Question About Selling Off Much Of My Air-Dried Walnut Lumber

[John Hollaway]

Ten or so years ago I added about 1000 board feet of real nice air-dried 4 qtr. walnut to my lumber stash. I bought it at a farm auction near my home in south-central PA. It had been cut from the farmer's woods, sawed into straight-edge boards for the farmer's woodworking hobby use, about 20 years prior to my purchase. He had stacked and stickered these boards, and stored them in the loft in one of his farm buildings. I now have it stored in a dry storage building. Several years after my purchase, my health, and my wife's, started to deteriorate to the point where I've been unable to spend much time in the shop. What little of this walnut that I've used was a real pleasure. As I recall from hauling and re-stacking, very little sapwood was present. So, this inquiry of the collective is help me determine a fair & reasonable asking price per board ft. for my area, when selling by the board or boards. ANY RECOMMENDATIONS? Thanks.

[Ben Grefe]

If I were buying I’d expect to pay roughly half of what a commercial place is asking for walnut - assuming it’s the same variety (I’m guessing black walnut based on where you are?). Maybe even 65% off, so 1/3, the price of a commercial place. My reason being - first, this is air dried, not kiln dried. You never know what kind of stress is stored in a piece of wood until you cut it up and I’ve found air dried wood, having used a bunch of it, trends to store more stress than kiln dried. Second, I’m guessing you want somebody to take all of it at once, or most of it. That’s quite a bit of volume, so … volume discount applies. Third, I do buy air dried maple from a saw mill around me and spend about 1/3 (or less) of retail - so, I have some experience paying that much.

On the flip side, if I was selling I’d ask for 2/3 or a bit less of retail and see what offers I get.

I did buy some lumber off somebody here on the creek once. Bought his whole shop out, similar situation, he was clearing house. I expected to pay a set price for a bunch of wood (variety of cherry, walnut, oak and mostly mahogany). I went in to the deal thinking I was paying ~20% of retail. I think we both underestimated how much wood he had and I bet I picked up the lot for less than $1/bd ft. Given the mid of varieties, I bet I paid 10% of retail.

Granted that’s a fire sale price, but I know if I didn’t take the whole lot he wasn’t going to have trouble finding a buyer at that price.

[Charles Taylor]

I still have a little stash of my own, so I haven't bought any recently. Looking at the online price lists for a couple of the smaller suppliers near me, I see prices from $10.50 to $13.75 (yikes!) per board foot for kiln dried 4/4. Prices vary from one part of the country to the next, of course. This is in north and north-central Alabama.

Walnut is my favorite to work with. Wish I were closer to you.

[Gary Petersen]

I'm with Ben in asking for about 2/3 of retail in your area and seeing what you can get. 4-quarter walnut is selling for about $7.60 per board foot close to me in Wisconsin now. I've bought people's wood stashes before when I can get them for well less than half of retail. I'd recommend pitching the age of the wood and that it has been stored inside for all that time. I'd recommend posting it both on Craigslist and on Facebook Marketplace with decent pictures. You may want to try selling it as a lot first and now allow people to pick through the pile for individual boards.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I don't think asking 1/3 price of kiln dried is a good idea for you. Awesome for the buyer, but no reason to start there these days. I'd ask full commercial price. People are hoarding pine framing lumber right now, give them an opportunity to spend silly money on something good. As long as it is bug free, not warped from bad storage, and had a good sawyer to begin with, it'll be better than kiln dried in my opinion. I like the look of air dried better personally. Here the price would be a little over $10/bf, a discount if they buy a large lot. I saw some similar to what you describe bring over $18/bf this last winter at an auction, which is a fair and convenient way to sell it.

I'd personally not let people pick through it. Buy the pile or not, no sense selling the best boards only.

[roger wiegand]

I might have thought you'd pay a premium for air dried material. I have a pile of similar material and find it a joy to work with, and I love the colors. Much more interesting than the stuff that's been steamed. I'd pay extra for well-dried material.

KD 4/4 rough is $10.10 /bf from my retailer right now, 10% less in quantity (over 100 bf). I don't need any more, but I'd think a price in the $6-7 range would find a buyer pretty quickly.

[Jim Becker]

I think the advice so far is sound. If the material is dried properly, you might consider sorting it a bit as the "more premium" clear and straight grained boards could net you a little more than the boards that require more creativity to use. Walnut is graded a little differently than most lumber, too, because "long, straight and no/minimal sap" is highly unusual from most walnut trees as they do not "in general" tend to grow straight. (there are always exceptions) When you are ready to go, I hope you'll offer it here in the Classifieds, too. There are a lot of PA and MD woodworkers who could be interested in good material, again, if it's been dried properly, is insect free, etc., Air dried black walnut is very much preferential to many of us for color reasons because a lot of the kiln dried stuff has been steamed to increase yields...steaming hides the sapwood, but turns the material all to the same ruddy brown color, in general. Air dried black walnut has a rich and varied level of colorations that add touches of green, purple, etc., even after it fades over time to a more golden brown as walnut tends to do.

[Stewart Lang]

Is it still in the rough? If you can lightly skip plane the boards to help customers see the grain clearly, it will definitely help sales. I'd reckon being in PA, you're not going to get premium prices for walnut, since there's probably plenty around your area. I'd say around $4-6/bdft. Start at $7 if you want and if it's slow you can always drop it.

[Mel Fulks]

So much of the commercial walnut is steamed and too brown-black for me. I’ve used air dried with no problems, pretty sure all the really
expensive antique walnut furniture was air dried.

[Patrick Kane]

I recently sold about 800 feet of 5/4 air dried walnut. Ungraded material in the rough. I am a few hours away from you, and i listed it for $4/bdft. I think 1com walnut is selling for $4.50-5.50 right now. Do you have a means of determining the grade? If its FAS--truly FAS--then i would charge a premium. FAS for me is like $7.50-9/bdft depending on width and thickness. If its ungraded, then id expect to get somewhere near $4-4.50/bdft.

At my price, i expected the material to fly off the shelf, and it took me a month and a half to sell it. A lot of guys coming to pick through the pile etc. Selling lumber to hobbyists is among the most miserable affairs imaginable. No wonder lumber yards typically want nothing to do with them.

[John K Jordan]

Might check the current prices in your area. Around here I bought KD 8/4 clear walnut at $5/bd ft from a lumber supplier.

[Mel Fulks]

You need hobbyists for buyers since the commercial shops are not allowed by trade spec. to use air dried.

[Jack Frederick]

The issue of pricing is also complimented by the hassle factor. Selling becomes kind of a hobby where you may not want/need another hobby. If you can get it out where it can be easily evaluated, you will be able to command a better price. Can you do that and is it worth it to you to do so. To eliminate some of the hassle and time, I’d shoot a lower number for the buyer who comes in and takes it all. According to your post, I think one and done is what you want here. If you have a number of small buyers you spend a lot more time and end up with the last qtr of the material that has been picked over. good luck with the sale.

[Ron Citerone]

I would do some research on Craigslist and Facebook Market Place as well as Bucks County Hardwood and Groff aand Groff and Hearnes as a starting point. _ All Southeast PA) A lot of older walnut has less sapwood than what is being sold now so that might help the value of yours. Internet advice does open you up to regional price differences.

[tim walker]

I still have a little stash of my own, so I haven't bought any recently. Looking at the online price lists for a couple of the smaller suppliers near me, I see prices from $10.50 to $13.75 (yikes!) per board foot for kiln dried 4/4. Prices vary from one part of the country to the next, of course. This is in north and north-central Alabama.

Walnut is my favorite to work with. Wish I were closer to you.

Charles Taylor, fellow Bama Alum here. Roll Tide Roll. 5 weeks to kickoff

[Gordon Stump]

Love air dried. I dread the day I might have to do this. I would price it at the regular going rate in your area. 100 bd ft minimum and slight discounts for volume amounts like the big boys. And do not make eye contact!

[Alan Gage]

I think this will be very dependent on your location and how many possible buyers are in your area.

I bought about 4k bf of hardwood from an auction a few years ago similar to yours. It had been air drying for 5-20 years. Mostly white oak and ash but a fair amount of walnut as well. I think I paid around .25/bf average for the lot. Some of it was really nice. Some of it was junk.

I've since bought other smaller lots of air dried lumber (that people have had in their shops/barns/garages) and have found that it's hit and miss, and more miss than hit. Much of it wasn't sawn well in the first place (wavy or cut too thin) and it's rarely been properly stacked or stored since then. Most of the time it's so rough and dusty that I can't get a good look at grade and even if I could I don't really feel like un-stacking 500bf of lumber just so I can inspect it and then re-stacking it. It's common that the wood has already been high graded with the best stuff being used already. I set my upper limit on rough sawn walnut in these situations to $1/bf. I might pay more if I had confidence that the majority of it was good lumber but I've found too much junk in the stacks I've bought. That's how I look at the situation as a buyer who doesn't really need any more walnut and is just looking for a deal.

On the flip side of this I own a sawmill and have sawn quite a bit of walnut in the last few years and I certainly wouldn't be selling it for $1/bf. But I'm confident that my walnut was sawn and air dried properly. Any 'problem' boards were pulled out when unstickering the air dried lumber for dry storage. I've been selling for $4-5/bf rough sawn and air dried.

I've had very little demand for square edge walnut and no one has bought anything in volume. Live edge is what everyone seems to be after for one off projects. I've talked with the few cabinet builders in the area but they aren't getting calls for walnut and seem happy with their current suppliers. No DIYers in my area seem to be doing large projects and want nothing to do with square edge stuff.

So for the time being I've quit selling lumber and just saw for myself. Not quite sure what I'll do with it all but hopefully when the live edge craze dies people will start wanting nice square edge walnut and I'll have plenty of it.

When you do price yours out you should either separate it by grade or ask a higher price initially and let the customers sort it out. If you know your stack is a mix of grades and you average the price I can guarantee you the customer is going to go through and pull the best stuff (and why wouldn't they?) which will leave you with the lower grades that won't bring the average price you started with.

The exception would be if someone is taking the whole stack. Then by all means average the grades but if they're picking and choosing let them know the price for each grade. They'll either pay more for the best or less for the poorer, which is how it should be.

Good luck!

Alan

[John Hollaway]

Wow!!! Quite a response!! Thank you all very much, not only for the pricing suggestions, but also for the selling strategies based on your own experiences. Naturally, I'm interested in the least amount of struggle in selling this lumber, and you've given me plenty to think about. I'll likely need a few days, or more, to establish my game plan, but I'll keep the collective apprised when I'm ready to throw the switch. Again, many thanks.

John

[Charles Taylor]

Charles Taylor, fellow Bama Alum here. Roll Tide Roll. 5 weeks to kickoff
Roll Tide!

[Jim Becker]

Your "easiest" sale will be a full lot of everything for a fixed price, "take it all and thank you very much", although that might take longer to find the right buyer. The most aggravating sale will be allowing anyone to pick through the boards and dicker. A happy medium would be to sort it yourself into multiple lots, either separate lots of "premo" and "ok" at different prices, or mixed lots of about the same number of board feet for a price that compromises between high and low. It's kinda a "pick your poison" situation!

[Lewis Laskin]

Hey John, did you ever end up selling off that walnut? I'm interested in it.

[John Hollaway]

Hi Lewis. As crazy busy as I have been the last 12 months, I haven't had the time to organize the lumber selling. However, in the last couple of days I've decided it's time to move forward. Good timing. I'm unable to discern your location from the site, so let me know where you call home. Also, PM me your phone number, and the best time to call, and I'll get in touch. Thanks.

[Bob Falk]

I just talked to a friend here in Wisconsin who just signed a contract to have walnut trees harvested on his property. He's getting $3 bf on the hoof. Big demand for walnut so a good time to sell.