Well, I have never scored anything as wonderful as those two pallets of curly maple. If I did I would gloat about it.
Heck, I am going to gloat about it to my woodworking buddies at our monthly luncheon. I can almost guarantee none of them know anyone they have never met who has made such a score on wood.
There is custom milling company about 20 miles from me. This firm makes fancy doors, unbelievable trim for doors, crown molding, and other beautiful pieces of woodwork. They start with huge boards 2-3" thick and up to 12" wide.
Once a year they have a yard sale. As Charley said they cut off a couple of feet from both ends; sometimes more. Also they have pieces up to four feet long sometimes that were left from a job. They bundle this stuff up with shrink wrap with 4-5 pieces per bundle and sell it. Over the years I have bought curly maple, birdseye maple, mahogany, poplar, walnut and other species in cutoffs like I described.
I built jewelry boxes and turned many bowls and plates from that wood. Some of it was like 13/4 so you could get a pretty nice bowl out of it. I resawed lots of this wood to make jewelry boxes, humidors, tackle boxes etc. A number of my turning tool handles were turned from pieces of that wood.
I haven't been to their yard sale in quite a few years because I haven't seen it advertised in the paper but I still have a stack of their cutoffs that I periodically cut up into pieces for turning small bowls.
The best part of this endeavor aside from getting some primo timber was the prices. These bundles sold for $7.50 each. Never lost any money on that wood.