Best Way to Market Lumber and Logs?

[Keith Ratliff]

I have been wondering what would be the best way to market the special logs I come into often. Seems I am stock piling curly maple cherry and walnut logs. Most people don't or can't tell if a log will contain cury lumber(sawing is a very important part too). Well I have the eye I guess but my buyers are mainly exporters and mills who don't look for these features and don't pay the premium they require. So now I stock pile them and saw them myself when I have a free day. Does anyone out there know if adding a lumber sub domain to my website and building a lumber listing area would build sells beyond the 1000-2000 bd ft I sell monthly? I don't know but I think woodworkers out there would like this? Feedback please.

[Matt Allan]

Unfortunately what you have is most likely unsellable.. Being the nice guy that I am I will let you to send it all to me to clear it out.. Just email me and we can work out the shipment..

[Keith Ratliff]

Yeah I'll do that, hold your breath. I know the market is there as I sell to much of it now. I am just looking for a easier way to list it and still get the viewers the simple ads I place on the forums I use. I hate having to go to each and everyone to update what I have sawn...It is killing me and my night life.

[Tom Sontag]

I do not know the answer Keith. Just proves that a successful business usually needs to climb several mountains to reach the promised land. But my urban logging operation has dealt with a couple of these issues, so my off the cuff thoughts may be of some value.

It might help to decide whether you are a retailer or a wholesaler. The retailer captures more margin but has a whole 'nuther set of overhead expenses. I found that spending my time shipping 50bf here or even 150 bf there was not a solution since each sale takes significant time even before shipping.

If you like the simplicity of wholesaling and your log buyers will not pay a premium, then I suspect your inclination to saw them up yourself is right. Surely somewhere there is an outlet for 1000+bf or truckload quantities of figured lumber, green or dry. You might try listing volume lots on Woodweb. What about brokers? You might need a truckoad at a time, but it would be a pretty good day when it happens. The good thing is that air drying lumber does not degrade if you have somewhere to hide it.

I am currently pursuing a "build it and they will come" strategy (described above). Inventory is growing while I try to figure out how to build some demand that works for me. While I dream of a white knight volume buyer, it may be that the answer is the sum of many smaller parts.

[Keith Ratliff]

Tom,

Nice thoughts I got all my sawlogs and veneer logs spoken for by a couple of exporters and a few mills and the pricing is more then fair. My thing is I don't like sending out the logs that I know contain "special lumber" to be sliced or exported to china. I think these logs should stay local. That is were stock piling has started. I find so many monthly more then I can saw. I want wondering how to market these logs? I can sell all the lumber I mill myself.

Your ideas are right on, I wholesale my logs and retail anything I mill myself.

Thanks,
Keith

[Arnie Grammon]

Keith

Have you contacted Mike Mastin at http://www.curlywoods.com/ in Texas? That type of wood is his specialty. He buys from all over the States.

Arnie

[Keith Ratliff]

Arnie,

Thanks for the info and I will get a hold of him after the swap meet if I have any left over.

Thanks
Keith

[Alan Turner]

I am interested in curly woods, esp. maple, but will not buy wood that is not kiln dried as there is too much risk if I put it into a commission piece, and then it moves, etc., and I have to make it a second time. Do you have a kiln, or a relationship with a kiln, so that you could sell KD curly wood? I generally onhlyt buy for a particular piece, as I have about 3-4000 b.f. stored now, and of course every commission I get calls for what I don't have. Life is like that. BTW, any quilted maple in that pile of logs?

[lou sansone]

hi keith

first of all I agree that I can't stand the thought of putting our logs into containers and sending them over to china. They got their own trees.


I think that there are a few ways to do this, but I am not sure exactly what your businees model is. I went to you web site, and have to say it is not that clear what you have for sale. Please understand that my comments are intended to be constructive. It looks like you do horse logging? OK what does that tell me about the wood you have for sale? Are you using your web site for selling lumber or selling logging services ? I would think that you could open up the web site to include the logs or lumber that you want to sell.

Where am I comming from. I have a mill and about 8000 -10000 bd feet of lumber on hand, and I continue to buy more because I also love wood ( I will probably die with a hugh pile of wood ) . I buy logs and I buy lumber that others have sawn. Buying logs provides the best wood for me, beacuse every log has a prime cut that if I am sawing, I put off to the side for my private stock. When I buy from other guys they have done the same ( unless it is truly log run ), so I don't get the prime boards.

I have bought curly logs and have been disappointed in them. I continue to look for real good ones. I know a guy who is a log broker for a land clearing firm and he does come across some real good stuff, but it all goes to the canadian veneer guys @ 5000/ per 1000. I can't pay that for saw logs. Even 2000/1000 is a lot, but I might be willing to pay it if they were real curly.

Ok I am rambling. I think you could sell logs in the 500 bd feet clump that a lot of guys with band mills could haul. It is the logs that are hard to find. Those band mill guys would probably like to saw up some real nice figured lumber just for the experience and to be able to sell some on the side.

You can also saw up some of them and offer them in 500 or 1000 bd ft bundles for those who don't want or can't saw. I have sold some wood, but I really do not like doing it at this time. Maybe I would in the future if I had more of a supply on hand.

Why don't you send me a few pictures of what you are saying are your prime curly logs. I might be interested in buying some.

thanks
lou

[Dan Racette]

what kind of price per board foot were you looking to get for figured sawn woods? I assume that would be greenwood.

I am starting to source lumber and I am finding out alot of intereting things. Most of the places that saw a lot of wood could care less about figure, until after it's sawn. They need to feed the architectual industry for super clear first and selects. If figured wood comes off, it seems to be a bonus. I even visited a place that <gasp> CHIPS their figured wood because they can't garner a premium price for it.

Now I am looking to dry the wood myself, but Alan brings up an excellent point. Some people do not want airdried wood to cause a problem for them after they have started on a long commission.

Good luck.

[Keith Ratliff]

Well Lou,

My business is logging and management....Lumber is just a off thought thanks to owning a mill. I love having my logs exported it really helps to keep my table loaded with food. But they don't like logs with defects, these defects are just the things that give away what kind of lumber you will be getting from the log.

I hate saying it but lumber is a second thought I really enjoy logging but I get allot of time off during the summer and sawing logs has been great fun. I just was thinking adding a lumber page to my site would be a good way to promote what I have sawn to offer. But I don't want to ruin the purity of my website since logging is my living.

Keith

[Keith Ratliff]

Alan,

To address your question of kiln drying, I do have a kiln to use and I only mill what I can sell green.....I don't like to let the lumber set out to long. But I don't kiln anything unless it is paid for first. I have put 1000 bd ft in the kiln spent the money on gas and time only to have a client go broke not good.

[lou sansone]

hi keith


hope you did not take offence at my comments. you were asking about marketing your logs. I understand that your main occupation is logging, and I think that doing it with horses is real neat. From what I understand about horse logging is that it is a much more planet friendly way of bringing out the timber.
You mentioned that you get a lot of time off in the summer, is that because it gets to hot to log?

I understand that you will be getting a camera and once you do I think that a lot of folks would love to see some of the logging work that you do.

regards
lou

[Keith Ratliff]

Lou,

Because we try to use only low impact logging methods, our production volume is allot lowwer then that of clear cutters and heavy harvest companies. Having a low volume means we need to get more money for our logs and with that said the export market is much higher in the winter. During the summer we do underbrush mowing and pruning all of the things good timbermen should be doing but most don't care....Call it the hippy in me. I will post pictures of the lumber and logs. I won't have any active logging pictures until fall. We take a low enough impact approach that now that the bloom has started you couldn't tell we were cutting this past winter....We cut stumps to the ground.

Thanks
Keith