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Buying & selling cord wood has been a problem forever. Going all the way back to the '70s when my family used to buy and sell some, and before. One man's pickup load is another man's "cord" and rarely do the two measure up. The dispute usually starts with the length of the pieces.
Ideally they should be 16", and most cutters/sellers want to peddle 18-20" wood. They then claim their trailer/pickup etc holds 128 CuFt. And the debate ensues.
This problem existed long before Craigslist, and even before the days of The Nickel ads.
We finally put T-Posts in the ground 8' apart and strung a wire between them, up 4' from the ground, which when full, is a "Rick." 3 Ricks of 16" wood makes a cord.
We'd tell the sellers to "fill-er-up," and when their load wouldn't fill all 3 Ricks, we'd renegotiate the price or tell them to put it back in their pickup/trailer etc.
The bum sellers quit bringing short loads or stopped trying to sell to us altogether.
But it was the only way to be truly compliant with the state's definition of a "cord" of wood.
Yup, back when I was trying to earn a little cash while unemployed - about 40 years ago - that was pretty much the case. One reseller made use stack it and then we would get paid for how much there was in those ricks. Opened my eyes - we didn't intentionally short sell - after all we were selling it for $40 a 'cord' when others were selling for twice that. But most of the time we were selling out of a long bed pickup, which was filled well over the top of the bed, and still was not a cord.
Today I have a flatbed that is 8x12' with an 18" stake sides. When I throw wood in it looks like more than it is until I go to stack it. I hate stacking wood - it is bad enough having to cut it and put it in the truck.