It is not just the wood that cost that much. I live in the sticks and hard wood stores are quite a distance from me. Since i work out of the corner of my garage i have no room for other toys, such as sanders and planners. I use a local furniture maker who buys rough cut lumber, rips it and glues it back together and sands it. So there is labor cost built into the price, but i save in other ways. These are cut from 8/4 and typically my plaques are 17-18 inches tall or round and are all 3-d. I generally calculate it out to the square inch on how much I paid. It has been as low a 9 cents a square inch for cherry and as high as 24 cents for black walnut. And then there is always a little waste. My finished planks generally come in at 18-20 inches wide by 60 inches long and range from 1.7 to 1.9 inches thick.
There is one hard wood store not far from me. Obviously people buy his stuff or he would be out of business. The last time i was in there rough cut black walnut was 15 dollars a board foot and it was not the best wood. So i am not interested in buying his wood. And this was 4-5 years ago.
But for now its a mute issue since i think that she lost interest.
Not that it matters but here is a sample of my plaques