firewood bundling pricing

[glassman_48]

Red,
When our local party store contacted us about bundles I didnt know wholesale pricing in our area.  I have only sold retail in front of my logging site and not many at that.  I didnt want to sell a couple hundred bundles and scratch my head at the end of the summer and wonder where profit was.  Our bundles are so hit and miss when we make them its really hard to keep track of our time because were doing so many other things.  The party store was happy making a buck a bundle and said everyone liked our bundles last year.  We had a lot of theft in our logging site with the bundles (its on the honor system) so the majority of the bundles are going through the party store where they have a locked firewood box.  We would sell maybe 10 bundles so there should of been 40 to 50 bucks in the mailbox but the box was empty.  I finally figured out that if I sold 10 bundles there had to be some honest people in there somewhere or someone was heating their home.  We had a large plastic mailbox with a mail slot in it it was easy to install because I could run my portable screw gun right in the mailbox to screw it in the end.  Someone was pulling the plastic door open enough to reach their hand in and take the money.  Thats the other reason I went with the party store I probably lost a couple hundred bucks before I figured it out.

[redprospector]

I was mainly just curious as to what the answer would be.
I have been told in my home town that I leave too much money on the table sometimes. Then other times I've been told that I'm too high.  :D
I just figure out what I have in a product and put it up for sale.

[glassman_48]

red,
thanks for your opinions, I really just try to put out a good product and the people I sell to are trying to get a product to sell that people wont complain about.  The party store doesnt sell a bunch of bundles but are happy with the quality of the bundles.  I was hoping to see an average price mark up on bundles, it seems like a buck a bundle is the minimum a retailer would mark it up and a buck and a half seems the standard.  We now have another party store that wants to try bundles so we will see.   thanks again everyone for your input.

[redprospector]

Good deal. I hope you do well with the party stores.
My opinions are just that, my opinions. You can take one of my opinions and a couple of bucks and get a cup of coffee with it in some places.  :D
I'm just trying to figure out how others do it, and why they do it that way.

[CRThomas]

I'm making 1 cu foot bundles and wholesaling for 3.50, I'm probably a little cheap but I'm trying to build up my volume.

I whole sale for $2.50 my cost is less than $.50 cents a bundle. Fellow west of here said his cost was $2.00 a bundle. I would have to go out of business if my cost was that high. We grossed $81.000.00 last year cost was $21.000.00 Bought another 06 450 ford $20.000.00 Put in the bank the rest. My wife works we live off her income She draws $1700.00 ss a month I draw 2575.00 a month ss. 2 pensions all firewood money for the the nurseing home later on in life

[glassman_48]

crthomas,
My pulpwood costs between 70 and 95 a pulp cord, my son and I have not tried to figure cost because we dont commit to bundles like we do the firewood.  We have several things going on at the site and I have a new site that I am trying to develop so there is little or no time for bundles.  I am glad to hear your doing so well with your bundles and can keep your cost so low.  thanks again for all your help/info

[CRThomas]

crthomas,
My pulpwood costs between 70 and 95 a pulp cord, my son and I have not tried to figure cost because we dont commit to bundles like we do the firewood.  We have several things going on at the site and I have a new site that I am trying to develop so there is little or no time for bundles.  I am glad to hear your doing so well with your bundles and can keep your cost so low.  thanks again for all your help/info

Running this by you I can buy a pickup truck load of split Ash rework it I get a 100 bundles out of that pickup load bundle it take it to one of my customers store for $2.50 a bundle they write me a check for $250.00 dollars I have done that two times a day not every day If I retail the price starts at $5.00 a bundle and goes up Retail deliverd 10 bundles mini. When I deliver I set it up to do 3 to 6 customers a day. I very seldom buy wood but I get in a bind we got to do what we got to do I'm 73 years old and I have bad days You can see on some of my enteries othe places me and my wife are very sucessful in the bundled firewood business. I wouldn't do any thing else. You got to remember you are deling with people with money they don't want a pile of wood stacked in there driveway I build racks for my regular customers they hold 20 bundles rich people are kind of need to be pampered. Old people like to tell you stores of there life. laterboss just drove up 

[Ford_man]

I must be doing it wrong; I buy the logs run it through the processor furnish the wrapper and the film, the grandson wraps the bundles and sells them, and keeps all the money. I think I need to buy more logs.

[glassman_48]

Ford_man,
The owner of twister industries that sells a lot of firewood bundlers told me that most owners give their help so much a bundle, 5 years ago it was .25 to .50 cents a bundle depending on if it was a manual bundler or electric.  There were a lot of young teenagers that came to his booth at the logging shows that thanked him and told the twister owner how they paid for their own clothes, or own car, or saved for college etc.  It was really quite inspiring to see how they developed a "work ethic" Many of those young people started at 8 or 9 years old.  I have a son that is 30 years old and he got his first firewood bundle account.  Either one of us will cut up wood for bundles and leave them in bags to bundle all summer long.  I pay my son by the hour because there is so many other things we are always doing.  He has the responsibility of keeping the bundles in stock for his account.  He is learning how much time and effort it takes to keep that account full of bundles.   (especially this weekend

[Ford_man]

Well I didn't tell the whole story. He runs the processor for all the firewood and when we do a custom job I pay him by the Hr ,also I let him drive one of my trucks as if it were his own.

[glassman_48]

Ford_man,
I bet your grandson really appreciates all your doing.  My son processes real well now, and its nice to be able to work with him occasionally.  He has 3 or 4 jobs always going on it seems.  good luck,,,,,,Ed

[32vld]

Where I live bundles of hardwood shrink wrapped with 5 to 7 pieces retails for $7.99 in front of 7 Eleven stores. As the pieces get smaller they put in more to the bundle.

[glassman_48]

32vld,
Here in northern michigan the prices are 5 bucks to 5.99 a bundle, I think the prices will go to the 6 to 6.99 next year because of our wood price increases.  Near Detroit I would think the prices are higher like in your area.