good coal, better coal

Hi; I pay extra for "premium" coal, from an above mentioned dealer. He tells me that the coal is analyzed by a lab at Penn State and has high BTU content. I suppose that I'm taking his word for it, as I've never seen this analysis. Comparison is a little difficult, as there are many varients. A coal that burns great for me may very well not be acceptable for someone else. We would have to consider stove make, location, weather and other stuff that I'm shure to have missed. In my 28 to 30 years of burning, I have only used two sources. In that time, for one season only, I used coal from Mocanaqua Pa. That turned into a learning experience for me. Ash and clinkers, lots of slate, and above all, while it did burn there was noticeably less heat output. I was happy to burn the last of it and immediatly went back to my normal dealer for the following years supply. At that time I had a 3/4 ton truck and did my own hauling. Now I have it delivered. And I use P. Chervy out of Plymouth Pa.

Smitty I did the same thing except I went in for 24 tons, took delivery June 9th. I ended up paying $260/ton delivered and am about 260 miles from Blaschak bagging. I broke down 3 skids, one went into boiler shed, and the other 2 got re-distributed on top of other skids. I then covered all with tarps individually, trying to keep the sun from degrading the poly bags.

In breaking down 3 skids I think I have had maybe 4 bag tears on the cut end, not a big deal to me since I burn for hot water in summer. I am just shy of a 4 yr supply as well, sure is a good feeling!!

Wow, 880 bags! Where do you store all of that?? Must have been well over 5 grand. 3 years worth? Is coal about to shoot up? Am I missing something? Should I be worried?

I just got a considerable discount ($20/ton) with the bulk load and wanted to get in before diesel went further north. Its actually 1200 bags (but who's counting). I just stacked it behind my shed, 18 skids total (minus the 2 I broke down). The best I could get via tri-axle was $210/ton, so I sprung for the convenience of bagged. Sometime between now & then I will probably construct a large outdoor bin. I'm sure I could look around on the forum and get pricing for the last 4 yrs @ roughly 260 miles from NEPA, but the way our govt is printing $ and the supply of oil is not keeping pace with demand I figure its a no brainier. On the other hand, had I bought gold in June instead of coal I might be better off now, but I can't burn gold. I like hedging against inflation with commodities people actually consume.