VARDAMAN VIRTUAL FORESTRY COMPANY

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

The preceding article illustrates the value of competition for a uniform stand. A couple of weeks later we sold a variable natural stand that illustrates the value of certainty.

Mr. Danforth (not his real name) was approached by timber buyers who made him offers from $75,000 to $112,000, the latter from Major Company D. We looked over his tract and told him we could find no evidence of each tree having been counted. The flagging in the woods was typical of sample-cruising. We told him we suspected we could get much more for the timber, but we charged 6.4% of the sale to make a 100% measurement of the pine timber trees and guarantee the tree count. Although Mr. Danforth runs several of his own businesses, is smart and well-to-do, he admitted he didn t know what he was doing in the timber business, and felt rather uncomfortable about it. He told us to proceed.

After mailing 112 prospectuses, each with our written guarantee of the number of sawtimber trees by diameter classes, we received the following lump-sum offers:

Sawmill A $158,530.95

Timber Dealer B $133,106.00

Timber Dealer C $129,850.00

Major Company D no bid

After paying our commission of 6.4%, Mr. Danforth netted $148,385, which is $36,385 or 32% more than he might have received in a venture outside his field of expertise. Mr. Danforth s previous offers were no doubt discounted because the potential buyers were forced to compensate for possible error in their sample estimates.

If you don t think you can compete with a timber buyer in his own business, let us measure each timber tree for you and demonstrate the value of certainty. The more confidence we instill in the buyers, the more certain you are to profit from our expertise.