SW Missouri Firewood Prices

lr54 · June 16, 2020, 09:23:00 PM

Looking to start a firewood business. Wondering if anyone in Southwest Missouri could tell me prices per cord of oak.

Thanks in advance.

Real1shepherd · June 17, 2020, 03:28:19 AM

Quote from: lr54 on June 16, 2020, 09:23:00 PM
Looking to start a firewood business. Wondering if anyone in Southwest Missouri could tell me prices per cord of oak.

Thanks in advance.

Check Craigslist and Facebook for a price range and then figure a 'gimmick' to get them to call. That's what I did. Everybody here is hung up on cherry wood because a lot of the orchards cut it. I was selling seasoned sugar maple which burns a lot better.....but you have to tell them that.

Walnut and oak is gonna be common in your neck of the woods. I had a farm in Columbia. What I did with the sugar maple was stack a few cords and then take a pic. I made them come and load it. Tough to come out loading it up and then delivering/ricking it. People look at the price first and then ask if that's delivered.

Most people have no idea what a real cord is because they've been cheated for so long. If you threw a little extra on top for settle-age, you'd be ahead of the game and get a good starting rep. I had a cord wood business in CO once and that was an adventure. Even hand trucked wood up in elevators in Aspen to fancy condos. What a joke and a time wh*re.

Kevin

Pine Ridge · June 20, 2020, 12:03:21 PM

150 dollars per full cord is the low end here in sw missouri.

Real1shepherd · June 20, 2020, 03:50:49 PM

Quote from: Pine Ridge on June 20, 2020, 12:03:21 PM
150 dollars per full cord is the low end here in sw missouri.

OK, unless you're just intent on handling it....I would suggest selling it stacked. Almost anybody that burns wood has access to a pickup truck of some kind. Personally, I just never felt I came out delivering and then ricking the wood where a customer wanted it. Yes, if you can just come and dump it in their yard etc.

Folks always hover over the low-end prices unless you have a hook/gimmick. The less you handle it, the more you make.
Eventually, we just dumped our wood rounds right from the forest into a wholesale lot. Depending on how may trips we could get in a day, THAT'S where we made good money. Cut it once, load it once, dump into a lot was our mantra at the end of trying everything else.

Second best would be you stacking a cord and the customer loading it up. If the rounds aren't huge, let them split it. Or, you could charge for splitting it. Like I said before....have some sort of hook/gimmick that nobody else has. Rounds or split etc....people like choices.

Kevin

mike_belben · June 22, 2020, 09:59:09 PM

We get $50 a rick here in middle TN. Pillheads often sell for even less. Unsplit rounds.. The folks around here would want it free.

Real1shepherd · June 23, 2020, 09:21:19 PM

That's a problem here too....they want it for nothing. Things changed though when they found out it was seasoned Maple and I posted the BTU difference between Maple and Cherry wood.

We used to charge $20-$30 to rick it but that was the late 70's early 80's.

I stacked a cord of rounds for this guy last winter and he brought his own splitter. Left me with all the bark mess while I was at work....thanks a lot. Man, that stuff was beautiful all split up....I'd just been seeing mostly the rounds.

Kevin