Anyone want to buy some cherry for $50 per bf?

blackhawk

Brad
Corporate Member
Check out this piece of cherry at Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke,VA. These are the guys with the Salvage Dawgs TV show. It is selling for a cool $1795 or approximately $50 per bf. They are throwing in shipping so you would have that going for you. They put these crazy prices out there all the time, I guess people are buying it.

 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
I've known the owner for decades. Good guy and very savvy about marketing to the modern hipster. It takes a special talent to swim in those waters.
 

cyclopentadiene

Update your profile with your name
User
The store is ridiculously overpriced on everything. I am not exactly sure how they stay in business unless the revenue from the show carries them. My wife and visited at least 2 years prior and it looks like the exact same inventory.
 

teesquare

T
Senior User
The store is ridiculously overpriced on everything. I am not exactly sure how they stay in business unless the revenue from the show carries them. My wife and visited at least 2 years prior and it looks like the exact same inventory.
I can think of a quote attributed to P.T. Barnum that seems to fit: " There is a sucker born every minute.";) So, apparently someone is buying.....:D
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
There is a certain level of consumer out there who believe just because something is expensive, its worth every penny. But, it does include shipping! :p
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
I was following the recent David Stanley auction and was shocked to see 1.5 bdft (6 1/2" x 1" x 38") of purple heart go for 170 GBP (about $230 US). That's around $150 / bdft. Maybe the stuff is a lot harder to get in the UK.

Cherry, however, it not that hard to get here. I agree this is a crazy price. At that rate I'll sell my stash and switch to using something less expensive (like mahogany :p ).
 

Drew

Drew Goodson
User
I see it a bit differently. If you are a busy professional who is having an expensive custom home built you don’t know or care about board feet prices. You just see a mantle your wife likes and $1,800 is a small cost in the scheme of things. Plus, if you are working with someone who charges cost plus…
 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
Keep in mind that piece of cherry is roughly a 5"x12" x 8' long with virtually NO defects except a strip of sap on one edge, dried, ready to use and NO EXCUSES. Ask yourself if you had a piece of wood of that size and grade, what would you sell it for?
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
Keep in mind that piece of cherry is roughly a 5"x12" x 8' long with virtually NO defects except a strip of sap on one edge, dried, ready to use and NO EXCUSES. Ask yourself if you had a piece of wood of that size and grade, what would you sell it for?
Bob,
If I had such a piece and someone wanted to buy it, I would think Id have to justify the price somehow. The board is 4.63 thick (lets call it 20/4?) IF that were commercially avail, like 12/4 @ $7.95/BF chrry is, I dont think I could reason away a $44/BF price for it no matter how you try to rationalize it. I would say more like $12.95 / BF due to its uniqueness and rarity maybe...maybe.... thats about $465.
 

ErnieM

Ernie
Corporate Member
I see it a bit differently. If you are a busy professional who is having an expensive custom home built you don’t know or care about board feet prices. You just see a mantle your wife likes and $1,800 is a small cost in the scheme of things. Plus, if you are working with someone who charges cost plus…
Hey, if you run across any of those people, send them to me. I'll return the favor by sending you some of the bargain hunters I seem to attract.
 

Keye

Keye
Corporate Member
Just curious, if this piece is exactly what you want how hard would it be to find it at a lower cost?
 

wsrhue

wyattspeightrhue
User
This is a business that is known for, and relies on finding somewhat scarce material (salvage) that they must laboriously and carefully remove and store. Because of their fame and notoriety I'm sure that they have to pay through the nose for everything they get. They have lots of employees, and a huge piece of real estate. I can't guess how many customers and fans must come through their establishment everyday. Can you imagine how disappointed their fan's would be to travel long distances and show up to an empty warehouse? Their business relies on having lots of unique hard to find items to fill their shelves. Even if they have a ready endless supply of freshly milled and dried lumber, they have to mark it up just to stay in business. I see the business as more of a museum than a retail store. They can only mark up their t-shirts and candy so much. Their average customer doesn't know how much lumber costs.
 

mpholway

Board of Directors, Events Director
Matt
Staff member
Corporate Member
My wife and I love that store and can spend days looking around but the only thing I can actually afford is a t-shirt.
 

dpfeiffer

New User
Don
This is a business that is known for, and relies on finding somewhat scarce material (salvage) that they must laboriously and carefully remove and store. Because of their fame and notoriety I'm sure that they have to pay through the nose for everything they get. They have lots of employees, and a huge piece of real estate. I can't guess how many customers and fans must come through their establishment everyday. Can you imagine how disappointed their fan's would be to travel long distances and show up to an empty warehouse? Their business relies on having lots of unique hard to find items to fill their shelves. Even if they have a ready endless supply of freshly milled and dried lumber, they have to mark it up just to stay in business. I see the business as more of a museum than a retail store. They can only mark up their t-shirts and candy so much. Their average customer doesn't know how much lumber costs.
I pretty much agree with what you have said but it just seems to me that instead of holding on to expensive inventory for possibly years at a time till you find that one person who has to have it no matter the price that you’d be money ahead as a businessman to lower those prices so that your turning less of a profit on each item but you make up for it by selling more items. If your going to use the reason of what black dawg had to initially pay to acquire the item and then you’ve got all your other overhead to tack on which brings it to an extremely high price then maybe black dawg is one of his own worst enemies by overpaying in the first place.

I do agree that there are many items that folks will use during construction of their dream home and in the whole scheme of things, price isn’t that big of an issue but you do create a problem for yourself as a business that relies on finding these items and now you have a track record on TV and other avenues of paying considerably high prices for items in order to keep your inventory levels up to keep folks coming back. If you have large reserves and can hang on for a good while using this approach then great but most of us don’t have that luxury and need the cash flow moving in order to survive. I just think he’s been his own worst enemy tho by setting these precedents if paying the high prices to attain inventory in the first place but it’s only my opinion and if the man is doing ok with his current business plan then I’m happy for him!
 

shawn

New User
shawn
It's hard to find quality lumber in large pieces. I remember working on a shop in VA, we had some cherry come in that was 22" wide 16' long all heart wood. Don't know what it was priced at, but I'm sure the owner knew what he had. I have some eucalyptus slabs l won't let go of unless I get some $$$.
 

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