Anyone have a bundler? Sell bundles?

[RyeThomas]

With all this firewood laying around I was thinking another way to make a $ might be selling bundles. For Guys camping, Harry homeowner and his fire pit. I see them at the stores when it gets cold for near $5 a cubic foot.
I was thinking about getting something like this below,





To make bundles like this



I was thinking sell them for $3-3.50 a bundle. While not a homerun they would sell at a higher rate by a long ways over my chord of firewood price. Anyone have any input? Is this a decent plan or a disaster waiting to happen? The Manual machine only runs $400-500 depending on a few options.

So what do you think?

 

[RyeThomas]

So I just went to the grocery store and they have .75 cubic foot bundles for $6.49 and it’s not even cold yet. Talk about highway robbery! I think I will sleep on it a few days but it seems like a no brainer.

Might have to order a bundling machine next week.

 

[Homemade]

Seems like you had your mind made up already.


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[RyeThomas]

Not really but if they are selling at $6.49.
$3.50 is a lot less than that and I go from around $1.5x cubic foot at my chord price and over double it. Assuming I sell any. Then of course it's more time consuming but now that the kids are in school...

I'm still waiting for people who have gone this route to chime in. Next I would have to make them to order because I have no storage space.
I'm still not sure.

 

[Dustin4185]

It depends on a lot of things. First, do you have road frontage to market your wood? Do you have someone/stores that you could wholesale to? What kind of camping areas are near you?

In TN, you are SUPPOSED to use local or certified wood when camping to prevent the spread of disease/bugs. That hasn't stopped squat.
My dad lives next to a State Park and has a little building they keep odd and end stuff in for camping. IF they wanted to, they could sale a lot of wood each year. He had a tree fall on him from the park and they let him have it all. We sold most of it to campers that year. It was poplar and dad doesn't like burning it that much. We sold it in approximately 2 c.f. bundles bundled with web strapping. I have a strapping tool that uses the metal clips and web strapping. We would leave one strap long and tie to the other one for a handle. I welded a cradle to hold the wood for bundling. He made approximately $1,500 that year.

Now they both have went back to work part time and are only open in the afternoon. They miss a lot of customers. Long story short, you aren't going to make a killing at it unless you get mechanized and have the customer base.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I sell both bundles and truckloads. My truckload customers receive no less than 70 bundles per truckload and pay only $130 to $140. That equals less than $2 per bundle. I figure bundles are for folks who have no place to store any firewood or simply need an emergency good and are willing to pay through the nose for it. Those folks are out there in surprisingly large numbers.

 

[Locust Cutter]

One of these days. I'm 2 miles outside of a small town and the highway that runs through it is on the way to a few different lakes. I figure I could sell wood from Oct-Apr and then from mid-May to late Aug... And, if I can get $4/bundle for a 0.75cuft pack (with the store employees not touching them and consequently no labor with 1+ dollars profit on EVERY bundle), that's 341 bundles for 2 full cords. That works out to $1,364.00 or $964 MORE that I get for 2 cords of wood, delivered and stacked right now. I figure I could clear 4-6 cords a year that way, for roughly $4,092. The additional $2,892 in profit (before my labor and the wrapping expenses) would go a long way in helping to off-set the GN dump trailer and grapple bucket diesel tractor that I want.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Yesterday I lined up another truckload sale with a new customer. She wanted to try out her new wood-burning fireplace with a bundle or so, and I offered to give her a wheelbarrow full as an introductory special. There were about 20 logs in the barrow. I told her that was equivalent to three to four bundles or at least $20 at the supermarkets. Then I said, "Multiply that times 20 to equal my truckload amount that I will be supplying to you Wednesday."

Needless to say, she almost flipped out.