Hello everyone. Just discovered this site last year and I love it, can't get enough of the firewood pics. I hand chop and saw about 15 cords of firewood a year and sell about 10 of those. I live in the suburbs and don't have a bunch of property but pack the wood in about as much as possible. I am still new to the selling game being in it for the third year now. The last couple years I have been selling my wood wholesale to one guy because he buys it all and transports it. This year I have some premium stuff and am going to sell and deliver, if needed, at full price. Cords around here go for $400-$600 for hardwoods like maple and madrona. Question: In your guys experience do buyers get upset if all the wood is not perfect 14"-16". Some of my cords contain, not a lot but some, chunks and shorter pieces. Thanks for the help
Welcome to the FHC Juniper Hill Great to have you join us. I sell some as well. Keeping uniform length is key IMO/IME. I sell 16" lengths and will measure & mark logs prior to bucking. I sell nuggets/cookies/chunkies separately. I have 12-14" "shorties" and will keep those together and sell that way. I dont see a problem selling some chunks mixed in just as long as the buyer knows what he is getting, but would keep those out. Happy customers are repeat customers. Pic is of mostly white oak with some red oak stacks from a year ago. 16" splits. Wood will be sold 2020-2021
Welcome Juniper Hill. You came to the right place for information. Although I have not sold a lot of firewood. What I have sold to people they really are not into it like we are. The main question I have had is will it burn good? Lot of people including myself have bought firewood not properly seasoned. Uniform helps for stacking but perfection shouldn't be as big an issue as seasoned and price IMO.
I would just state the condition of what you're selling. Some people are picky and it's best to weed them out at the description. Not that everyone can read and comprehend but it is a good way to minimize the whining complainers hassles. Or weed out the shorties and uglies and sell them separate to keep your retail price high on the primo stuff. For $600 a cord I'd probably do the weeding out and try to capture/target the high end primo market. For $3-400 a cord I might just advertise what I have as is and see if it moves. Don't give it away. Get all you can. short of losing customers.
If you're advertising it as premium and asking premium prices, I wouldn't throw uglies or shorts in the mix. As for lengths, some customers stoves may take 16", but not 18". I'd try to be as accurate as possible when bucking. Id say +/- 1" from the advertised length is acceptable.
Uniform length is important to a lot of buyers but not all. If they have a smaller wood stove, they will be very picky about it. Most with fireplaces aren't too picky. But as already stated, if you are charging a premium price, you should have little to no variation in length.
Welcome to the forum Juniper Hill. I agree with amateur cutter in that +/= 1" should be good in anybody's book. More picky than that, I probably would not bother with them. Basically just make sure they have good wood and if anything, give them a bit more rather than taking the chance they will claim you shorted them. I've also tended to always add some kindling at no charge and sometimes even a few fire starters. Especially with the amount you are able to charge in your area, it certainly won't hurt the pocketbook to give a little extra and it is super great for customer relations. But even more important than length is how dry the wood is. Most wood sellers say their wood is "seasoned" but it is a long ways from dry. So know what dry wood is and know that what you are selling is dry. This will make fires easier for the homeowner and will also give them more heat for the buck. It will pay good dividends. Good luck to you.
So I don’t have much experience selling to answer your question but I did want to welcome you to FHC! That’s big bucks for firewood. Here $200 a cord is up there for premium hardwood. Most of the time it’s 180-185.
Unless someone is really anal, the 14-16" firewood is (now get this and use it in your ad) nominal length. But if I was paying 400 to 600 a cord..... well, I'd move! Or end up burning pine.
In my opinion "irregular" sized ugly chunks of premium dry wood is still more valuable than perfectly cut but unseasoned wood. Throwing in a free bag of relatively clean splitter trash is nice also.
Welcome to the spot, happy to have you! I’m located in Western WA, Bremerton to be specific. You have a good set of cards with you to pack good wood especially 10 cords of it tightly. I’m not sure so much about the prices for wood as the market seems to range depending on city, urban and rural areas. I would assume they do go up more so when specific woods we know here are more “heavy hitters” but it only works if it’s dry. One year is good, 2 is better, 3 is..well you get the point. Things would have to be pretty exact to get the kind of premium some are willing to pay for but if you have done the homework, then you’re sitting pretty. Hope you have a few pics for gawking purposes!
Hi Juniper Hill , Welcome to the Club. I see you are from WA St. and it must be western/coastal from your mention of Medrona. I'm in Lakewood/Tacoma area. I live in the suburbs also so mostly dependent on Tree Service trees. Bright side is I have a friend who has a tree service. This is a great site with lots of good people and you will enjoy the interchange of information and ideas. Lots of pictures please. Looking forward to future posts!
