Logs

[YellowHammer]

I get so many calls from "non log professionals" who say they have the best logs in the history of the world.  I get calls for people who have tree guys taking trees down while telling them the logs would be worth a fortune.  I get calls from people who just bought 2 acres of land and want to pay it off by selling me gnarly sweet gum and hackberry thinking they are walnut.  I've had tree guys bring me great walnut logs that were, in fact hickory or oak, and were so ugly I'd be embarrassed to burn them as firewood.

I had a guy call me the other day who had "thousands of veneer grade black walnut" on his couple acre plot, each one with "at least 750 bdft each" and although he knew market price, asked me how much more I was going to pay for them".   What?

I get so tired of the phone calls of "I have this tree in my front yard, I'm not sure what it is, but its real big and how much are you going to pay me for it when you take it down?"

We have tree "professionals" who call me ups and say they just took down a tree and not know what it is either, but want me to pay for it.  They think every hickory is a walnut, and every cherry is a walnut, and every ash tree a walnut, etc.  I can't understand how they cant actually identify what kind of tree it is.  Its like me going fishing and bragging on the fish I caught in Guntersville Lake and saying, "I think they were tuna."

So not only do I usually only buy logs from professionals, I try to avoid buying from first time newbies.  Nothing against newbies, but I'm not in business of educating them with my money and time, only to have them complain I'm not paying them enough.  I had one guy bring me some pencil walnut logs in his pickup truck bed, and complain when I didn't pay for them because they were too short and too small.  He was so disappointed, saying he figured they would be worth enough to pay off the bank note for that truck, and since I had so many logs why wouldn't I just "be a nice guy and buy his?"  Really?  That one still PO's me.  I told him "I AM a nice guy, but I'm not STUPID.  Do I look like Forrest Gump?"

So, now I tell log selling newbies, and log selling tree guys to gather up a couple loads of logs and take then to any of the big mega mills in this area, and come back when they have some experience and knowledge and then I may deal with them.

I contrast, when buying from log professionals, the conversation goes more like this: "Hey, I need some butt cut white oak logs, stave grade for quarter sawing, 28 inch and better."  They say "OK, I'll stack some up and I'll see you in a week or so."  Much easier.    

[K-Guy]

Do I look like Forrest Gump?"

You are taking a big risk asking that question on here!! 

[Southside]

Do I look like Forrest Gump?

Now that you mention it....

I had a customer ask me to come to her property and look at her timber she wanted to sell.  We walk around for maybe 1/2 an hour and are standing in a pine thicket, maybe 18" DBH, nothing else the eye can see.  While leaning against one of the trees she asked stated out loud "Now these are all oaks right?"  

Ummm, errr, how do I begin.....

[YellowHammer]

I don't look like Tom Hanks.  Tom Cruise maybe.  Or Mel Gibson...

[stavebuyer]

I have always been on the wholesale/commodity side of the business. Pricing is therefore pretty well defined on both the purchase price of logs/timber and sales price of lumber. Years ago I reduced my website to a single photo with no contact information and my standard response to telephone inquiries was basically "no". Dealing with the general public on log transactions is a no win situation. As previously mentioned all such logs and transactions tend to meet one or more  of these criteria;

1. of exceptionally poor quality and form. Cut to the lengths handiest to the seller with no regard to merchantability.
2. Universally thought to be of much higher grade and value than ever existed in any market at any time.
3. Poorly handled and mis-manufactured so as to remove any and all potential value that might have existed prior to butcher.
4. Loaded directly on the floor of a trailer with fenders.
5. Said trailer generally arrives at the busiest time of day and parks directly behind a loader involved in unloading a commercial vehicle.
6. John Q Public then expects all operations to cease so that said high value logs on trailer blocking operations can be appraised.
7. After being schooled by John Q that the logs in question were in fact worth more as firewood, he needed immediate payment. The check of course needed to be in some relatives name as not to have a negative impact on his taxes, social security, unemployment, child support,food stamps etc.
8. And of course the best of all scenarios is a follow up visit by the legitimate owner of said logs who never received payment followed by the deputy Sheriff with an invitation for you and your records to appear in court.

Most likely there are less than a dozen loggers within practical delivery distance of any sawmill. Develop a relationship with a handful. Pay a little more than a commodity price to a one of them. It will be a bargain.

 

[WDH]

YH,

It is not the actor, it is the character, and you sure are a character  .  Anybody who can catch tuna in Guntersville Lake has to be .  

[Southside]

Tuna or Shrimp? 

[K-Guy]

I don't look like Tom Hanks.  Tom Cruise maybe.  Or Mel Gibson...

Red Skelton maybe??!! ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Red Skelton maybe??!! ;D

Getrude or Heathcliff?

[alan gage]

I don't look like Tom Hanks.  Tom Cruise maybe.  Or Mel Gibson...

Those guys are way too short. How about Kramer?
Alan

[Tom the Sawyer]

Had a visit yesterday with a local property owner who was having two walnuts cut down (at the City's suggestion).  I don't normally fetch logs but they were close and I told him that I would give him $75 for the two, 8' logs (150bf), if there was no metal stain (not likely).  Today he called to tell me they were down, but he needed $250 because the tree guys told him they were worth much more.  I thanked him, told him I was not interested.  Maybe the tree guys will buy them.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

  I totally agree with your response. Too many busy-bodies in the world mess things up for everybody. I'd have also told him they were not worth that to me but I'd be glad to saw them for him at my normal rate and he could process and sell the lumber himself.

  BTW - whatcha wanna bet he calls back in a few months after the logs have already started to check, split, etc to take you up on your original offer?

[Old Greenhorn]

This is rich Tom. I think I would have told him 'no thanks, call me when you need to mow the grass and you can't get anybody to haul them to the dump. I won't charge much for hauling.'

[Tom the Sawyer]

Apparently, around here I'm not just the last resort for selling logs, I'm the only resort.  Those logs may lay there until the City threatens him, but I wouldn't go get them now.  Just one of my faults, but if my offer wasn't good enough, we are done.  

It is possible that the logs may end up here.  I don't know who did his tree work but I do buy logs, delivered here, from tree guys, although if it was someone I had bought from before, they would have a more realistic idea as to the value.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I had a neighbor bring me a load of walnut and wanted me to saw on shares. I was not in a position to do so at the time and offered to saw regular rate. He took them to a neighbor up the road half a mile with an LT10 who said he'd saw them cheaper than my rate. I drove past those logs  for a solid year as they were right next to the road. Finally the neighbor came back and asked me to saw them and I said I would and could even saw on halves if he wanted as my storage issues had improved. He did and I did. I divided the logs and even let him pick his stack since he wanted a mantel out of one of them. We both left happy but the cheap option is not always cheap.

  My wife is a free lance photographer and we vacationed in remote areas of Africa, Mongolia and the Amazon and such. One trick she learned was taking a portable picture printer (Battery powered so we could pack it in) and give people a picture. We made lots of friends and side by side with National Geographic we got access to people's homes they did not. (She got to ride an Asian camel and I rode a yak and got horse milk to drink because we gave a new friend a picture). I don't know how many times busy bodies would interject themselves after we offered to give somebody a picture in exchange for taking a picture of them. The BB would come in and say we needed to pay too which we would not do so often the person wanting the picture got nothing because her "agents" convinced her she should get more so she got nothing.

   I'd have told your seller to go sell his logs to the tree people.

[YellowHammer]

I don't look like Tom Hanks.  Tom Cruise maybe.  Or Mel Gibson...

Those guys are way too short. How about Kramer?
Alan

Maybe John Wayne?  

@WDH,  Who, me, a character?  Naw, I’m one of those guys who just naturally blends in with the crowd.  
Tom, That’s the kind of guy I’m talking about, or rather don’t even want to talk to, in the first place.  I wouldn’t take those logs for free, except for him to watch me roll them into the burn pit.  

[Southside]

Naw, I’m one of those guys who just naturally blends in with the crowd.  

As long as that crowd is composed of NBA players.  

[WDH]

Here are two characters.



 

[Sixacresand]

YEP   

[Magicman]

I like that peg legged pirate guy.  Maybe if he had a sawmill he could saw himself out a new leg.