Trying to sell bundled firewood

[Wallys World]

 
We are trying something different this year. We thought we would try selling bundled firewood for campers in a stand next to the driveway. I built it out of stuff I had lying around, so cost was almost nothing. I did have to buy a locking mail box for the money to go in. It is mounted on a pallet so i can move it around with the bucket on our tractor. I made a bundler out of an old ink mixer that I salvaged from where I work. I use stretch wrap to hold the bundle together. The handle is wide strapping from banding rolls of paper in a truck (also from where I work). I have a sign at the end of the driveway to catch the customers eye. We were going to place the stand on the side of the road but I would like it to be there the next day.

[woodmills1]

cool   how much a bundle?

[Wallys World]

Well, I am trying $3.00 or 2 for $5.00. The local Kroger grocery store sells it for 3.99/bundle.
We live on one of the roads to the big lake in our area, Smith Mountain Lake. The lake has 500 miles of shoreline. It is a hydro electric pump storage project. During the day water goes thru the dam to a lower lake, Leesville Lake, and at night 2 of the turnbines are reversed making them gaint pumps and filling water back in SML.

[solidwoods]

Good American knowhow wally.
A solid sign should stay, I'd try it and maybe a sign up another rd. on someones property (pay/barter pmt.).
And I wouldn't have a prob. saying on your add "your price"  and the "average local price".

If you have a qty. price ready that may help incase someone asks.
jim

[Jeff]

Those would be 4 dollar bundles here. Our community has many campgrounds and a very popular State Park.  None of the vendors I have seen have as nice a display as that. If you were here, you could be the BFK.  (Bundled firewood King)

[Dave Shepard]

Nice bundles and nice bundle hut.

A friend of mine used to build hydro plants. Had a guy wanted to use electric pumps powered off the grid to pump water up a hill and into penstock tubes to power generators. TINSTAAFL¹, was his only reply. :D



¹ There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

[Wallys World]

   Time will tell on the sales. Tomorrow when I get up, (I work 6PM - 6AM Thursday thru Wednesday then a week off, only 26 weeks a year!) I am going to move the stand about 50 feet to make it more visible to the road. Believe it or not that was my wifes' idea. At first she thought I was nuts for trying to sell road side. Also I am trying to find the best location for the sign.
   My father-in-law lives on the lake but his house is after the state park and other campgrounds. I don't know if it would be worth trying to set him up or not. I was also thinking about sending one of our trucks and my unemployed cousin to one of the major highway intersections on this Friday afternoon (Memorial Day weekend) into the evening with a load and see how that goes.
   I really need to stop playing with firewood and get back to milling, but you know how that goes....

[WH_Conley]

Send the unemployed cousin out anyway. What else does he have to do? Never know, the slabs might amount to moree than the lumber. :D

[thecfarm]

I see alot of it being sold around here.Can always tell when I'm getting close to a camp site.Most of the chain stores sell it too.Good luck to ya.

[WildDog]

Good looking setup Wally, you could be on a good thing, they sell bundled firewood down here at the fuel/service stations. It might pay to include some bundles of smaller split kindling, for starting fires.

[Wallys World]

   Well I moved the stand out toward the road more, it is now visible from the road instead of hidden in the bushes.
   As far as some kindling, I thought of doing that but haven't got to it yet. We do make fire starters, cedar planer shavings in paper egg carton with old candle wax melted and pored over the each egg cell cut apart to make a little cube. One match and you have a good fire going. We have sold these when we did craft shows back up north. They sold fairly good. My wife suggested to put some of those out also, we usally did 9 cubes to a bag for a dollar. I just need to bag some up.

[Tillaway]

Wholesale locally at $3.50 per cubic foot bundle.  This bundle passes all state weights and measures, lableling and retail vendor packaging requirements.  Retails $5.00 - $8.50 depending on retailer.

[Brucer]

Tom, the local firewood guy, started selling cubic foot bundles a few years ago for $3.00 each, packaged in heavy plastic bags. He left them with a couple of local campsite operators and the local service station, to be sold on consignment. They moved pretty good.

Over the next few years demand grew -- his competition was selling smaller bundles for more money. Last year he bought a used banding machine. It basically wraps the bundle with 3 strands of heavy plastic ribbon, then heat seals the ribbon. Costs a lot less than plastic bags. Trouble was, the bundles would get loose as they were handled. So he started buying culls and offcuts of 1x6 & 1x8 from the local lumber mill. He'd put a piece on the bottom and the two sides before wrapping. The bundles would stay tight and the customers got three pieces of lumber that could easily be split into kindling. The customers loved it -- splitting their own kindling gave them the sense they were fetching the firewood.

Tom's raised his prices and expanded his territory. Now the campgrounds are buying his bundles outright so as to guarantee their supply -- no more consignment deals. But now he has a new problem. He just got asked to supply 20,000 bundles to a distributer, payment guaranteed, to be delivered over the course of the summer ;D.

[mike_van]

I think it'd be great if the bundles could get wrapped or tied with something that could be burned rather than plastic - I don't know what though - Baling twine?

[KnotBB]

I get $5 per 1 cubic foot bundle of fire wood and $3 per .5 cube of kindling off my front porch facing a road to a recreation area.  Customers ring the bell, I take the money and hand them a bundle.  I use plastic wrap and recycled (plastic) bailing twin from a neighbor for a carry handle.  I too built a little Firewood shack out front on wheels. Works great. 
Just saw a local gas station selling .8 cube bundles for $5.49 per firewood and $4.50 for  for .6 cube kindling. Local box stores are gettin $4.95 for their fire wood.

Price is really not the issue unless you're wholesaling.  Convience is the key.  Don't short yourself.  $3 dollars sounds more like a wholesale price. 

The self service thingy would be a whole new world for me.  You're probabely going to have some losses, I'd expect it in my situation.

[metalspinner]

My scouts and I just spent Saturday afternoon cleaning up a shore of our local river.  This is just downstream from a large campground in the Smoky MT National Park.  It's shameful what some people will leave laying around for others to clean up. :(  I would like to second the motion for a burnable wrap.  That could be another selling point in your sales pitch.  ;) Just not sure that I can suggest something, though.  :-\  Is there a rope or twine product that can be used as a fire starter?

Your bundles would sell like hotcakes around here.

[zopi]

Nice bundles and nice bundle hut.

A friend of mine used to build hydro plants. Had a guy wanted to use electric pumps powered off the grid to pump water up a hill and into penstock tubes to power generators. TINSTAAFL¹, was his only reply. :D



¹ There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Ah...a Heinlein fan..

[Wallys World]

I made some bigger, more visible signs for the road. They will go up today. I placed a couple of posters advertising the firewood in the break rooms where I work. Maybe I will get some sales from there. I still don't know about sending a truck out and parking on the side of the road to sell, I keep debating it.

[Larry]

You might also try a few bundles of BBQ wood.  Species like hickory, apple, and mulberry.  My neighbor has steady customers for those bundles...took couple of years for the word to get around.

[Wallys World]

Well, I finally have time for an update. No sales yet! I only saw 1 boat go past the house last weekend. I guess it is Location, Location, Location.  I didn't get to go with a truck and sit at the intersection. last Friday turned out to be one of those days.
I ended up hauling this load home from Friday morning, a farmer (our pastor of our church hunts on his land) had been clearing a fence line out. He was going to burn them and not for firewood. We had to cut them in 6 foot lengths to get them over the fence. I got 25 6-7 footers plus a couple of small chunks. After unloading at our mill I was turning around at the house and the power steering hose blew out. We had to run into town and pick one up. i thought while it was down I'd change the oil and fix the rear brake that was dragging. Well there went the rest of the night.

[Wallys World]

Guess I will talk to my father-in-law and see if I can move the stand to his house. He is close to the state park and a couple of camp grounds but his house is past them. I probably is worth a try. Just some gas and time.

[metalspinner]

Nice load of cedar there, Wally.  

So, your pastor is on your log scouting team, eh?  My mail lady and UPS guy keeps an eye out for me.  UPS Guy really cmae through once for me on some big white oaks.

[CRThomas]

We are trying something different this year. We thought we would try selling bundled firewood for campers in a stand next to the driveway. I built it out of stuff I had lying around, so cost was almost nothing. I did have to buy a locking mail box for the money to go in. It is mounted on a pallet so i can move it around with the bucket on our tractor. I made a bundler out of an old ink mixer that I salvaged from where I work. I use stretch wrap to hold the bundle together. The handle is wide strapping from banding rolls of paper in a truck (also from where I work). I have a sign at the end of the driveway to catch the customers eye. We were going to place the stand on the side of the road but I would like it to be there the next day.

I sell bundled firewood wholesale snd retail $2.50 wholesale and $3.00 retail delivered minum 10 bundles locally I have couple fellows tring to under cut me $1.50  and $!.85 I do little extra thing for my customers. Selling bundled firewood has been very good to me. Later

[Brucer]

The guy I mentioned in post #12 seems to be out of the firewood bundle market. His quality really started to go downhill (that's not what he says, but his customers have said it to me). Other people moved in and offered bigger and better looking bundles for the same price.

They guy's biggest problem is that he doesn't pay attention to what his customers are telling him. They'll point out a problem with his product and he'll quickly explain why it isn't a problem :.

[CRThomas]

Well, I am trying $3.00 or 2 for $5.00. The local Kroger grocery store sells it for 3.99/bundle.
We live on one of the roads to the big lake in our area, Smith Mountain Lake. The lake has 500 miles of shoreline. It is a hydro electric pump storage project. During the day water goes thru the dam to a lower lake, Leesville Lake, and at night 2 of the turnbines are reversed making them gaint pumps and filling water back in SML.

my price is $2.50 a bundle I buy my wood in bulk I clear around $1.25 a bundle I can do 60 a hour I clear bout $70.00 a hour but that's not delivered yet or sold at my yard but get as high as $10.00 a bundle but I can only do 10 of them a hour.