I made the mistake of bidding in an online auction of surplus lumber from a sawmill in Linwood NY. I got 320 board feet of what was supposed to be air dried soft maple lumber for about $1.60 a board foot plus tax, so that seemed good. I need to make cabinets, bookshelves, trim boards etc for a house I bought which I am planning to move into in the late spring or early summer.
I paid online, and when I drove out to get the wood I found that while the bundle looked good on the outside it was moldy on the inside and about as wet as if it had just come off the mill. The seller/sawmiller told me he takes the wood right off the mill and stacks it up with 1/4" thick stickers between the layers and bands it together. He said he had cut it 6 weeks ago, and that it had been very wet since then so it wasn't his fault that it was not dry. I told him I thought it was unethical to represent this wood as being air dried, but I took it home with me since I had already paid and there is no recourse in an auction, of course.
I will be able to use it eventually, but I don't know how long it will take to get it dry enough to work with. I put in inside, stickered with real stickers that are 1" thick like they are supposed to be, and am blowing a fan through the pile on low to keep the air moving. It's pretty dry in here and getting drier so I'm hoping by February I may be able to get to work on this wood.
It was my fault that I didn't call the seller and ask what the term 'air dried' means to him. I would strongly advise against buying lumber from this person, he has been sawing for a long time and should know better than to do what he's doing. i am posting this as a cautionary tale, don't buy lumber sight unseen unless it's from a very reputable and well known source.