WinonaRail's Wood Yard

Nice! Will that go for smoker sales? How common is MB there?

 

Mulberry is an absolute weed here like cottonwood. I don't know of anybody selling it but I take it every chance I get. I kept some pristine splits for bundles. There's a short round at the base of the trunk that should yield 5-6 bags of smoker wood. I may take another 16" section as well. Bags only (8" splits) because I don't have room in the roadside stand to add another variety of loose splits.

 

Nice work, as usual, Gary.
That mulberry looks nice.

 

Had a guy pick up four bundles of apple and two hickory tonight. He tells me my price is too cheap.

I've exhausted my supply of straight apple splits from a March 2024 score, only chunks. Thinking of selling either 10 or 20lb bags of chunks for now. I pulled some apple splits from a September score last year and brought back here. I split these smaller to dry faster.

What should I get for a 8x8x16 .60 cubic foot bundle of apple? A smaller bundle was being sold for stupid money based on what he had bought?

 

Go to a local grill store and see what they are getting for bags of chunks and wood chips.

 

Thank you! There were a few gnarly pieces but most split pretty straight. I even saved a few for bundle wood.

 

You can actually find a lot of sellers on Amazon and online. The prices are astronomical plus you have to pay shipping. I've looked for the cheapest option I could find, and knocked a couple bucks off. Still made really good money. As long as nobody near you is selling the same thing, you're the best price in town!

 

There's a couple guys also selling locally. One has it only in volume, the other is priced the same as me and looks like he copied my selling strategy. Ill keep the same price for now.

 

I'm a firm believer in not being the cheapest firewood guy in town. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so you must be doing it right.

 

I agree on not being cheapest, but hate losing any sale. I kinda pulled the price out of the air when I did. My cordage sales I'm not the cheapest as far as I know.
I look at what they are selling and do comps. From the feedback I've seen on FBM everyone has been pleased. A couple have actually texted me too. Several have said they'd buy again after seeing the bundles in person. So far I have one repeat who bought volume (100 pcs.) last year.

What do have for sale for smoker wood on the stand?

Hope sales are steady.

 

Had a guy drive 1 hr 45 minutes for 12 bundles of cherry yesterday morning. Cut them into 8" bundles. He was very pleased.

Ive gone up on my prices a bit as he also stated I could get more for them.

 

That's great, premium work =premium $$

 

I have 16" loose splits of cherry, oak, hickory and maple as well as bagged 8" splits of the same along with honey locust and pear.

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I picked up a load of basswood on Monday that had some red oak mixed in. The basswood was ready to burn. I made bundle wood out of half of it. I resplit 1/8 cord of it and mixed in mostly maple and a few odds and ends to deliver 1/4 cord to a customer that had been buying bundles from my stand.

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Nice splits

 

Saturday night I had just gotten inside from mowing and was ready to relax. I got a message from someone on FBM that wanted short smoking wood. After a little conversation, we determined that bagged mini splits would work for him. He ordered 5 bags each of cherry and oak and wanted to pick up Sunday, probably before noon. Out to the barn I went to cut barkless splits to 8" on the miter saw and bag them. The picture showed the bags in the stand. That was a little before 10 pm when I sent it to the customer. There was a significant stack of money in my cash box after he stopped to pick it up.

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Did he buy them all? What do you consider a big sale for smoker bundles?

Just the 12 bundles from Friday my only recent sale. No other inquiries since. Hoping i didnt jinx myself with the small price increase.

 

He purchased 10 bags total. That's a big sale for me. Most common is about 2 bags. Although I've had 5-6 at a time occasionally. This is by far my most profitable product to sell and he didn't blink at the price.

I think like so many things, you have to build up a customer base. Once people try the product and decide they're getting a good value (not necessarily cheap), they'll come back. That's a major component of my success. Those one shot wonders are nice to have but you can't count on them. Do you have cards or any way to share your contact info? Referrals help me a lot. Also, a local fireplace installer provides my info to all their new woodburning fireplace customers (it was actually their idea). Maybe a local meat market would let you put something up for their customers to see?

 

Because I put a limit of three this may limit sales somewhat. They have to come to my house to PU. I've only had a couple that bought only three. The in person feedback has been very positive with one repeat last year. A couple even texted me saying they were happy with it burning.

I like the meat market idea. None close by that I'm aware of.

Ill keep the FBM ads up and i'll occasionally post a new one with a different feature wood. As of now just apple and cherry with the other woods in the description.

 

I just checked and a guy locally selling it for the same. I went back to my original price.