Guesstimating Pile Board Footage


Pwk5017

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So, I have this problem in the form of a wood pile that is nearly 5' by 5' by 16-17'. It is the leftovers and rejects from a few auction lots that I recently purchased. If the boards were shorts, narrow rip cuts, only a few boards of a species etc. I piled them on this side. All the other boards I bundled and sold as discounted hardwood groups. Once I have my buyer come pick up the ipe lot, and i sell the exotic lot that you all were so kind to help ID, I will basically be left with this pile of wood, and an assorted 150ish bdft of nice white oak to sell. For the most part, everything has been pretty simple to price and sell. It was high quality material that I was selling at a 40-50% discount off retail. This pile has me a little stumped. How would you go about selling this? Im sure some people look at those 2-3" rip cuts and think its trash, but I see a ton of cutting boards with the holiday season right around the corner--talk about cha-ching. Unfortunately, i simply cant store this much wood in my garage through the winter, and my basement shop looks like it should be on the show Hoarders right now. Simply put, it has to go. My plan is to roughly estimate how much I have in the pile and sell it as one lot for $0.75 a bdft that I WILL NOT split up. No offense to the retired guys here, but I had 3 of them come over the last 3-4 weeks of having this material and they picked out 3-4 sticks totaling 2-3 bdft. Not to mention I witnessed a few landslides while they wasted 15 minutes of my life a piece. I cant live through more iterations of the same.

I would say 80%+ of it is surfaced on both faces, and it is all pretty clear even though it is less than ideal width/length. The majority of it is white oak, hickory, sassafras, hard/soft maple, american cherry, and i know there are some mahogany rip cuts and full boards in the pile.I also have a few hundred board feet of clear vertical grain 4/4 cedar in the mix that I was going to use for building a fence out of, but now I am going to sell. It sucks, but that cedar is friggin buried in that pile. I would like to grab the cedar out of the pile and sell it as its own bundle for more like $2 a bdft. Ok, that rambled a bit, but here is my plan and I want to hear yours:

I took some loose measurements(in favor of the future buyer(s)), and scaled the image in CAD(yes, i am a dork) to come up with the weird polygon that is the shape of this pile of lumber. I came out to about 16 square feet for the shape of the pile. The pile is 16-18' long, so I did 16x16x12=3,072 bdft. Now, we know there is a ton of air in there, so I reduced it by 40% to come up with 1843 bdft. Is it accurate? Hell no. Is it close? I have no idea, but it sounds believable to me. Do I just list the whole thing and wait till one guy comes to pay me $1300? Do I wait till everything else is sold and then take some time to go through the pile and sort out the better grade lumber to sell in smaller lots separately? Do I leave it semi-open ended and allow a few guys to come split it among themselves and pay me $1300 total? Obviously this last option of having a few strangers divy this up between themselves seems like a freaking disaster, but I dont know how likely I am to have one guy capitalize on the situation and buy it all. Am I pricing it fairly enough at $1300? I dont need to make a fortune off this pile, but this auction investment was always my final plan to raise funds to kinda complete my shop. I dont have a bandsaw. I want to upgrade my planer. I have some other random items on the shortlist, so it is important to me to profit a fair amount off the situation. Above all else, it was a complete PITA and I need to walk away with a few grand in profit to make it "worthwhile". 

 

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Oh, god.  I hesitate to even guess.  It's impossible to say with it in a pile like that.  1843?  Not even close.  If I had a gun to my head I'd say a third of that number or less.  Lots of air space.

I'd ask $400 and take $200 just to get rid of it.  YOU might not see scraps and trash there, but that's what most people will see.  Not to be a jerk, but it's true.  The fact that you're asking someone to buy the entire lot and haul it off means you have to sell it cheap...you're essentially paying for the convenience of getting rid of it in one fell swoop.  PLUS, the old-timer woodworkers who will actually want a pile like that are CHEAP to begin with.  They'll haggle with you over a knot.  Keep your expectations low.  Move it, be done with it.  That's how I'd approach it anyway.  Good luck!

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Honestly, I can't imagine that pile selling for more than $200-300.  

Will be a LOT of work for someone to remove the re-stack.

That being said, these boards would probably be great for a whole lot of cutting boards, etc.

Good luck with the pile.  Hopefully the right buyer will come along and give you enough for your bandsaw...

Edited by ChrisG-Canada
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Oof, $200-400? Times would have to be desperate indeed for me to sell that low. It's almost worth that in entertainment value of burning it all at once and laughing manically  out on my property.

 

I definitely see your point of view with it not being the most awesome wood on the face of the earth, but working in a yard, you know you have never sold anything for less than a buck a bdft. Even then it wouldn't be worth the while of your company to put their hands on it and lift it an inch. Idk, I guess you curbed my expectations a bit, but I would put my house up as collateral for that being atleast 1,000 bdft. I take delivery of 500-600 every other month and it is a sad little stack each time. You have me a little worried, but time to list it and see if that old adage about seats and asses is correct ; )

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Oof, $200-400? Times would have to be desperate indeed for me to sell that low. It's almost worth that in entertainment value of burning it all at once and laughing manically  out on my property.

 

I definitely see your point of view with it not being the most awesome wood on the face of the earth, but working in a yard, you know you have never sold anything for less than a buck a bdft. 

Not true.  Most of those boards are too narrow to be sold according to any premium grade.   Plus they aren't sorted by species.  So yeah, $300 seems fair.  Sorry.  Even the high priced yard I go to sells off cuts, narrows and shorts for pennies on the dollar.  

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Burning it may be more entertaining than you think. I see a lot of porch and patio torches there.

Truly. What is more entertaining than 20' leaping flames and getting arrested 30 minutes later?

 

Alright chaps, I see we have a line drawn in the sand on this one. I can assure the greater woodworking community that i will donate this to a nonprofit/school before I sell for less than $500. Some shmuck is most certainly not profiting off my labor of moving that bundle once already. Bitter? Absolutely.

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Oof, $200-400? Times would have to be desperate indeed for me to sell that low. It's almost worth that in entertainment value of burning it all at once and laughing manically  out on my property.

 

I definitely see your point of view with it not being the most awesome wood on the face of the earth, but working in a yard, you know you have never sold anything for less than a buck a bdft. Even then it wouldn't be worth the while of your company to put their hands on it and lift it an inch. Idk, I guess you curbed my expectations a bit, but I would put my house up as collateral for that being atleast 1,000 bdft. I take delivery of 500-600 every other month and it is a sad little stack each time. You have me a little worried, but time to list it and see if that old adage about seats and asses is correct ; )

 

 We don't carry lumber that justifies a price of less than a dollar a board foot.  If we did, that's what we'd sell it for.  The problem is that you have skinny boards of fairly inexpensive species, aside from the mahogany.  That stuff is dime a dozen material.  If you had nice, clear, WIDE boards...different story.  If you had rosewood or ebony or even bubinga or wenge or something that demands attention...different story.  But you don't.  You have offcuts and skinny boards of generic material.  You called them "rejects" yourself...if you didn't want them, why would anyone else?...unless they could get a screamin' deal.

 

Truly. What is more entertaining than 20' leaping flames and getting arrested 30 minutes later?

 

Alright chaps, I see we have a line drawn in the sand on this one. I can assure the greater woodworking community that i will donate this to a nonprofit/school before I sell for less than $500. Some shmuck is most certainly not profiting off my labor of moving that bundle once already. Bitter? Absolutely.

Sounds like a noble idea.  I'm sure a high school shop teacher would be thrilled to have that pile of lumber.  Perfect solution.  Try to find a more urban school district that still has a shop program but no money in the budget.  Worthy cause. 

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Unfortunately, i simply cant store this much wood in my garage through the winter, and my basement shop looks like it should be on the show Hoarders right now.

I sounds like it's worth more to you than you can sell it for, so maybe you should hold onto it.  Do you have a back-yard?  You could knock together a platform to hold it off the ground, build a frame-work that you can cover with tarps, and Bob's your uncle.  Hire some labor to help move it.  Spending a couple hundred and some hours to keep the wood may be smarter than selling thousands of dollars worth of wood for pennies on the dollar.

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I sounds like it's worth more to you than you can sell it for, so maybe you should hold onto it.  Do you have a back-yard?  You could knock together a platform to hold it off the ground, build a frame-work that you can cover with tarps, and Bob's your uncle.  Hire some labor to help move it.  Spending a couple hundred and some hours to keep the wood may be smarter than selling thousands of dollars worth of wood for pennies on the dollar.

It is worth more to me than to most. I have probably mentioned it on here before, but I make and sell cutting boards and countertops in my spare time. I am mildly successful at doing it, and the rip cuts etc in this pile are perfect for doing just that. Heck, some of them i would just laminate all together into sub-assemblies, rough them level in the planer, glue again, drum sand, and sell. It very well may come down to me sorting out the narrower boards and keeping them for my own purposes. I figure I have 1.5-2 months before I absolutely need the garage clear. Once I get rid of the ipe, and normal(6-12" wide and 8'+ long) oak next to the pile, then I will have the room to begin breaking it down and selling the wider boards for a higher price and keep the narrow/undesirable stuff for my own purposes. 

 

I guess I am just a little surprised by everyone scoffing at the material. Maybe I am  insane, because i really use just about every piece of the board except for the sawdust, but i dont see how it's worthless material. For example, I just joined the guild and I am going to begin to build the shaker table. Anybody know what the dimensions of those legs are on the build? 1" 1/8" by 1" 1/8". It sounds like I am trying to justify the price of this lot, but at this point im past that. Even if I donate the lot, I should easily walk away with $3,000 profit from the auction buy, but i would never call those boards useless, not even the 1.5" rip cuts. This one will be a "to be continued..." thread. I will check back in to see how it all ended 1-6 weeks from now.

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It's not useless...it's undesirable to most.  If you make lots of cutting boards then I don't see why you would even want to sell it since it's clearly useful to YOU.

Also, you are aware...if you stacked that pile neatly it would consume far less space (and you might get a more realistic idea of how many board feet you actually have). :D  Should take you all of an hour to re-stack it out of the way.

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It's not useless...it's undesirable to most.  If you make lots of cutting boards then I don't see why you would even want to sell it since it's clearly useful to YOU.

Also, you are aware...if you stacked that pile neatly it would consume far less space (and you might get a more realistic idea of how many board feet you actually have). :D  Should take you all of an hour to re-stack it out of the way.

Exactly.... time is money.   

If you sort by species and stack nicely you will get a better price.  100 bd ft of cherry off cuts and narrows still have some value and some thrifty guy will come buy it.  2000 bd ft of miscellaneous lumber is too much work for most anyone.     Sort out the the premium woods  (cherry, mahogany, the CVG cedar) into 100bd ft project packs and when people come to buy it offer them the other stuff for next to nothing and they will bite.   

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I must admit that on first reading, I thought you were asking the peanut gallery how much you would need to pay to have someone take the pile away... :)

 

Actually, that's not much of a joke... If it were me, I'd want the floor space, not a collection of 1x3s.  You may end-up paying for a dumpster... :)

 

Unless you find a buyer planning to make a bunch of cutting boards, pens, counter tops, etc... I just can't see someone paying you for the stock... Sorry...

Maybe a donation for a tax write-down? Cub Scouts? Vocational school's turning courses... There's got to be 20K pen blanks in there...

There must be a local woodworking association, club, etc. You can call them to see who might want the stuff...

 

 

 

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I must admit that on first reading, I thought you were asking the peanut gallery how much you would need to pay to have someone take the pile away... :)

 

Actually, that's not much of a joke... If it were me, I'd want the floor space, not a collection of 1x3s.  You may end-up paying for a dumpster... :)

 

Unless you find a buyer planning to make a bunch of cutting boards, pens, counter tops, etc... I just can't see someone paying you for the stock... Sorry...

Maybe a donation for a tax write-down? Cub Scouts? Vocational school's turning courses... There's got to be 20K pen blanks in there...

There must be a local woodworking association, club, etc. You can call them to see who might want the stuff...

 

 

 

Hardie har har, trip. Funny joke with paying to have it hauled off.  ?

 

Alright, alright, you old curmudgeons have made your point. Looks like I'm holding off on selling it until the ipe and wide oak is sold. I will have the room to begin to take the stack apart and reorganize. Seems like group consensus is the 3" or less boards are unsellable.  I know I can put them to use, so better off in my hands than in the dumpster. After that, I will have to see what I have of each species. Also, much easier to accurately measure volume in 200-300 bdft stacks. I need to keep reminding myself that 100-200bdft is considered a lot of material to most guys. Tough to sell high volume to via Craigslist. 

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The pile looks like the stuff that Crown Point Cabinet gives away on a daily basis They have hoards of folks that pick through it every day for kindling wood. Occasionally I will pick through if I see anything wider than 3" and longer than 2' that is 5/4" and relatively clear. I have crafted many small projects with free hardwood that I picked up from the cabinet shop scrap bins.

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Call it cramudgeoney but we really are trying to help.  

And in case you did,  don't skip over Mikes post. If you actually laid it out decently without even sorting it,  it will bring a higher price and you will know about what the board footage is,  and that it's proabably nowhere near 1800.

And again,  it's not worthless, but with the 1 person, one deal, takes everything restriction,  you are making it harder on yourself to sell and price. 

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I still think, with the exception of a few select pieces, that you know the destination, given that you pictured it with a gas can.

good luck to ya bud

haha you know you guys are setting me up for an epic mic drop post 3-5 weeks from now when I post a fist full of Benjamin's, right? This is already ramping up to be similar to my unisaw thread where everyone crapped all over my plan to work with a three phase machine, and I ended with a free unisaw with a new baldor motor and $1200 in my pocket.

 

brendon, that is the best advice given in this post. It will be much easier to sell when it is properly organized in smaller quantities. Easier to sell and I will probably make more per board foot this way. The cedar is mildly valuable in that it should sell pretty quick for $2 a bdft. I'll keep the crap narrow ones and sell the smattering of maple, cherry, oak and sassafras for $2-2.50 a Bdft. The pile can be 400bdft and I still make my money in the end. This plan includes the bonus of keeping the narrow rips. Need to wait on clearing room to organize. 

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haha you know you guys are setting me up for an epic mic drop post 3-5 weeks from now when I post a fist full of Benjamin's, right? This is already ramping up to be similar to my unisaw thread where everyone crapped all over my plan to work with a three phase machine, and I ended with a free unisaw with a new baldor motor and $1200 in my pocket.

 

 

I'll be the first to say, that I Hope you get what you need. I think were all pulling for you, just trying to set expectations.  This is a lot like the common walnut thread, we can say what we want, but it's your cash on the line, not ours.

as a guy who buys a lot from craigslist, and has alerts set for when anything including , maple lumber, walnut, cherry.. Plus about ten others. If I saw this listing and that pics and read your restrictions on the sale, I may be looking to pick up a bunch of thin rips for Xmas cutting boards but I wouldn't even make contact. As the buyer, I'll tell you, you are making it harder for me to give you my money.

maybe instead of all or nothing, set a limit. Maybe minimum purchase is  50 bf @whatever/ bf. I would respond to that. I may even come and take 300 and give a decent price for it, but all or nothing will have less money in your hand in the end because you are footing the bill of paying for convenience and as you said, this was to make money, not to have fun, so if you have to sort and stack, do it. It's not fun but will help you make the money. 

That's my $.02. Take it or leave it but no refunds.

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My advice us to drastically drop the price, or put the effort into proper stacking and accurate measurement. I don't think many folks will give what you're asking for a pile that looks like an explosion in a broom handle factory. And I agree with Eric, there is more air in that space than one might expect.

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Surely the easiest way to get an estimate is to just count the number of sticks. It won't take too long - mark the end with a piece of chalk so you don't count any twice.

I'd guess you have about 200 sticks - an average cross-sectional area of 3 sq in (some look pretty narrow), and 16ft long that gives you about 800bdft. At 0.75/bdft that would be $600.

although as others have said it's pretty unlikely that you'll find a single buyer that will actually find $600 worth of wood in that pile that fits their needs (and have anywhere to store it). Sorting it into half a dozen stacks that someone might actually want will shift it a lot faster and probably for more.

Edit: another thing - a lot of people can't easily shift any quantity of 16ft boards - perhaps chopping some of them down to 8ft will help. Coming to think of it chop it into 8ft lengths, stack it neatly in the corner,and keep it as a great stash to start your own woodshop.

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