I harvest my own wood from my lot and have a pretty large supply of all size ruff turning blanks. Anybody interested if I list some? Lately I've been squaring and plaining them so they are clean of course most are sitting on shelves ruff meaning bark some cracks etc. If so I can put up a list of wood species.
Interest in wood turning blanks?
- Thread starter OlGeezer
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Hi Brian, plenty of people are interested in turning blanks. If you are looking to sell a few then put a box together and list it with some pictures. There are many examples to follow. The biggest challenge will be the cost of shipping them.
Love the user name. FYI, "feeler" posts like this are against the rules. You just have to post the stuff for sale with pictures and pricing. If people buy, they buy. If not, change things up and try again. There are a number of turners on here, so turning blanks tend to sell well.
woodtickgreg
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Please read our rules on how we buy and sell wood here. This would be considered a gageing interest thread and this is not allowed per the rules. Ill let it slide this time because you are new here and just learning how we do things. 
Yes on pieces at least 6x6x4.5 . . .
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #6
my apologies, I will read them carefully. If you need to ban me per the rules I will completely understand. I have had a few gaming servers in the way past and people were always breaking the rules for lack of reading them or just ignoring them it is very fustrating and not fair to others.
Nobody is going to get banned, it's all a part of learning the rules. Take a few pics of blanks you want to offer with a price and that will start the conversation. If there is interest, people will start asking about additional sizes/species and the conversation will continue.
From pen blanks to bowls to platters to dimensional stuff someone here works with it !!
Welcome aboard !
Welcome aboard !
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We dont just ban people especially for first offenders. We give people the chance to correct rules violations and learn the rules. And if necessary we will delete a post with an explanation. We work to retain people not chase them away. But we also try and protect our members and keep this a pleasant place to interact and buy and sell as well as have conversations on the wood working craft.
This isn't Reddit. You won't get banned for not following every rule precisely lol. I was just trying to make you aware of the rules.
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- #12
Well, going to have to think rather its worth the trouble or not, would love to share some wood but I have absolutely no idea how to price it - size, condition, wet/dry, weight, species or moon phase etc but the real sticker shock came when I took an arbitruary price on a piece to ship to my son for example in mid country and after 3 pages on ups shipping calculator came up with a cost to ship far more than what I had picked for a selling price. Personally I wouldn't be interested in spending over $100 knowing more than half of that is shipping. I did read the first post on rules which I pretty much violated in the first paragraph and also the second post on pricing but it really didn't help me much. Thanks for replies.
I'm not a turner, but I know turners sometimes like to turn wet wood. So you may not necessarily need to dry the wood first. I'll let the turners speak on that though.
If you are dealing with common US domestics, there are lots of data point you can refer to for pricing. Say for example you milled up 3x3x12 peppermill blanks and 2x2x18 spindle blanks of Black Walnut, Black Cherry, American Sycamore, and Sugar Maple. You can use the search tool on this forum to see what others have listed those size blanks for in the past.
Alternatively, you can find dealer pricing on these pieces from any number of local and online retailers. Some examples of online retailers I've used are below. There are many more than what I've listed, and these are not necessarily ranked in any particular order.
Dealers for turning blank pricing:
Generally speaking, you wouldn't be listing at dealer pricing since you aren't a dealer (i.e., not a business, no overhead costs, etc.). There is no hard and fast rule for converting from dealer pricing. I personally tend to drop about 25% from dealer pricing, and I just came up with that number from seeing the prices others sold wood at on this forum. There are a lot of factors involved including grain pattern, figure, species, etc. If you are just selling some run of the mill domestics, you are probably pretty safe just knocking a flat percentage off dealer pricing. You can always make adjustments to price if your wood isn't selling.
As for shipping, I strongly recommend you use Pirate Ship (www.pirateship.com). It is discounted pricing using UPS and USPS carriers. Its super easy to use (easier than the carriers' own website in my opinion), and its a completely FREE service. You can even ship internationally using Pirate Ship. I sent a package of blanks to the UK for @daveflutes using Pirate Ship.
Keep your shipments under 70lbs and under 47" long, and you *typically* won't incur any surcharges. I say typically, because there are other criteria that will incur surcharges, but I seldom encounter them in shipping wood. I'm in the Philly area and have shipped turning blanks all over the US, and its usually pretty cheap. Its uncommon for a shipping fee to be over $20 in my experience with Pirate Ship.
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I second PirateShip for shipping. You can also look at items that have sold in past to gauge pricing.
The easiest way to price is with postage added. Then you get what you need for the lumber/blank and everyone understands that shipping is an unavoidable cost. The price you need for a.blank is a factor of how badly you want to keep it, how likely you or the buyer are to get another like it, and how badly you need the space it is taking up... You can get a feel for what the market will do by looking over the wood for sale section and seeing what other items of like size and /or species have sold for.
Also check the wanted section to see if anyone is actively looking for some.of what you have
Another option is to use USPS flat rate boxes. These aren't the most efficient option, but they are the easiest. You just pick up flat rate boxes from your local post office (they come in multiple sizes). Anything you can fit into the box ships for a single flat price, regardless of weight. This can be a good option for really heavy wood species, but in general it usually costs more to ship flat rate than through pirate ship. Some members here only use flat rate boxes, so you wouldn't be the only one. Just realize it might make the wood harder to sell (e.g., it's hard to justify a $25 flat rate shipping fee on $7 of wood).
Echoing the previous comments regarding pricing with shipping. We all understand it is ridiculous at the moment so building it in saves follow up questions for the most part. Speaking as a turner, some of us like the clean, pretty stuff but some of us like bark and imperfections. A trick @Mike1950 uses to his dismay on occasion is selling one piece with a photo of other pieces in the background we all zoom in on and ask about. ;)
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #18
I was thinking about incluuding the shipping into the price of the blank but I will need to find a cheaper way to ship, I'm looking into some suggested, I was worried I would just advertise the blank with a too inflated price for anybody's interest as what I got from the UPS calculator was pretty much just making me pass in the whole idea.
When I sell, I put a description of the wood; type of wood: wet or dry; width, thickness and length. Weight if I think it’s important.
Give a price you are “asking” and include “plus shipping”.
Once you have a potential buyer, you get the address in a PM and plug it into a shipping calculator (Pirate Shipping probably) and let the buyer know how much it would be for the total package………wood plus shipping.
It’s up to them if they want it.
If you don’t get any response to the initial post, the price is either too high, or no one has an appetite for the wood you are posting.
Good pics of the wood you want to sell are very important to potential buyers.
Start with something small to get a feel for it and good luck. You can’t really go wrong by trying.
"Trick" ha ha ha. If you came to my shop as many WBs have first thing you would notice, this man is nuts, there is wood everywhere. To find a spot that wood would not be in background would mean I would have to spend time to make a naked area. I ask why. The dismay is my own fault. I have a difficulty saying no and get beyond buried. No one has ever complained and every mod knows me well. They do not hesitate to tell me if I have transgressed on a rule.
But I never have conceived it as a "trick". Just reality of too much in too little space.
In 15 yrs I would guess i have sold more than probably anyone else. Mostly because good price, good product, quick to ship and no troubles.
I have plenty to picture now, requests, beautiful primo burls slabs dry in kiln. I have organized my ABW. Condensed amboyna in accessible areas. List goes on. All stuff I have been asked for. But no pictures none, nada, and there will be none, I only get to sort and putz. Nothing gets moved for another 30 days..... I would really be tricking someone. I can only pu 15 lbs.... I would love to trick someone and sell. Selling here is like fishing at the hatchery, fish are plentiful and eager- but require great wood at decent prices.
Sorry to be long winded but I am bored.
@OlGeezer if you are trying to sell plain lumber, sales will be slow. This is not the place. If you are selling figured wood, it will sell here. Especially turning blanks. Prices are available in old posts, google, Facebook. But you have to price.
Lots of good advise above...