I typically end up going through most of a lift of 2x4s at Home Cheapo to pick out enough decent ones to do a project. I'm sure they hate me... But I'm not going to buy janky twisted, bowed, knot and rot-filled lumber, especially for anything structural. Especially not at what they charge.

The flip side of that is that the sawmills will take absolutely garbage logs in and saw them out these days. My father has taken up logging again pretty much full-time since he retired (he loves cutting trees, but you can't do it as anything but a hobby unless you're fully mechanized these days), and he's just astounded at what they'll grade logs out as. Stuff he used to have trouble getting accepted as pulpwood they're taking as saw logs and sometimes even veneer.