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How to price wood?

Alex Bradley

Alex Bradley

Joined
Oct 28, 2021
Messages
43
Likes
128
Location
Louisville, CO
Would love any/all advice on how to approach pricing wood. I just completed moving my dad's rough turned pieces from MD to CO and brought wood from his collection with me to try to sell and help fund the move (the wood was all heated in a vacuum kiln to be safe not to transport critters). Anyway, I am now a clueless wood dealer and need to price the wood to be able to sell to my local clubs. Does anyone have advice on how to figure out how much the chunks should cost? I am going to do by board foot vs. weight since the pieces are dry. Is there a standard board foot price by state out there? Thank you!!
 
What types of wood do you have, and in what form?

Commercially available species like maple, cherry, or walnut, in lumber form, should be pretty easy to price. You can get an idea of the local market by visiting a good lumberyard. If you know anyone who works in a cabinet shop they can give you a good idea too.

Bowl blanks will be a much more subjective market, with a lot of variables like size, figure, and quality. If you have any unusual species that would be unfamiliar to most people, make sure they can see what the wood will look like. A little shellac splashed on one side of a sample blank will probably be enough.
 
You have 2 really good clubs nearby, filled with helpful people. You could cold call a person or two and ask their advice, or you could go right to a person who used to sell rough turned bowl blanks as a side gig--Dale Bonertz. He's a member of the Rocky Mountain Woodturners, I believe and lives/works in Ft. Collins. He occasionally drops by this forum.
 
You would leave a lot of money on the table if a highly figured blank is sold for the price of plain grain. If you just want to get rid of it, sell it cheap to a woodturning club. It's very rare for a vacuum kiln to get to 150F degrees to sterilize the wood. Vacuum kilns rely on low temps as water will boil at 90 degrees in a hard vacuum. LOTS of turning blank sellers on the internet, Google will tell you what retail is.
 
Richard Coers said:
LOTS of turning blank sellers on the internet, Google will tell you what retail is.
Click to expand...

Yes, but not everyone with something for sale online knows what they’re doing. Figure out which ones are actually selling blanks to gauge a realistic price. Also, retail pricing is for established retailers with good reputations. As an unknown quantity you should probably be willing to take something less.
 
IMHO! You may have some valuable stuff there if the wood is: sound, well aged/dry, free of defects that would make it dangerous to turn and has any character. That stuff is hard to come by. What is for sale on line and at the local retailers is most often green or barely dry and extremely pricey if the figure is anything above average.

Boards? Sure, you will be competing with the retailers and the online market. And shipping will often be a real problem.

Turning blanks on the other hand are often not a huge problem to pack and not too expensive to ship.

If you have any concerns about residual critters, let the stuff sit for a few months and look for critter dust. I've had my problems (we all have) but the beasties often reveal their presence pretty quickly. If your Dad ran the stuff through any kind of drying process a while ago and you DIDN'T notice any critter dust (little piles of fine sawdust), I wouldn't worry too much.

Best advice I've seen here is to make the trip to a local club with a few of the best pieces and a few of the less-best and see what kind of input you can get before and after the regular meeting.

Then pick a nice bowl blank, take good pictures and run an ad in Craigslist for your area. Pick a price that pleases you. If you get a bunch of replies and a quick sale, maybe you priced it a little low. No replies? Too high, drop the price by 20% and try again. Doesn't cost you anything.

If storage is not a problem, this stuff just gets more valuable every year.

Good luck,
Tom
 
There are a lot of turners on the Front Range. Shipping probably won't be an issue. If Alex wanted to sell them all in one swoop, she could try a table in the vendor area of the Rocky Mountain Woodturners Symposium next fall. There are usually a couple of burl sellers or Northwest Hardwood blanks there to compete with, though. Too bad she missed the symposium 6 weeks ago.
 
Richard Coers said:
You would leave a lot of money on the table if a highly figured blank is sold for the price of plain grain. If you just want to get rid of it, sell it cheap to a woodturning club. It's very rare for a vacuum kiln to get to 150F degrees to sterilize the wood. Vacuum kilns rely on low temps as water will boil at 90 degrees in a hard vacuum. LOTS of turning blank sellers on the internet, Google will tell you what retail is.
Click to expand...
The vacuum kiln was just to heat treat the wood to make sure I wasn't bringing any bugs to CO. The wood is dry dry dry from sitting for 20+ years in his indoor storage. Pricing is so hard! I got all of the "standard" pieces priced....now I'm stuck with pricing the big burls.
 
Dean Center said:
There are a lot of turners on the Front Range. Shipping probably won't be an issue. If Alex wanted to sell them all in one swoop, she could try a table in the vendor area of the Rocky Mountain Woodturners Symposium next fall. There are usually a couple of burl sellers or Northwest Hardwood blanks there to compete with, though. Too bad she missed the symposium 6 weeks ago.
Click to expand...
I was going to be at the symposium (not to sell wood but just to learn) and woke up that Friday with COVID. Worst timing ever!
 
Thanks for all of your ideas. I was able to price all of the "standard" pieces looking at what other folks were charging. Now I have very large burls and BIG blocks of Koa to try to figure out. It is cold in Colorado so I am going to take this time to actually get in the shop instead of being a wood dealer. But if anyone has a clue as to how to price Koa I'm all ears.
 
Alex Bradley said:
Thanks for all of your ideas. I was able to price all of the "standard" pieces looking at what other folks were charging. Now I have very large burls and BIG blocks of Koa to try to figure out. It is cold in Colorado so I am going to take this time to actually get in the shop instead of being a wood dealer. But if anyone has a clue as to how to price Koa I'm all ears.
Click to expand...
You might want to message Emiliano. I think he would be able to answer your question on Koa price the best.
 
Richard Coers said:
Whatever you think Koa is worth, double it. LOL
Click to expand...
At least!

Koa is impossibly expensive these days IN Hawaii, so a piece that has already gotten shipped at considerable expense FROM Hawaii is extremely valuable. Some crazy friends of mine who were vacationing sent me a piece a number of years ago and the postage was about $100. There are web sites from Hawaii that used to offer koa for sale and if they are still doing it, you could get comparable prices.

I think an auction would be worth considering, as ultimately the value is set by a willing buyer and a willing seller.
 
Alex, prices on turned objects are very subjective. The main factors to consider I have learned over the years is the quality of work you turn out, Location is very important, A major city will pay much more than a rural area. Art festival will pay more than craft festivals goers. Type of wood used, example walnut in my area is scarce so I can charge more for a walnut utility bowl than say a Magnolia bowl etc... I use a basic formula and tweek it depending on the factors already mentioned. Example for bowls diameter x depth x a factor from 2 to 3 depending Lets say I have a walnut utility bowl that is 15" x 5" x a factor of 3 to 3.5 $225.00 to $262.00 I live in MS and it is not the economic capital of any place. Lets say I can get 225 for the walnut bowl but if it's a plain 15 x 5 sycamore I may use a factor of 2 to 2.5 $150. to 180.00 I have found the basic formula of diameter x depth times whatever factor works for you. It's a good starting point anyway.
 
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