Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville - It's a bust. :(

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mxracer

New User
Dan
I am disappointed to say that the lumber run didn't work out.

First I want to say that everything nice that people have been saying about Charlie is all TRUE. :wsmile: He's a really nice and fair guy and he's very up front about the wood. No issues there.

Here are the the issues I faced.

1st was yield. The boards that are left there are yielding approximately 1/4 of the board feet in the whole thing. Meaning a 4/4 8" x 12ft board that would normally yeild 8bf might end up with 2bf and those 2bf might be one nice piece or it could be in multiple little pieces scattered in what's actually good. It's getting to the bottom of the barrel.

Second was time. We spent about 2 hours sifting and trying to get the best bang for the buck and ended up with about 150bf of decent stuff that was giving the yield above. That means that it would have probably taken all day to get what everyone wanted. And we really only had 1/2 day with the driving time.

Third was the "risk"???. We could have just started throwing boards on the trailer, stacked them 5ft high or so and "gave it a shot". There were three of us there and we all felt that most people if not everyone would have been disappointed in what they would have gotten. Heck the other member (I'll let him speak up if he wants :) ) that was there didn't even take any. For me I had sifted and loaded those 150bf and didn't want to unload them and also didn't want to waste Charlies time so bought what I had on the trailer already.

It's kinda hard to describe but at the end of the day we all came to the same conclusion that it wasn't "good enough" for myself or even all of us to make the decision for each of you to spend your money on what is left there.

I won't say that if you want to make the drive up there and look for yourself that it would be a total waste of time. You may find exactly what you are expecting and looking for. You may be tickled pink, you may not, it's crap shoot IMO.

So.... for those of you who have paid via PayPal. I will start tomorrow refunding your money via PayPal. For the one person that brought me a check, I'll PM you and we can work out how you want me to return that.

I'll say up front too that three of you paid in a way that PayPal charged money for the transaction. If I can issue a refund and cancel those charges I will and you will get 100% of your money back. If I can't you will get back everything minus those charges and I will PM you a screen shot of the charges to show you the amounts. It's only a couple bucks but to be frank I'm not paying anyone to go look at some wood. :gar-La; Also as mentioned before it takes PayPal a few days to process from them to my bank account. So I'm going to refund in the order you guys paid and as soon as your payment hits my account.

I hope everyone understands and isn't mad, but honestly the risk of making people mad was MUCH less and will be much less of a headache than what it would have been if you guys drove out here and been disappointed in the wood. At least everyone has x dollars now that are "spent" and you can reallocate those to other things. :wsmile:

Again no one is more disappointed that I am but sometimes things just don't work out. :thumbs_do

In reference to this thread:
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=35288


The run to Youngsville from the Charlotte area for the walnut is happening.


Guys I hate to do it but I have to shut it down now. It takes PayPal 3-4 days to get the money into my bank account. So I'm at the point now of taking about $700 out of my bank account until PayPal catches up. So I really can't take any more "orders". I'm running out of buffer in my bank account. :wsmile:

MORE INFO PLEASE READ. I want to make sure everyone is aware of all info I/we get and we all have the same expectations of the wood. If anyone wants out now is the time I can simply issue a refund thru PayPal once it clears my account. Thanks to the person who forwarded me the info. I'll keep him anonymous until he says otherwise.

xxxx said:
I went to Youngsville on Saturday and picked up some of the walnut. Charlie is a very nice guy. Some of it is very good but some of the lumber is nearly useless. It appears as he collected he used different sawmills. In addition, this is not stacked by thickness etc. He allowed me to go through the stack and pick out all of the 8/4 an I was only able to find about 125 bf at this thickness. Most remaining is about 7/8 inch thick and a little at 5/4 thick. There are several with bark etc and it is totally random.
I have no way to handle it but there are several 4 x 4's that are about 16' long. If you can go with the group doing the pickup, it may be beneficial as Charlie is allowing people to pick anc choose as opposed to what the original e-mail suggests. He had individuals scheduled about every 2 hours on Saturday and Sunday so it is moving quick and I hate to see you get the bottom of the barrel, even at 0.50 per bf.

UPDATE please read.
I just got off the phone with Charlie. He wanted to make sure we are not thinking that we are "going to Home Depot" (as he put it) to buy wood. He said there are all kinds of widths, lengths and thicknesses of the wood and it's rough cut. He said he had a couple people come in the last couple of days and were disappointed cause it wasn't all "straight, milled lumber". I just wanted to relay that information so we all know that we are getting a great deal on rough cut lumber that will HAVE to be milled in order to get the use and beauty out of it. I don't think anyone here will have an issue with it at $ .50 a board foot but he wanted to make sure we all understood what it was and we didn't make the trip for nothing if we were looking for "Home Depot" boards.

I also confirmed with him for Thursday and have the address to where we are to meet him. We are a firm go. :wsmile:

Here is what I have so far. I'll update this post as more people get in on the deal.


Shamrock 200bf
PAID
Tarhead 200bf
PAID
Robb Parker 400bf
PAID
Pete M 100bf
PAID
thrytis 200bf
PAID
bwat 200bf
2slow 200bf
PAID
mquan01 300bf
PAID
OutaSquare 200bf
PAID
decible 300bf
PAID
MikeH 200bf
nutball 200bf
PAID

That's 2900 bf including mine!!!!!!! Nice, hope he's still got a lot.
:wsmile: Oh and my Yugo will haul it all. :crossedlips:

Seems that PayPal is the easiest way to do the funding. Just shoot me a PM and I will give you my address to send the money to. If I request it from you PayPal charges fees, so sending it to me as a gift is the least expensive way for both of us.
NOTE: Please also keep in mind that if you use a credit card to send the money thru PayPal they still charge fees. If you don't check the "buyer pays fees" they take the money out of my end. If you are paying out of your bank account they don't charge a fee to anyone.

As my profile states I am in Lincolnton (about 40 miles NW of Charlotte) The plan right now is to run up on Thursday for the wood. I'll be around all weekend for those of you who want to get it this weekend. After that we'll just coordinate a day for you to pick it up. I do work from home so I'm usually around so it should be easy. I also have a full shop here so if you would need to cut the boards down for your transportation needs everything is available to do that.


Just as a reminder that unless I/we can talk to Charlie we are just "picking from the pile" so we all "get what we get". I/we will make sure we are not getting rotted, useless boards but it will be what it is in the end. To that end, if I get there and it's all crap I'm not gonna pick any up and will give everyone their money back. I hate to even say that but you never know.


Thanks to thrytis for helping put all the other posts together and helping organize.


A shameless plug here at the end... I also raise bees. I have 1 lb. bottles of honey for sale for $5 each. So if any of you that are coming out to pick up are interested I'll have them available.


Honey.jpg

View image in gallery



Thanks

Dan
 

thrytis

New User
Eric
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Thanks for doing this!

For now do you just want the $0.50/bf and then give you cash for transportation cost when we pick the lumber up from you?
 

mxracer

New User
Dan
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Thanks for doing this!

For now do you just want the $0.50/bf and then give you cash for transportation cost when we pick the lumber up from you?

That would be fine, but don't go overboard guys, just a little to help with fuel is great.

Thanks
Dan
 

Outa Square

New User
Al
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Not that I need it but I would like 200bf if you have the room. I am in Newton so I am close. I just might need to cut them down to less than 10 ft for trip home.

If you don't have room, no worries. I appreciate your offer.

Al
 

mxracer

New User
Dan
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Al,

Plenty of room. I am taking my 22ft 9ton trailer. We can bring back the entire load he has left if we can get it. :wsmile:

Just PM me and we'll work it out.

Thanks
Dan

Not that I need it but I would like 200bf if you have the room. I am in Newton so I am close. I just might need to cut them down to less than 10 ft for trip home.

If you don't have room, no worries. I appreciate your offer.

Al
 

MikeH

New User
Mike
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

I would really like to get in on this. I'll have to let you know tomorrow.
 

2slow

New User
chris
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Thanks for making the pickup for us. I've never worked with walnut. Looking forward to it. This deal sounds almost to good to be true. :gar-Bi.
 

thrytis

New User
Eric
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Is there any way to speed up the process of sending money for a new paypal account? Both adding a new credit card and bank account requires transactions to show up on your account before you can confirm them, which they claim is 2-3 days.
 

thrytis

New User
Eric
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Is there any way to speed up the process of sending money for a new paypal account? Both adding a new credit card and bank account requires transactions to show up on your account before you can confirm them, which they claim is 2-3 days.

Apparently there is a way to speed up the process - just add a second credit card and you don't have to verify it. :roll: Payment sent.
 

bwat

New User
Bill
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Dan, pm sent. Thanks again for all your efforts and for the record, I hate Paypal customer service!
 

Tarhead

Mark
Corporate Member
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Dan,
Good seeing you yesterday and thanks again for doing this!
Eric (Thrytis) and I will plan to be there Friday morning. Let us know if ~8:00 - 8:30 is too early. We are both going to try to sneak in our real jobs Friday (don't tell our boss:gar-Bi) Sometimes a cellphone and a wireless card make life easy, most times they mean you work all the time.
 

mxracer

New User
Dan
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Hey Mark,

Yep 8-8:30 is good. I'm up and about by then. If you want to you can get on my wireless LAN here at the house and "work" :wsmile:

Dan
 

MikeH

New User
Mike
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Dan,
I'm in. I'm sending a PM so I can get your paypal info in order to send you the money.
 

thrytis

New User
Eric
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

FYI, if you haven't reread the first post for a while, Dan has added some more information. Changes to this post aren't sent out via thread subscription emails or show up by clicking the "new posts" button.
 

mxracer

New User
Dan
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Thanks Eric. I was just thinking that same thing and coming to say what you did. :wsmile:
 

2slow

New User
chris
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Well I’m still in. At .50 a BF I don’t expect it to be perfect.



Chris
 

bwat

New User
Bill
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Ditto, and thanks again for driving and coordinating. I would like to think the least we can do is cover all your expenses. I'll be happy to pay more than my share for your efforts & generosity. I'd like some of that local honey too! Will try to work out a weekend pickup visit.
 

mxracer

New User
Dan
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Check out the first post again if you are new to the thread. Unfortunately PayPal has a 3-4 day lag and I'm running out of buffer money in my bank account while they catch up. So I have to stop taking "orders" at this point.

Thanks
Dan
 

mxracer

New User
Dan
Re: Charlotte Walnut Run to Youngsville

Ditto, and thanks again for driving and coordinating. I would like to think the least we can do is cover all your expenses. I'll be happy to pay more than my share for your efforts & generosity. I'd like some of that local honey too! Will try to work out a weekend pickup visit.

Glad I can help Bill. I've reaped some benefits from being a member here so I hope I'm paying back some.

The honey will be waiting. :gar-Bi
 
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