How much would you charge (Update)

[sussexgal]

Thank you everyone. We live on the south side of nowhere.... This guy just wants to set them up in his front yard and give his children the experience of selling some trees at Christmas - something he did when he was a kid with his Dad. I'm not worried about the stumps - but thanks for the heads up. This is around a 30 acre planting of white spruce and he'll actually be doing me a favor by thinning some of them out. So thank you for reminding me about the clear cut - select cutting is better for thinning. The stumps will rot and be long gone by the time anything is done with the acreage. He only wants to harvest about 25 trees tops - 12 to start and then another 10 or so if the first batch sells..... lots of folks around here just go 'acquire' one in the state land - so he may not be back after the first cutting. Your ideas give me a starting point.... thank you.

 

[redoak]

I'd start at $10 a tree. He sounds honest and he'll have some work in the trees and there is no guarentee that he will sell them. So if he's paying up front $10 a tree that sounds very fair to me. Plus you don't have any time invested in yearly prunnings.

 

[can you hear me now?]

Well from my experience living in NW Indiana most of my life, trees up there cost around 40 or up. Now here in Lebanon MO you can find douglas firs for bout 25 or so. It just depends where you are at.

 

[sussexgal]

Quote:
That's what I was thinking.... okay, I'll ask 10 and see if he bites or not. Thanks again.

 

[BethinIrving]

Here are the basics for wholesale, which is what you are trying to do.

He has told you he will sell the trees for $20, so that gives you a base to build from on your figures.

You divide his figure by 3, and that figure is the fair price for each of your trees.

My Mother could never understand those basics and she nearly wrecked my business with her ideas of "what things were worth".

After paying for the trees, your customer still will have investments to make such as paying rental and electric for his sales, and his time cutting, removing and trimming the trees. When he sells the trees, 1/3 of the $20 went to you, 1/3 of the money went to his expenses, and the last 1/3 goes to him. Remember, he's the guy investing the money and the time and the effort. You've got the trees.

He sounds like a good business man to me, and a fair one as well. The price he will be offering the public is very fair and very helpful in this horrible economic crunch we all are experiencing.

On big lot amounts, I've also sold for 1/4 insted of 1/3 and made money.

 

[sussexgal]

The gentleman took a walk around of the tree planting yesterday and then came to talk to me. We have settled on a price of 6$ per tree. He is looking to harvest 5-7 ft trees. Taking everyone's input into account plus the fact that this is a very economically depressed area, 6$ seemed on the low side of fair. He was very happy - said he was hoping I'd say no more than 7$. I laughed.... not much of a negotiator here... so, that's that. He is going to cut one for me while he's out there. Bonus! Saves me having to waddle thru a meadow of snow

And he knows not to clear a patch of trees but to select cut so as to thin the stand.

Thank you again everyone! The people on this forum are awesome