So I found a guy near Fargo ND on CL, and his ad said "Oak Firewood for sale." I called him last weekend and told him I can be there today, Sunday. My Dad and my sons went with me to help out as his pictures showed everything was in logs. So I brought my chainsaw, as I don't have anything like a tractor to unload it once I get it home. I get there (about 110 miles from my house), and I looked around and only saw ash ...split...and in bulk tank cages without the tank. He wanted $100 per cage, and you don't get the cage. It looked well seasoned, but it's not Oak. I told him, " Your ad said you had Oak." He says, "Well, Oak is hard to come by around here." I said, "yeah, I know, that's why I called you when you said you had Oak." He says, " there's little Oak mixed in." So, now, I'm a little more than disappointed, I'm almost upset. Not wanting to leave completely empty handed, we talked more and he showed me some rounds that he was willing to part with. 90% of what I bought was ash, the other 10% was Oak and Silver Maple. But the Oak is so rotten you could pull it apart with your hand, squeeze it and watch it crumble. This was the first time I was willing to actually pay money for wood. So, needless to say, I don't think I will buy firewood ever again. This is what I bought for $200. 1 small trailer (not full) 1 large trailer (almost full), and The bed of my son's pickup (almost full) I will post more pictures when I get around to unloading it all. I got ripped off in my opinion.
Ugh. Sorry to hear it. I hate people that mislead like that. Does CL have a comment or seller review section?
Yep, Id’a been p1ssed. Unfortunately it’s water under the bridge so the sooner you forget about it the better. I’ve seen people create adds that title (in your case) “ About the guy selling “oak”, then describe what happened. Might save someone else the aggravation.
Yeah that stinks...I think I would feel like I got the short end of the stick there, but at least not totally screwed. Now if I were that seller, I'd feel like a total slimeball taking advantage of people like that...of course that's just my take coming from the land of premium firewood around every corner...and someone selling it cheap on every corner too...especially since EAB.
That sucks, you are justifiably bummed. Once you get it split & stacked let us know how it measures out.
I'm about 3 hours north of fargo and I don't have a long drive to find lots of oak, not super rare, but I would be super ticked at that guy, especially with the price of fuel and a wasted day Ash is good stuff but not like super dry oak
I try to take quality and closeup photos of my inventory to help buyers see what they are getting. I also post a YouTube link to my Woodyard with closeup video. However, there is a seller that highjacked his photos from the Firewood for Life website. Wood sellers in my area make it extremely easy for me to gain new customers and keep them!
So here is a couple pictures of the wood that I picked up last weekend. This ash was supposed to be seasoned already. It's so wet still, that the wood still has living fungus inside Sure it's a bit grey on the end, but bright white in the middle. Nowhere near "seasoned", like that guy said.
I wouldve been pizzed! Report the guy if you can. Common for sellers to be clueless about species, volume and "seasoned". Wood in the round dries a lot slower. Stack that ash in a nice sunny area and it maybe ready to go come December. If im not sure about what im getting ill ask for more pictures. What is your typical distance to travel for a wood score Steve?
Sometimes, I can get a decent score right in my own small town (Hecla South Dakota pop.193, with the surrounding farms). Sometimes I have found older shelter belts and simply asked the landowner if they would mind if I went in there and took down some older dead or half dead trees. Typically, I don't have ro drive any farther than 20 miles for my wood. One of my latest scores was from my own parent's house. You can see the trees were getting close to the power lines in the alley behind my folks house. It was also the first time I had gotten ahold of some Hackberry. There was also ash and elm in there too. I didn't know Hackberry was stringy on the inside like elm and it was grey and bright yellowish white when split. I really like being a woodhoarder, its just so interesting learning about all different types of trees. Btu factor, drying time, all of it!
More pictures of the bogus wood score. The fungus in this piece was the only thing holding this piece together. It weighed nothing. The Oak was painted red and the ash was yellow. The were only 2 pieces of Oak. Nothing but rot.
Unfortunately, there is likely to be more of this this Winter with the price of fuel/energy and commodities in general skyrocketing. Looking forward to more success on your next adventure.
