars.No logger is going to invest that kind $ for such a small return.

Well, I didn't know you were the GRAND POOBA of pellets, Guess we'd better take your word on it.

But, If the loggers have no work and they need to eat(just like us). No paper and no building trades means no lumber needed. So they should be able to cut something down for the mills. My under standing is the mills want dust. Why can't the mills use chips? The paper mills used chips NO......

If you can make an economical pellet for the commercial end, Why can it be done for the home user???

Personally if I can't get pellets cheaper than $240.00 a ton. I going to burn corn! Think I'd rather support the local FARMER anyway! They are just trying to survive just like the rest of use. And I can buy direct with no middle man jacking up the prices. That's something the pellets guys aren't doing. Middlemen making as much as the mills are doubling the price for the end user!

Maybe will get some government involvement and see if there is gouging like the gas stations are getting caught at lately?

jay

 

[Kenny1]

Kenny I agree 100%. With the exception that the number of pulp plantations in no way will fill the gap of pulp from logging operations.
Global demand for pellets is ever increasing and this is a reason for higher prices here also.

....

I think that we can all agree that there are a lot of factors. Big one will be the price of oil. If it remains low, it will reduce the cost of making and delivering pellets. If oil prices are low, fewer people will burn pellets, and that will change the market requirements.

As you point out, raw material acquisition will be a big issue. I know that here in Canada, there is a lot of devastation due to a beetle, and it has sparked some interest in clear cutting the dead trees for pellets. But that will not help the smaller pellet mills that were designed to process the sawdust from the local lumbar mill.

I have a hard time believing in pellet price gouging. The pellets are produced by a lot of different mills, and distributed by too many different local outfits. To believe that they are all in a conspiracy to keep pellet prices at $300 is a bit much. I would believe that they did not realize that oil would drop to $40 a barrel. This would lead to a situation where high priced product entered the supply pipeline. With low oil prices low now, not too many are going to pay that much for pellets.

The market is fast changing, with many different factors, and my crystal ball is not working too well today ;-P

 

[jtakeman]

This is pellet gouging!
10.00 a bag? Yea right

http://cgi.ebay.com/WOOD-PELLETS-FOR-SALE-IN-NORTHERN-VA-FREDERICKSBURG_W0QQitemZ320337078054QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item320337078054&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:10|39:1|240:1318

I have seen some retailers here in New England trying to get $8.00 a bag. $400.00 a ton

jay

 

[weatherguy]

I have seen some retailers here in New England trying to get $8.00 a bag. $400.00 a ton

jay

There was one here in Central Mass charging $440 a ton in Dec, I asked her why so much when I can burn oil cheaper, she said a lot of people locked in oil for over $4 a gallon. I checked her prices thurs and she was down to $269/ton. Same pellets as Dec, Maine Athens, which Im not too fond of.

 

[richg]

This is pellet gouging!
10.00 a bag? Yea right

http://cgi.ebay.com/WOOD-PELLETS-FOR-SALE-IN-NORTHERN-VA-FREDERICKSBURG_W0QQitemZ320337078054QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item320337078054&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:10|39:1|240:1318

I have seen some retailers here in New England trying to get $8.00 a bag. $400.00 a ton

jay

What cracks me up about that jackass ebay listing is that the guy is in Fairfax County VA, and he goes to great lengths to trumpet that "the pellets were transported from our supplier in North Carolina". WOW! WEE! WOW WEE! All the way to Virginia from North Carolina! That's like, going to New Jersey from Pennsylvania! Fire up the Space Shuttle, we're talking long distance pellet hauling here....

 

[Gweeper64]

There was one here in Central Mass charging $440 a ton in Dec,.

Weatherguy, who was that? Just curious.

 

[webbie]

Of course, I love my Long Island friends...and I do have some friends that live there....

BUT, when you live on the most densely populated square inches of the entire USA....which cannot be reached except by going through the most dense city in the USA, and which has many of the highest income people in the USA.......etc. etc. - well, the facts say you are going to pay more for just about EVERYTHING. It's the price you pay for the coastal urban lifestyle.

I'm not putting it down.....just saying that everything from Real Estate to Labor to Stoves and services......and firewood, coal and pellets....ALL cost more on Long Island.

 

[JustWood]

But, If the loggers have no work and they need to eat(just like us). No paper and no building trades means no lumber needed. So they should be able to cut something down for the mills. My under standing is the mills want dust. Why can't the mills use chips? The paper mills used chips NO......

The stumpage price for pulp in my area now is $3/ton. I have heard of $9/ton highs in other areas of the country when pulp prices were high.

Are you JT as a landowner going to allow a logging crew into your woods with the possibility of damaging "keeper trees" for a pulp harvest that will pay you $3/ton net.Most unmanaged forests will yield 2+ tons/acre.

It doesen't matter how bad a logger needs to eat. I don't know any landowners who will sacrifice the health and quality of a high grade forest to cull out $6/acre worth of pulpwood when it can be taken out at the same time as a select harvest years down the road when sawlog prices recover.