You’re looking at a picture of a cord of wood on a Craigslist ad or a local Facebook marketplace post. It looks huge. It’s stacked up high against a fence, the logs are clean, and the price seems like a total steal. You click buy. Then the truck shows up, dumps a pile in your driveway that looks about half the size of the photo, and suddenly you’re wondering if you just got scammed or if your eyes are playing tricks on you.
Honestly? It’s usually a bit of both.
Wood is one of the few things we still buy in bulk that is remarkably easy to fake. Unlike a gallon of milk or a pound of ground beef, a "cord" is a volumetric measurement that depends entirely on how tightly those logs are squeezed together. If you don't know exactly what 128 cubic feet looks like in a 2D image, you're basically guessing. Most people think they're looking at a full cord when, in reality, they're looking at a "face cord" or just a random pile of brush.
What a Real Cord Actually Looks Like
Let's get the math out of the way first because it’s the only way to protect your wallet. A standard cord of firewood is a stack that measures 4 feet wide, 4 feet high, and 8 feet long. That’s the "official" number. But here is the kicker: that measurement includes the air between the logs.
If you see a picture of a cord of wood where the logs are tossed in a chaotic heap—what the industry calls a "loose cord"—it actually needs to occupy about 180 cubic feet to equal that 128-cubic-foot stacked measurement. Air takes up space. A lot of it.
I’ve seen guys take a photo of a wood pile from a low angle, using a "forced perspective" trick. It’s the same thing fishermen do when they hold a trout far out in front of their bodies to make it look like a monster. If the camera is low to the ground and close to the stack, a face cord (which is only one-third of a full cord) can easily pass for a full cord to an untrained eye.
🔗 Read more: Curtain Bangs on Fine Hair: Why Yours Probably Look Flat and How to Fix It
The Face Cord Trap
This is the most common point of confusion in the firewood world. A face cord is 4 feet high and 8 feet long, but it is only as deep as a single log—usually 16 inches.
When you see a photo online, you often can't see the depth. You see a beautiful wall of oak or ash. It looks massive. But if that wall is only one log thick, you are getting 33% of a full cord. If the seller didn't explicitly say "full cord," they aren't technically lying, but they are definitely banking on your ignorance.
The Visual Anatomy of a Quality Wood Pile
When you are scrolling through listings, don't just look at the size. Look at the details. A high-quality picture of a cord of wood tells a story about how that wood is going to burn in your fireplace or stove.
Look at the ends of the logs. Are they dark, cracked, and "checked"? That’s a good sign. Checking happens when the moisture leaves the wood and the ends begin to split. If the wood in the photo looks bright, creamy, and smooth on the ends, it’s "green." It’s heavy. It’s full of water. If you try to burn that stuff, it’s going to hiss at you, produce zero heat, and coat your chimney in dangerous creosote.
Seasoned wood usually looks gray or weathered. It’s not "pretty" in a traditional sense, but it’s what you want.
💡 You might also like: Bates Nut Farm Woods Valley Road Valley Center CA: Why Everyone Still Goes After 100 Years
Species Matter More Than Volume
A cord of oak will produce roughly 24 to 28 million BTUs of heat. A cord of white pine? Maybe 14 million.
If you see a photo of a perfectly stacked cord of wood but the bark is thick and furrowed like a cottonwood tree, you’re buying "fast-burn" wood. It’ll be gone in an hour. You want to see the tight, flaky bark of a hickory or the signature "ski tracks" of Northern Red Oak.
Experienced wood burners can identify a wood species from a grainy smartphone photo just by the color of the heartwood. Black Walnut has that deep chocolate center. Black Cherry has a reddish hue. If the photo shows a mix of everything, it’s "campground wood." It’s fine for a Saturday night fire pit, but it’s a nightmare for heating a home because you’ll be adjusting your dampers every twenty minutes.
How to Verify the Photo Before You Pay
Don't be afraid to ask for a reference point. A picture of a cord of wood is useless without scale.
- Ask the seller to lean a standard 5-gallon bucket against the stack.
- Ask for a photo taken from the side, showing how many "ranks" deep the wood goes.
- If the wood is in a truck bed, know your truck sizes. A standard 8-foot pickup bed filled to the top of the rails is only about a half-cord. If someone tells you there’s a full cord in their Ford F-150, they are either lying or they have some seriously illegal sideboards bolted onto that truck.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (and many other state agencies like it) actually has strict rules about how firewood is sold. In many states, it is actually illegal to sell wood by the "truckload" or "face cord"—it must be sold by the cord or fractions of a cord. If a seller gets defensive when you ask for dimensions, walk away.
📖 Related: Why T. Pepin’s Hospitality Centre Still Dominates the Tampa Event Scene
The "Art" of the Stack
There’s a reason people love looking at photos of woodpiles. It’s primal. It represents security and warmth for the winter. There’s even a famous book by Lars Mytting called Norwegian Wood that spends an incredible amount of time discussing the personality of the wood stacker.
A "Holzhausen" or "wood house" is a circular stack that looks like a beehive. These photos often go viral on Pinterest because they look like art. Practically, they are designed to let air flow through the center to dry the wood faster. If you see a picture of a cord of wood stacked this way, you are likely dealing with a pro who cares about the seasoning process.
On the other hand, if the stack in the photo is leaning, touching the ground directly, or covered in a blue tarp that goes all the way to the floor, be careful. Wood needs to breathe. A tarp that covers the sides traps ground moisture, essentially steaming the wood and inviting rot and insects. You want to see a "hat, not a coat"—a cover only on the top.
The True Cost of a Cheap Cord
You’ll see ads for $150 cords. Then you’ll see ads for $450 cords.
The $150 "cord" in the photo is almost always unseasoned, unsplit, or simply not a full cord. By the time you factor in the lower heat output of wet wood and the fact that you’re likely getting 80 cubic feet instead of 128, that "cheap" wood is actually more expensive per BTU than the premium stuff.
Actionable Steps for Buying From a Photo
If you are ready to pull the trigger on a wood delivery based on a photo you saw online, do these three things immediately:
- Demand a "Scaled" Image: Ask the seller to take a new photo with a tape measure extended to 4 feet against the stack. This proves the photo wasn't pulled from Google Images and confirms the height.
- Check the Ground: Look at the bottom of the stack in the photo. If the wood is sitting directly on dirt, the bottom layer is likely rotted or full of termites. Professional wood is stacked on pallets or "stringers" (scrap wood runners) to keep it off the wet earth.
- Calculate the Volume Yourself: When the truck arrives, do not let them dump it until you've measured the bed. If the bed is 4x4x8, it’s a cord. If it’s a 6-foot bed, it isn't. Period.
Wood is a heavy, honest commodity. A real picture of a cord of wood shouldn't look like a staged real estate photo. It should look like work. It should show clean splits, greyed ends, and a stack that is level and sturdy. If the photo looks too good to be true, or if the scale is intentionally obscured, your fireplace—and your wallet—will pay the price.