Common rough petrified wood is worth about $1-10 a pound as of late 2026. Arizona "rainbow" wood, the colorful material sold around Holbrook, is offered at roughly $5-15 a pound in rough pieces, and plain brown and gray wood from other states sells for less, often a dollar or two a pound when it sells at all. Cut and polished, the price rises with size and color: small polished slabs and rounds of 5 to 10 inches sell for about $20-150, a 7.8 by 5.5 inch polished Arizona slab sold at Heritage for $375 in December 2025, and large polished Arizona slabs with strong color have sold there for $5,250 (a roughly 28 inch piece, 2023) and $8,125 (December 2025).
Petrified wood is widespread, and that keeps most of it cheap. What a piece is worth comes down to color, how well the wood structure shows, whether it is solid or full of cracks, how big it is and how much work has been done on it. Where it was collected also matters, legally as well as in price, because taking it from national parks is a crime and taking it from other federal land has limits.
Quick answer
- Common rough wood: about $1-10 a pound. Colorful Arizona rough: roughly $5-15 a pound in smaller lots.
- Polished slabs, rounds and bookends, 4 to 10 inches: about $20-150; fine color and detail more.
- Large polished slabs, rounds and tabletops: $1,000-8,000+, with Heritage sales at $5,250 and $8,125.
- On Bureau of Land Management land you may collect 25 pounds plus one piece a day, 250 pounds a year, for personal use only. Collecting in national parks is illegal.
How to identify and value petrified wood, step by step
- Look for wood structure. Petrified wood keeps the shape of the tree: growth rings on the end, straight grain along the length, bark texture on the outside, knots and branch scars. Under a 10x loupe, good pieces show the tiny cell structure. A rock that only looks a bit like wood, with no rings or grain, is usually just a rock.
- Feel the weight. Petrified wood is stone, mostly quartz, and weighs about two and a half times as much as water. A piece the size of a brick weighs about as much as a brick. Light, woody pieces are not petrified; they may be lignite, a soft coal, or simply old wood.
- Test the hardness. Most petrified wood is silicified and will scratch glass. A steel knife does not scratch it. Pieces that a knife scratches easily, or that crumble, may be calcite-replaced wood or a poorly preserved specimen, worth less.
- Check the breaks. Silicified wood breaks with sharp, glassy, curved edges where the quartz breaks across the grain, and splinters along the grain where it breaks lengthwise.
- Read the color. Gray, brown and tan are the most common colors and the least valuable. Red, yellow, orange, purple and black together, as in Arizona's Chinle Formation wood, are the rainbow colors that collectors pay for. Blue and green are uncommon. Opalized wood, such as some from Virgin Valley in Nevada, can show play of color and is a separate, higher market.
- Look at quality. A solid piece without cracks, voids or crumbly zones polishes well. Bright colors that run through the piece, clean rings and visible bark add value. Many large logs are full of cracks and fall apart when cut.
- Decide what it is: rough, slab, round, bookends or log. Rough sells by the pound. Slabs and rounds sell by size, color and finish. Bookends and spheres sell as decor. Whole logs and stumps over 100 pounds sell by the piece, mostly to landscapers and designers.
- Know where it came from. A piece from a known locality, such as Arizona's Chinle, Washington's Ginkgo area, Oregon, Wyoming or Indonesia, is easier to sell, and a source that was legal to collect is essential.
What petrified wood sells for
Prices are typical sold and dealer figures as of late 2026. Rock shop asking prices vary widely; online asking prices for rough often run above what pieces actually sell for.
| Petrified wood | Form and size | Typical price, as of late 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Plain gray, brown or tan rough | Any size | About $1-3 per pound; often unsold |
| Arizona rainbow rough, smaller lots | 1 to 5 pounds | Roughly $5-15 per pound |
| Arizona rainbow rough, fine color, single specimen | 5 to 20 pounds | About $10-40 per pound |
| Tumbled pieces | Under 1.5 inches | About $1-3 each |
| Small polished slab or round | 4 to 7 inches | About $20-80 |
| Polished slab or round, good color | 7 to 12 inches | About $80-400 |
| Bookends, polished | Pair, 4 to 6 inches | About $40-150 |
| Large polished round, strong color | 18 to 30 inches | About $1,000-8,000+ |
| Uncut logs and stumps | Over 100 pounds | Sold by the piece; often $1-5 per pound |
| Opalized wood with play of color | Small slabs | Higher; sales are thin and vary greatly |
| Indonesian or Madagascar polished pieces | Tabletop or stool | Several hundred to a few thousand dollars at retail |
Most petrified wood people find or inherit is gray or brown rough, and a box of it is worth a few dollars a pound or less, because the material is abundant across the American West. Polishing changes the picture: a good 8 inch Arizona slab with red, yellow and black can bring $100-300, and a 7.8 by 5.5 inch polished slab sold at Heritage for $375. The four-figure prices belong to large, cut, polished slabs and rounds with strong color, such as an Araucarioxylon arizonicum slab that sold for $8,125 and a roughly 28 inch slab that sold for $5,250.
A worked example
Say you inherit a box from a grandparent who rockhounded in Wyoming in the 1970s. It holds about 30 pounds of gray and tan chunks with visible grain and a few pieces of bark texture, plus one cut and polished slab about 6 inches across with brown and amber rings. The rough is real petrified wood, but plain in color, and is worth roughly $1-3 a pound, so $30-90 for the box if a buyer wants it. The polished slab, with good rings but no bright color, is worth about $20-50. Had the box held Arizona rainbow wood with reds and yellows, the rough would be worth several times as much, and the slab maybe $60-150.
What moves the price
| Factor | Effect on price |
|---|---|
| Strong mixed color (red, yellow, orange, purple, black) | Several times plain gray or brown |
| Clear growth rings and cell detail | Adds 20-100 percent |
| Bark preserved on a round's edge | Adds value; buyers seek it |
| Solid with no cracks or voids | Required for the top prices |
| Cracks, voids, crumbly sections | Deduction of 30-80 percent |
| High polish on a cut face | Moves rough into slab and round pricing |
| Crystal-lined hollows (quartz or amethyst) | Adds interest and value |
| Large size, cut and polished | Rises far faster than weight |
| Opalized with play of color | Separate, higher market |
| Collected illegally (national park, no permit) | No legal value; cannot be sold |
Legal notes on collecting
Collecting petrified wood is legal in some places and illegal in others, and the rules are specific.
- National parks and monuments: Taking anything, including petrified wood, is illegal. Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona fines people who remove wood, even small pieces. Shops outside the park, around Holbrook, sell wood collected from private land, and that wood is legal to buy and sell.
- Bureau of Land Management land: Under federal rules, you may collect up to 25 pounds plus one piece of petrified wood per day, with a limit of 250 pounds per person per year, for personal, non-commercial use, unless a local office has posted closures. You may not sell or trade wood collected this way, and you may not pool quotas with others to remove a larger piece. Pieces over 250 pounds need a special permit, which is issued only for public display in a museum or similar institution.
- National forests: Rules vary by forest and district; ask the local ranger district before collecting.
- State land and state parks: Rules vary by state; many state parks forbid collecting, and state trust land in some states requires a permit.
- Private land: Petrified wood belongs to the landowner. With permission you can collect it, and private ranches and fee-dig sites are where most commercial wood comes from.
If you plan to sell, keep a note of where and when a piece was collected. A buyer will ask.
How WorthPic reads petrified wood photos
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. From photos of the piece, it reads the growth rings, grain and bark texture to confirm wood structure, judges color, polish and whether cracks and voids run through it, and suggests a likely source from color and pattern, such as Arizona's Chinle wood. It then gives an honest value range for what the photos show, per pound for rough and per piece for slabs and rounds. It cannot know the weight, the hardness, where the piece was collected or whether it is legally sellable, and it cannot see cracks hidden inside. It identifies and estimates. It does not authenticate, grade or appraise. For a large round or a collection of fine slabs, a rock and mineral dealer or a natural history auction house is the right next step.
Common mistakes
- Assuming all petrified wood is valuable. Gray and brown rough is common and inexpensive.
- Pricing rough from per pound asking prices for small fine lots. Bulk plain wood sells for far less.
- Paying to have a cracked log cut. Many fall apart on the saw.
- Taking wood from national parks or monuments, or selling wood collected under the BLM personal-use rule.
- Confusing coal, lignite, or dried driftwood with petrified wood. Real petrified wood is heavy and scratches glass.
- Coating a piece in varnish or oil to make it shine. A proper polish is what buyers pay for.
- Forgetting shipping. Rough wood is heavy, and shipping often costs more than the wood.
What to photograph
- The whole piece with a ruler or tape measure for scale.
- The end grain or cut face, sharp enough to see rings.
- Any bark surface and side grain.
- Any cracks, voids or repairs.
- For slabs and rounds, both faces and the edge.
- The weight on a scale for rough or large pieces.
- Any label, collection note or receipt showing where it came from.
When to get it looked at in person
Rough wood and small slabs do not need an expert opinion; a rock shop near you can tell you in a minute whether it is the plain or the colorful kind. A local rock and mineral club is the best first stop for questions about locality, and its members often trade and buy. For a large polished round or tabletop, or a collection of fine Arizona slabs, contact a mineral and fossil dealer who handles large pieces, or a natural history auction house such as Heritage, and bring the collection history. If the wood came with other finds, our guides to agate value, how to identify valuable rocks and arrowhead value cover what else turns up in a rockhound's box.