Group buy for wood?

[isaacrapelje]

I am fairly new to pen turning but have developed contacts for great wood at great prices. In order to get great wood at great prices I usually buy atleast 1000lbs of burl or more. I have two questions. First would there be an interest in a group buy for say amboyna, afzelia, maple, buckeye, thuya, box elder burl, etc? Second what do you think is the best way to go about it? By the piece, bf, lb? Maybe a flat rate box full of one piece. I understand I would have to process the wood, but not into pen blank sizes. I can get some pretty good deals like big leaf maple burl for around .50 a pound, buckeye burl for $2.00 lb, amboyna for $9.00 lb with more for shipping. Is this a good idea or should I just buy the wood myself and process it into blanks and charge accordingly?

 

[thewishman]

Group buy would be great. If there is not enough interest, then by all means, offer it by the blank.

Good luck with whatever way you decide to go!

 

[Dario]

I've thought about this before but due to the nature of wood, that each is unique...there will be a big responsibility for the one who is doing the group buy to properly/fairly distribute the wood.

Good luck if you ever go with this idea.

 

[Daniel]

Hate to be a dud on this one as I really like the idea of bulk buys. I am with Dario. Even looking for large pieces of wood for myself has been a frustrating exorcise. I have become a big fan of being able to see the actual blank I am buying as they vary extremely in just how good they are. BB is a huge exception to that rule. I would buy from him without a seconds hesitation any time. But I also know he throws out a huge amount of wood that does not meet his standards as well, and that is after having hand selected the large pieces he will cut blanks from. without some way to disperse the top notch pieces equally I can't see everyone getting the same value for there money.

 

[dubdrvrkev]

I think the best way would be to just individually price the blanks and offer them for sale. I know that means that you have a large expenditure up front though. I have been looking for some large bowl blanks for utility pieces and they are hard to find because I can't pay 40-50 for a blank and another 20 for shipping and have a bowl to use or sell for 50-60. But being utility I don't want/need exotics or spalts or burls just jarge defect free pieces.
Sorry got off on a rant there. You could probably get away with milling to boards and letting individuals blank them. That way you could have flat rates of boards for a decent price and cut down on your processing time.

 

[Nolan]

I also have consider this as I have contact in which I have to buy 500 lbs to get the "good Deal" but havent bought cuz I dont want to get stuck with large quanity of wood that members wont buy. That being said I would be interested in slabs flat rate style!!

 

[Pipes]

I would also like slabs I could cut myself !! [8D]





http://affordablepipes.com/

 

[dfurlano]

I would have interest.

 

[BigRob777]

I have to agree with Dario. There is such variance in wood, that some would be getting top notch wood, while others may get a lesser grade. That said, if you lived closer, I would be up for it.
Rob

 

[wayneis]

Isaac I may be up for a group buy if you are talking burls or something very special. I've done this kind of thing in the past with very special expensive woods and it has worked out well.

Wayne

 

[huntersilver]

I would be interested in this.

 

[Jim15]

I'd be interested.

 

[jodoidg]

Amboyna @ $9.00/# has my interest but my concern as the others expressed is quality. There's BURL [] and then there's just swirl []. If it's quality and divided fairly I would be interested.

John

 

[isaacrapelje]

I know wood is different than other products because of the variation. A group buy would not be absolutely fair to everyone because one pound of burl might be better than another, but over all if you are getting a good deal wouldn't people be happy. I could cut chunks of maple burl 10 x 10 x 4 for $12 bucks or so wouldn't that be a good deal. I personally inspect all the wood I buy. I like to think I have high standards but when you buy 1000 lbs of wood all of it may not make the standard. I could do it two ways. I could just slab everything up for flat rate boxes and charge what it costs me or I could slab it up and grade everything and you would get more wood if you wanted lesser grade and less if you wanted the best. A third option would be to just select out the top quality stuff and do a higher rate to compensate for the lower quality. I have not really had a problem with a lot of low quality burl. If you know what you are doing you can make sure you get good quality wood, but oviously it costs more because that is what people want. I have posted a picture of the type of veneer grade amboyna burls I buy. I have sold them on ebay for some time with many possitive comments.

 

[dubdrvrkev]

Hey sign me up for some of those maple burls.

 

[Daniel]

I wasn't able to do as much math from the first post as I am the example from above. at only .30 per blanks or so plus shipping I wouldn't get all that concerned about the quality of the entire piece after all.
now I'm interested in a more complete list of burls you have access to. so you can add me to the list of those that would be up for it.

 

[dfurlano]

Lets try one and see what happens. I am open for grading, maybe as you suggest two tiers.

 

[isaacrapelje]

Ok- So I am going to look at some maple burl on thursday. I will cut it up into slabs and price according to the weight. It looks like it will be good stuff. I will see what type of deal I can get on it and let you guys know. First who would be interested in maple burl? Second what size pieces would you like? I was thinking the largest slab that would fit in a flat rate box. Let me know if you are interested and I will let you know when it is ready to go. Thank for all the imput. ISaac

 

[dfurlano]

I would be interested in giving this a try and the largest in a flat rate box would work for me.