I live in a town that is so small there isn't even a "slow down" sign at the village limits. We do have a very small lumber yard. I ordered 6 ea. 1"X10"X10' CLEAR red cedar. When I ordered I told them up front I intended to keep the 3 best boards and return the remaining boards. They were fine with that. When the boards arrived the quality was so good I keep all of them. I have now purchased 18 total boards through this lumber yard and the quality has been excellent on all of them. The cost is $42/bd. or $4.20/ft.
Getting boards custom cut is probably not going to happen and if it does the cost would be astronautical. The board yield per tree is much less not including special set up and handling costs. To get a custom cut board I think one would have to buy a largeer piece of timber and cut it to spec.
I have tried the "pick and sort" routine at the local big box stores. As the man said, it has to be done ever 2-3 weeks and lucky if you get 3-4 worthwhile boards. That would equal approx. 50 "searching hours" per year !! My time is way more important to me than that. I could build at least 1/2 a kayak in that time :)