Why is driftwood expensive?

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The justification for these high prices is the difficulty of collection, the cost of preparation and shipping, Covid delays, global warming, alien invasion, blah, blah, blah...

The reason for the high prices is the simple fact that enough people are willing to pay them...so money is there to be made.

I have (I believe) only one single solitary piece of paid-for driftwood; given to me as a gift. The rest is all stuff I have collected myself over the years, found while strolling along beaches or just driving down waterfront roads. My vehicles always contain an axe, a small bow saw, some rope, plastic wrap, rubber boots...all the paraphernalia required by the cheap-ass DIY driftwood collector. :)
 
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esoxlucius said:
Didn't Ted Bundy have all that type of stuff in his car too? :naughty:
Click to expand...

Serial killers can still be accomplished fishkeepers. :)

And I will admit that some of that gear can come in handy when gleaning material for my skull collection from road kills stumbled upon in my travels...:)
 
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Its illegal to collect driftwood in some areas. Wisconsin is one of the states that prohibits collection of driftwood in certain areas ?Some beaches have regulations on amount you can collect etc If everyone was allowed to collect you bet its all bonfire by college kids or burning man festival stuff bye bye years of making a perfect piece to the hobbyist for 20 min of fire at most beaches lol
 
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Canadian wood cheap? No way. Our house is very unusual. Without going ino details, the siding is a custom milled clear cedar tongue and groove board. The house was built in 19 61 and the second semi-detached guest building went in 10 years later. Over the past 12-15 years we have replaced almost all the siding for the second time. Our wood comes from Canada and is milled locally. The price in Canada may not have changed much, but I have to buy the wood in the states.

The siding is vertical and the house has vaulted ceilings, The boards at their longest are 14 or more ft. long and the short lengths are 8 ft. The wood used to cost us about $1.00-$3.5 a linear ft. over the first 35+ years. During Covid the price was over $9/ft. This settled back down closer to $7 once Trump's idiotic tariffs were removed.

One lost note re wood. Our house has a bunch of solid teak furniture. it was purchased in the early 60s. Today you need an armored truckload of money to buy real teak that is not just a veneer. Our vaulted ceilings are supported by huge exposed cedar beams. They are about 25 ft/ long and 4 x 11 inches. I am not sure they can even be replaced these days.

And I just went to get the recent prices and discovered a site has it back in stock:

Small 9" x 6-1/4" $9.99, Medium 12" x 4" $12.99, Medium/Large 10-3/4" x 7" $14.99 and Large 16-7/8" x 7" $16.99.

Now if one is doing a very big tank and heeds really big piece of wood for a centerpiece, that is another story. But when I have a pleco tank that is a 4 x 12 inch or a 36x18 inch footprint, I have a bunch of pieces of wood in it and my bet is added up it costs about the same as one big centerpiece in a larger tank does.

I need some mediun large and large pieces for my pleco breeding tanks. I am now in a very good mood. The prices above are very close to what they were charging before Covid. I am pretyy savvy about where things we put into out tanks originate and what it takes to acquire them all the way along the supply chain. Malaysian wood arrives in country by the the container load. We all know what happened in this regard this past year.
 
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