Tractor supply anthracite coal on clearance?

[Yuppiejr]

Might want to check your local Tractor Supply, I was visiting a local store with my wife yesterday to pick up chicken feed and when I asked about coal the manager said they were putting what they had left on clearance for $4.50 a bag.  He wasn't sure if this was simply because the bags they received earlier in the year had degraded after a summer of sitting outside, or a lack of demand overall... but I was able to score 28 x 40 pound bags of the Kimmel Nut Anthracite coal for a further discount to $2.25 a pop after agreeing to take everything he had left to get it out of inventory.  Half of the bags were pretty wet and torn so I planned on spreading it across my driveway for a bit to dry before transferring it to large bins for storage.

Comparing this with the Lehigh Anthracite Coal (also nut size) I'd purchased from a different TSC location earlier in the year, the Kimmel seems to include a lot of smaller bits and also crumbles & dusts more.  The Lehigh coal looks almost like obsidian and has a silver/black shimmer where it breaks (which requires a hammer), while the Kimmel is notably more dirty/crumbly with a brownish tint and more of a rainbow tone along facets where it breaks (which can be done by hand).  The Kimmel actually looks a lot more like the bituminous coal I purchased from the local guild coal pile than the Lehigh, will be interesting to see how it burns.

So yea, $63 bucks plus local sales tax for 1120 pounds of "bagged" anthracite coal, not a bad buy in this area.  Might want to check your local TSC stores to see if it's a national vs local clearance though.

 

     

[Michael Cochran]

Last time I went to my local store looking they had just wrapped the pallets and was in the process of moving them into a large storage container behind the store. I was told I could still buy some they'd just have to pull it out for me but I couldn't make someone go through all the effort required for just a couple bags. I'm looking forward to it coming back out so I can get some more.

[Yuppiejr]

I'm surprised how many random bits of wood and plastic I'm fishing out of this stuff, the bags that were in the center of the pallet are fine but the ones on the edges that were exposed to sun and rain pretty much disintegrate on contact.  I can see why they are clearing it out, what a handling nightmare of a whole pallet of this stuff would be if it broke down and spilled all over the place in their warehouse or yard.  If you don't mind doing a little bit of sifting before you throw it in your forge or small stove it burns just fine, it's not as noxious and smokey as the bituminous coal I compared it with.  If you heat your home I'd probably look elsewhere, for my purposes @ $2.25 a bag it's still the cheapest coal source in town by far.   The Lehigh bags are totally the opposite, mine have held up fine while exposed to sun and rain all summer, the contents is clean and consistent so far without any foreign inclusions like the Kimmel stuff.