Is this wood a good deal?

I was in Woodcraft the other day and picked up a couple of their pieces of cutoffs for use in my puzzles. We can usually use wood that others cannot due to the fact that our basic building block is a 3/4″ cube.

After I got home I got to thinking and measured the piece of walnut I picked up (5 X 11 X 3 1/4) and then computed the price per board foot that I had just paid. Turns out to be about $9.20. That seemed high to me, somehow didn’t seem like quite the bargain that I thought it was.

Now, mind you, I’ve not actually looked up the price of walnut, and didn’t really have a way to do that in the store, but it did spark a couple of thoughts.

* Would I have thought this was the same bargain if it had looked like a “normal” piece of wood? You know, a plank instead of a chunk. Does the chunk just look more impressive so it seems like there’s more wood there?

* If I were a developer for the iPhone (which will never happen, but that’s a different topic for a different aspect of my life) I might see the opportunity for an app. Enter measurements, compute board feet, do a local search for wood of the same size/type, see if it really is a bargain.

I’m not sure how many woodworkers have smart phones or would be interested in an app like that, but it does seem like it could be useful.