Smokeless coal, buy NOW

Andrea15

I have just had a pallet of the stuff delivered (1 ton). It turns out that HomeBargain still has last spring's prices, i.e. £4 per 10 kg bag (found out by accident and bought it immediately)
Next cheapest was a local coal merchant at £4.40 per 10 Kg.
Range is selling the same as HB, but now at £6.50!!! (it used to be 4 until a few weeks ago). B&M still doesn't have it, but I bet the price will have gone up. Any other seller was already much more expensive, so, shop NOW.

henry24

Is that only in store as online it's £250 for 490kg which if my maths is correct works out at £5.10 or £25.51 for 50kg while my coalman is £22 for 50kg tipped into my coal bunker so no carrying 

Andrea15

It was online. Has the price gone up already? I got 2 490 kg pallets for £400.

EDIT:
Unbelievable; it HAS gone up. I suspect it was a mistake on their part to get the price the same as last April.

Still, shop NOW. The local coal merchant (selling now at £11 per 25 kg bag) said that his prices would go up again in the next few weeks to about £15-16 per bag. At the time I thought he was applying some kind of hard sale tactic, but when I saw Range selling the Brazier at £6.50 (10 kg)...

henry24

Last winter I bought a ton online for something like £300 or £15 for 50kg this time it's £24.80 but my coal man is £22 so I've filled up from him but he's saying that it could be an extra £4 for 50kg when he gets his next delivery. Will it keep going up ? If so is it worth buying now for next year?

Section62

Andrea15 said:

Has the price gone up already?

I saw your post and checked at about 11pm on the 4th and 49x10kgs were already up to £249.99.

I figured they had made an error and subsequently corrected it.

We'd normally get a tonne of loose from the local coal merchant when they have their summer prices.  This year they said they wouldn't do a summer price, but would hold the price from January as long as they could. They expected a price increase in August, followed by another in October/November.

So we got a tonne loose, and an extra tonne prebagged (now stacked in the garden) as whilst the prebagged price was slightly more than loose, there's a good chance it is going to be a lot less than the price when we'd normally re-order around December time.

Two tonnes will keep us going until summer 2023 at least.

Andrea15

henry24 said:

Last winter I bought a ton online for something like £300 or £15 for 50kg this time it's £24.80 but my coal man is £22 so I've filled up from him but he's saying that it could be an extra £4 for 50kg when he gets his next delivery. Will it keep going up ? If so is it worth buying now for next year?

I almost wish I had bought another ton, but I would have room to store it, unless I fill up the garden. If it wasn't so awkward to move it is almost worth it...
Shame that the coal shed was demolished a long time ago. 

Andrea15

I do wonder, is there a coal merchant cartel or something? How can they all have the same prices?

henry24

You could be right they all get together every 6 weeks to fix the price and so nobody recognise them they all wear white suits and gloves 

Section62

Andrea15 said:

I do wonder, is there a coal merchant cartel or something? How can they all have the same prices?

Roughly the same reason why the big supermarkets all charge £1.40 for a single tin of Heinz soup... except for the tins on offer at around £1 per tin.

The supplier sets the wholesale price, the retailers adjust their margin to make a profit, knowing if they price too high their customers will go to a different retailer or stop buying altogether.  Some can charge a bit more if their circumstances allow it (e.g. remoter locations)

The manufactured smokeless fuels are a product just like any other.

Andrea15

Yes, but I do wonder how much of these increases is real and how much is manufactured. Now we seem to be in a spiral where everyone is expecting a HUGE increase in price, so the manufacturer/retailer simply meet such expectation.

A._Badger

In May (after some dithering) I ordered a metric ton of Stovemaster smokeless from Houseful and paid £420. I've just checked and it is now £520. It isn't their cheapest smokeless but it's the one from which I get best results. Currently, their cheapest smokeless appears to be £480, give or take a penny, for a tonne. I hate to think what CPL (the only coal merchant left in this area) is charging for what is the same stuff in a differently printed bag.

My impression is that the manufacturers have been watching the price of gas and electricity and have been pricing sold fuel against it. Even allowing for increasing costs, I very much doubt such a price rise can be due to anything but the manufacturers (not the retailers, like Housefuel) taking advantage of the situation.