Sawmiller died: What is lumber priced at auction?

[Bob Weisner]

The owner of the sawmill where I buy my lumber from, died recently and it looks like the sawmill may go up for auction. Can someone tell me what I can expect to pay for lumber that goes up for auction? There is a good quantity of air dried Cherry, Poplar, Maple ,Oak, Ash, Basswood and Pine that wil be for sale. 4/4 to 16/4. I would like to get that last piece of Cherry that I was meaning to get this past Summer,but got too busy to do that. That piece measured 17 inches wide x 8 feet long x 4 inches thick. Should I wait till the auction or try to buy before the auction date?

Thanks,

[Alan Turner]

I must say that I would be surprised (and I oft am) if air dried wood, at 16/4, was really dry to a furn. maker's standards. How long has it been drying? Good luck with your purchase if it comes through.

[Karl Laustrup]

Bob,

I would try to buy now. When and if they auction off the wood it will be auctioned in lots, not idividual pieces.

That being said if you have the room and the cash handy you can probably get a real good deal on the lots. I went to a auction a couple of years ago where rough sawn was being sold. Each type was stacked in a horse stall. Minimum amounts would be about 1000 board feet per species in each stall. All of this lumber was minimum 25 years old. The personal rep stopped the sale because the lots were going for an average between .30 and .70 cents a board foot. One lot of about 1100 board feet of 35 year old cherry went for just over $700.

If you can't swing a complete lot, go to the auction and find out who wins the bids and talk to them about selling you a few boards.

Good Luck.

Karl

[Bob Weisner]

I must say that I would be surprised (and I oft am) if air dried wood, at 16/4, was really dry to a furn. maker's standards. How long has it been drying? Good luck with your purchase if it comes through.


Air dried minimum of 4 to 6 years.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Sometimes people get nuts at auctions and bid higher than you could buy things just walking into a store. I'd see if I could buy it before the auction too.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree and would see if you can buy some before the auction. I went to a auction here a month or so ago. As Dennis said people go nuts and pay out landish prices for this stuff. Cherry air dried for 8 years went for $11.75 per board ft. Walnut went for $12.50 a board ft. I just couldn't believe the prices that the wood went for. A Grizzly table saw that you could buy brand new for around $975 went for $1200 and a Grizzly 14" bandsaw went for $890 both about a year old. I went to buy the bandsaw. I finally just bought a new one for $562 with the riser kit and including freight. Timberwolf 105" blades went for $38 and I bought them from Suffolk for around $24. People go nuts at auctions.

Bernie

[Steve Wargo]

If it is 6 years you may be O.K. but 4 years is not long enough to dry 16/4 lumber. While the rule of thumb is generally 1 year per inch of thickness it goes up exponentially after you hit 8/4 stock. I think that even if it was 6 years old I'd sit on it for another 2 years, or have it tossed in a kiln if I needed it sooner. Just my $.02

[Dale Rodabaugh]

If you know somebody there ,make them a reasonable offer on what you want,you might get it.Like was mentioned before some people go nuts at auctions,and bid stuff up over what the value is.You never know whats going to happen.There was an auction out the road from me on Saturday.There was a nice stack of cherry there that went for $205.I would estimate there was around 400 bd.ft. in that stack.I did not attend the auction,my buddy told me about it.Had I known that wood would have went for that kind of money I would have been there.course you know what would have happened,I would have bid higher then the guy who bought it would have bid it up,who knows how high it might have went.:confused: :eek: :cool:

[Mike Monroe]

Might get some wood fairly cheap. Couple years ago I went to an auction for cabinet maker that went out of business. I picked up 114 bf of philippine mahogany and 88 bf of cherry for $1 a bf. Another guy bought 300 bf of Ash for $1 a bf. This was kiln dried stuff. I would of bid on the Ash but I didn't have room for it and was low on $$.

To contrast, I went to another auction for rought sawn air dried wood a guy had stored in old barns and sheds, that stuff went way higher than I was willing to pay and most of it had powder post beetles. I just shook my head... auctions can be a good deal or a waste of your time.

[lou sansone]

I agree with most of the posters. In fact I have been to a number of lumber auctions and they all have been the type where the prices were way above wholesale. I think that just looking at ebay for lumber auctions shows that market prices go out the window when you get a bunch of guys compeating for the same stack of wood. But once in a while you can get lucky on somethings. The other thing I have noticed with auctioneers is that they will break the piles down into 100 or 200 bd ft lots and then sell them that way, rather than just auction 1000 at a time. You may be able to do ok if they leave the lots large, but not everyone is interested in buying that amount of wood.


best wishes
lou

[Jason Quick]

I dunno...as the others have said, it can go either way. In early March this year I attended a cabinet shop liquidation auction and the hardwoods went for what I thought were silly prices. At that auction, I myself picked up a bunch of heart redwood and WRC and some sheet goods for a whopping $60. The thing with that sale is that was on a Saturday in early March in Nebraska (read: cold and damp), so most people likely to attend weren't busy. It was also well advertised, and a ton of people showed up.

Then there was the auction I went to in Mid-June - an Omaha millwork company had a stock-reduction sale. They needed the warehouse space for production, so they unloaded a ton of stuff, most of it hardwood lumber. Thousands and thousands of BF. African & Philippine mahogany, hickory, R&Q red and white oak, cherry, jatoba...it was amazing. I had never seen 22" wide African mahogany in person until that day. The auction was on a Friday morning, it was a hot day, and most guys who were off work were likely downtown at the College World Series or out of town altogether. Needless to say, it was relatively lightly attended.

I myself picked up a stack of S2S and S3S KD lumber, mostly the aforementioned oak w/ some Afr Mahogany and cherry, plus a stack of cypress and redwood. All of that makes a pile about 8 feet tall by 5 ft. wide by 12 ft long.

PLUS a pallet of nice full-extension drawer slides (Fulterer and K&V), PLUS a pallet of turnings and millwork bits like column bases and pew ends, PLUS 50-some sheets (half 18"x60", half 8"x36") of a paperbacked rosewood veneer sold as Brazilian, but judged to be Bolivian by others. Total outlay? $630. The lumber itself cost me maybe $400.

Yeah, auctions are a double-edged sword all right. Anyone need drawer slides or rosewood veneer? :D

Jason (sorry, keepin' the wood)