VARDAMAN VIRTUAL FORESTRY COMPANY

The Most Direct Link to Knowledge Workers in the Southeast Forest Economy

Our guarantee of the number of trees by DBH classes in sawtimber sales has produced another big winner, and this time there is additional evidence on why it works.

Our client, Mr. Green (not his real name), without providing any information on tree sizes or volumes, asked for bids on his 65-acre tract from timber buyers known to him and received three bids:

TBA indicated that he would also pay Mr. Green for any volume cut over his estimate, but he did not states how any possible overcut would be determined.

Still convinced that his timber was worth more, Mr. Green brought the offer to our district manager and asked if JMV&CO would conduct a sale according to our usual procedure, provided that JMV&CO did not earn anything until Green's net proceeds reached $111,000. We agreed to do so, marked and measured each sawtimber tree with a steel tape, sent out 155 invitations to bid, each containing our guarantee, and received the following eight bids:

Timber Buyer A, who did not bid in the JMV&CO sale, later called our manager to discuss the results. He confirmed that his offer to Green was $111,000. He explained that, when the seller furnished no reliable information, he could not afford to make a 100% count of the trees and was forced to bid on the basis of a sample estimate even though he knew how wrong it could be. He said that, as a result of the JMV&CO guarantee, he could pay $121,000. (Our guarantee would have helped Mr. Green even at this price; after paying our fee, his net would have been $111,804.) TBA confirmed that Timber Buyer B's original bid had been $109,100 and pointed out that our guarantee must have enabled TBB to increase it's bid by more than $20,000.

The big winner in this operation was Mr. Green. After paying our commission of 7.6%, he netted $40,311 more than he would have received by his own efforts.

The main lesson in this, however, is the value of the guarantee. Many foresters seek to sell timber for landowners, and a few are willing to measure 100% of the trees to be sold. But if you want to produce results like Mr. Green's, INSIST ON THE GUARANTEE AND CALL JMV&CO.