FYI Just checked the SIB website and Maine Pellet Sales websites. Both are advertising their pre-buy programs. SIB is advertising a "pay and hold" where you pay for your pellets now and they will store them through August for you. Maine Pellet Sales is offering a pretty buy on what looks to be only the Okanagan Platinums at $315/ton. They can be picked up or delivered between May and August.
Sounds like a good way for any pellet maker to get pre-paid for the pellets they'll make tomorrow. Clever and a good idea if they can get lots of folks to buy in. They just better have what those folks bought this spring, actually ready for them when they want em.
Yup. I won't be doing this. I only pay for pellets when I pick them up or after they are delivered. Heard of too many people losing their money on prepayment deals. Especially with oil companies.
It can happen. Probably most pellet makers have no prob getting the pellets to the customers. I also know, from being in business, that things don't always go just exactly as planned, and you really don't want to have a bunch of PO'd customers.
This is what the oil companies do. Those of you from NH are well aware of a certain large oil company in NH that was missing deliveries and angering customers left and right this past winter yet they were still sending out prebuy letters for the next season as they were missing deliveries or giving partial deliveries. That particular oil company happened to be the one that we used and I'm glad now that we never have to do business with them again. As for the pellet prebuy................ all I have to say is faaaggggeedddabbbooouuuttiitt! Have you guys seen any of the stories and news articles about how much of the product being produced at the mills here is being shipped to Europe? I was reading an article about the new mill up in Maine sending most of it's supply to Europe.
If you have a long standing trustworthy dealer with multiple stores then there is no need to worry. just sayin'. I've been participating in the pre buy for 7 seasons with good results. http://pellethead.com/pages.php?pageid=8
Well this is only my second season burning pellets. Also I wouldn't consider buying a product from a business, even over a long period of time, a relationship. It's a business, it's needs come before your's every single time. I can't stick promises in my boiler when it's 0 degrees outside at night in late January and I have two shivering toddlers. Maybe it's just me. I have the tendency to be suspicious of everything.
Me too. I'd be fine with buying ahead, as long as the year's supply landed at my place in a reasonable time... like a week or two. No way I'd want to be trying to get my pre-paid order in the fall, when everyone else is doing the same. Too much of a chance that the store could get an unexpected demand and get way behind. Smoke... I think you've got a rare good thing going with your supplier...
Pre-buy can be iffy......when we have folks who pre-buy, we call them a week or so before we deliver them, which gives them to opportunity to pay just prior to delivery. Unfortunately, we wont leave pellets without being paid, as too many time sin the past we've left them, and, well, never been paid. We also don't allow the drives to pickup cash or check, as there's no way to determine whether the check will bounce or not, and you'd be surprised how often folks just had to "step out" when the delivery is made.....bummer to drive all that way and have no one there to pay........just the other side of that coin. With PCI compliancy being what it is these days, and the fact that I don't want to be responsible for securing folks credit cards, we do not keep a record of folks cards, with hacking of cards being rampant.... As for folks picking them up, we LOVE that! They pick up and pay when they pick them up...how easy is that?!
SIB does a good business. I have bought from him about 3 times. Each time for me it is strictly COD. I like the way he puts the pellets in my garage so I don't have to move them again. I have done pre buy with Nights on Belfast Ave in Augusta. No issues there. His is not a shoe string operation. Also did a couple of buys at HD. There isn't any issues there either. .
Yes. I like his delivery service. Tucks the pallets in right areas exactly where I want them. Also good for a friendly chat during delivery. Nice guy, small local business selling locally made pellets at a very fair price. Can't go wrong!
I didn't realize that pellets cost so much! The stores here have it for around $7-8 a bag, but I figured that was AK pricing. At roughly 1.5 tons to a cord of wood that's around $475 a cord! I heat my house for nearly 2 winters on that much money.
That price is a deal killer. MWP here at $229. Factory is here, as well as other pellet plants. Lots of trees, people trying to get off oil, propane, and electric which cost twice as much. Natural gas is going to be very competitive, but very limited access. Stick with your firewood. At least you have options if you do some or all the labor. Some folks heat their home with the cost of their sweat.
From what I understand there is a pellet plant near Fairbanks, but I have not seen any made in AK pellets. Also a large coal mine in Healy, but hardly anyone messes with it around here. Coal was $70 a ton which is really cheap. A ton of coal is just over a cord of wood in BTUs! Natural gas is common in some areas but the gas company always comes down with "scares" about shortages. Funny how they barge out big tankers of it overseas though.
isn't the coal in your area bituminous though? not generally used like the anthracite around here is........ a good part of the price of pellets is the darn shipping! Shipping is expensive, depending on where you live.......some of the shipping on certain brands we carry is now costing us nearly $100/ton.
I'm not sure what it is. It looks like black rocks and weights alot for not much in volume. We put ~25,000lbs in my truck and it didn't even take up 1/2 the box.
