You mean the little coal pieces or the big ones? Because you can craft 4 little ones into a big one, and those provide WAY more gas than the 4 little ones do separately. From the massive bonfires I started using all the wood trash piles from base, TR-1 and TR-3, plus all the wood debris from all the wood gib piles and broken supply crates at base thrown into a wood chipper (along with a few unlucky mannequins), I ended up with several thousand gas, to where I needed to buy a large fuel tank just to store it all.
Viewing post in Cannot put gas cans in the cremator to refill them
So here is the actual value:
LARGE Coal Sell Price: 5
SMALL Coal Sell Price: 5
LARGE Coal Gas Volume: 32.1
SMALL Coal Gas Volume: 2
Each 1 Large Coal is made from 4 small coal.
Gas Can Store Price: 50
3 Large Coal = 96.3 Gas Volume or 0.963 Gas Cans minus the metal
12 Small Coal = 60 points or 1.2 Gas Cans WITH the metal
2 Gas Cans equals 1 scrap. 1 Shelf equals 1 Scrap. 1 Shelf equals 10 points. 1 Gas Can equals roughly 5 points in value or 3 if sold.
12 Small Coal approximate value: 64 points.
Gas Can Initial approximate value: 54
Gas Can minus metal or resale equals 50 points. 50 multiplied by .963 equals 48.15 or 48 points
3 Large Coal approximate value: 48
Approximate return increase: 33% or 12 points per 12 Small Coal.
Cost of item box has been omitted as over sufficient volume it becomes completely irrelevant.
If Small Coal or Large Coal prices have changed or if Gas Volume return has been adjusted this calculation will be outdated.