Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Inexpensive Mercury For Sale

Praxichys - 2-4-2014 at 11:17

Hey everybody. I have the cash to buy this flask of mercury from survivorjp, and I can split it up and ship it legally, which is something he is unwilling to do. However, before I blindly spend several thousand dollars, I would like to get an idea of the market for this stuff. So, if you want mercury:

Inside the continental USA it will arrive at any address as the liquid metal in a double-bagged poly bottle.

I cannot legally ship more than a pound at a time, so if you want more than 450g I will have to double-charge you shipping for every 450g quantity.

The price will be $0.25 USD per gram, in any quantity you choose, up to 250g.
The price will be $0.20 USD per gram, for any quantity greater than 250g and up to 450g.
The price will be $0.18 USD per gram, for any quantity greater then 450g.

In terms of pounds, that's:
$56.75 for a half pound
$90.80 for a pound
$81.72 per pound for more than one pound

Shipping will be about $12 regardless of where it is going. There is NO hazmat fee.

If you are outside the USA or not part of the continental USA, since it is now illegal to export elemental mercury from the USA, I can make it into a compound and ship that to you (it's not illegal to ship mercury compounds... yet), but it will cost $0.02 USD more per gram of mercury in the compound. It will be the sulfide, it will probably have excess sulfur, and you will have to figure out how to get it back yourself. I might also be able to send you an amalgam of aluminum. I am reading about that.

Shipping outside the USA will be quoted to you upon inquiry.

If you drive to Pontiac/Auburn Hills, Michigan No shipping charges apply. The pricing is the same and the packaging is free. I am also willing to trade for other useful reagents on pick-up deals only.

A friend of mine (and fellow chemical enthusiast) has agreed to loan me a few thousand dollars to make this happen, and he naturally expects a return on his investment. Let me know how much you want to purchase. If the investment looks worthwhile, I will purchase the flask and start taking "official" orders somewhere around the middle of May. Save your pennies!

Thank you.

-Prax

Steam - 2-4-2014 at 11:29

I would be interested in about a pound sometime in the future.

plante1999 - 2-4-2014 at 12:57

A pound of liquid mercury, but... Canada. So I will have to say I can't be counted as a possible buyer.

copperastic - 2-4-2014 at 13:45

I would do it but I spending money on something else.

Zephyr - 2-4-2014 at 14:15

I would jump at the chance to purchase a pound of mercury.
Please save a pound for me:D

numos - 2-4-2014 at 14:26

I would happily buy 50g of mercury, and would pay now if you had it.

DrAldehyde - 2-4-2014 at 14:46

I'll buy a pound, Paypal ok?

Zyklon-A - 2-4-2014 at 15:55

I might like 20-50 grams. I live in Dallas Tx.

macckone - 2-4-2014 at 16:38

I will take at least a pound.

neptunium - 2-4-2014 at 17:21

put me down for a pound right now ! and i am in Detroit!!! i`ll drive !

[Edited on 3-4-2014 by neptunium]

Muffn Man - 2-4-2014 at 18:54

Oops, I mistook "export" as meaning the same as shipping.

[Edited on 3-4-2014 by Muffn Man]

neptunium - 2-4-2014 at 19:16

what happened to Pontiac/Auburn Hills???

alive&kickin - 3-4-2014 at 07:45

I would be interested in 2 pounds.

sbbspartan - 3-4-2014 at 14:57

Put me down for 1 pound.

sbbspartan - 4-4-2014 at 11:05

Is there any chance that you can match the price of mercury from "Gallium Source", or even go a bit lower? They charge $98 for 450 grams of mercury, with free shipping...

http://www.amazon.com/GalliumSource-LLC-Liquid-Mercury-99-99...

Nasalguad - 6-4-2014 at 16:49

Possibly interested in a few hundred grams or so

Nasalguad - 6-4-2014 at 16:50

Is paypal accepted?

GoldGuy - 6-4-2014 at 21:40

Anybody in Toronto interested in mercury? I got a lot of mercury Im trying to sell myself but shipping it has been too much of a hassle to be worth it.

macckone - 27-4-2014 at 08:02

Is this deal still happening or did it fall through?

Zephyr - 27-4-2014 at 15:26

Quote: Originally posted by GoldGuy  
Anybody in Toronto interested in mercury? I got a lot of mercury Im trying to sell myself but shipping it has been too much of a hassle to be worth it.

I bought a dozen of GoldGuy's themometers and although it was a hassle to arrange shippment and payment, I was happy with the thermometers and would recommend him to others interested in mercury. The thermometers I broke all had between 1.17 and 1.32 grams of mercury in them. IIRC the price was $15 without shipping, and another $10 for the ground shipping.
The most troublesome part of this transaction was that we initially thought that the mercury could be shipped to the US. However I had to go to Canada to pick up the thermometers because of bans on the import of mercury.

macckone - 27-4-2014 at 18:40

I was actually referring to Praxichys as he was going to buy a full flask of mercury
for US only sale. I am not sure if he did or not. Hopefully he will respond to the
thread.

neptunium - 27-4-2014 at 19:42

can anyone get a response from Praxichys?
he/she never returned my U2U either
he did seem serious at first... what happend?

[Edited on 28-4-2014 by neptunium]

please let me purchase a pound

quantumchromodynamics - 27-4-2014 at 21:12

excellent, let me reserve an order please!

neptunium - 28-4-2014 at 21:07

didnt you read? .... he did not answer! nor respond to anyone thus far...no U2U either...
might be a scam..

plante1999 - 29-4-2014 at 02:42

I will try to contact him, I chat with him often, but I doubt it is some sort of scam, he might just be too much into Uni to take time to answer.

76lb flask of Mercury

survivorjp - 29-4-2014 at 04:42

HI, jimmy Here aka (survivorjp), I have been unable to contact him also, I am sure there is a legitimate reason. I still have this flask but have listed it on ebay under the scientific name of Hydrargyrum, I have no experience in handling this large amount and putting/transferring it into smaller safe containers for resale, I am sure I could make bank but I am not proficient or even slightly skilled at handling this stuff. Any way I just wanted you all to know this is not a scam it just has not materialized into action yet. thanks for your interest, Jimmy (USNavy 1965-71):cool:

Praxichys - 29-4-2014 at 04:55

Hi everyone. I apologize if the original post was misleading, but I was getting an idea about the market for the Hg before I spent $3000 on the flask from survivorjp.

As it turns out, I can make up for about half of that immediately as long as everyone who said they would order some is going to follow through.

The problem I am having is with the source of cash. I have gone through three people, each willing to go in for half, but each also backing out within a week... I am having trouble getting $3000 together that I won't miss until I can make up for it in Hg sales.

The handoff was scheduled for this weekend as I will be about 300 miles closer to survivorjp, visiting my girlfriend.

The only option I have at this point is to use the "bill me later" feature on PayPal and purchase it through Ebay, and just eat the fees for it. That would give me 24 months interest free to come up with the cash, a much better proposition.

So, Jimmy - can you drive to Oxford OH this weekend? If you can, U2U me with how much you want for delivery and I will make that as an offer on the Ebay listing, plus $3000 for the flask, and it will be paid for today assuming Bill Me Later grants me that much credit.

Regrads,

Praxichys

UPDATE: Looks like I have $2300 in "Bill Me Later" credit. I can just use my credit card for the rest. We have a green light on the deal if the handoff is made any time Friday after 7pm through Sunday before 5pm.



[Edited on 29-4-2014 by Praxichys]

Maybe I can help

quantumchromodynamics - 29-4-2014 at 09:22

Praxichys, in all seriousness, if you need an investor to help out the situation U2U me.

Praxichys - 29-4-2014 at 09:44

Thanks, Quantum. I will keep you in mind if Bill Me Later decides to flake out.

Mercury

survivorjp - 4-5-2014 at 11:04

Hey all, Just letting you know that Doug (Praxichys) is a great guy to deal with, I drove up from North Carolina and met him in Oxford Ohio, I delivered the 76 lbs of mercury. I think he will do very well and any of you guys looking for reasonable prices for this stuff will be pleased, he's a super nice guy. Thanks,:cool:Jimmy

Praxichys - 5-5-2014 at 04:29

Hi everyone,

The purchase of the flask from survivorjp was successful and that I am now officially packing and shipping orders.

In light of galliumsource listing a pound of mercury on Amazon.com for $98, I have decided to reduce my prices. A pound will cost $80, and shipping is still $12. Get it while it's hot!

If you wish to order less (or more) than a pound, see the first post in the thread above for pricing info.

If you are interested, shoot me a U2U and we can exchange shipping/payment info.

Praxichys

Praxichys - 15-5-2014 at 15:46

A whole bunch more orders leaving today! Thank you to everyone who ordered some Hg. This stuff is flying out the door.






(Ooh, I'm gonna get hate mail for that last pic.)

Mailinmypocket - 15-5-2014 at 15:57

Noooo that's a beautiful picture! I handle my 4lbs of mercury like that to show friends all the time- It hasn't made me go insane or have any cognitive dfficutlties yet but taht mhgit cahnge soon. Really awesome that you are doing this for the SM community by the way!

Zyklon-A - 15-5-2014 at 18:00

Quote: Originally posted by Mailinmypocket  
I handle my 4lbs of mercury like that to show friends all the time- It hasn't made me go insane...

Or so you think! JK

DrAldehyde - 22-5-2014 at 08:47

Got my 1# of Hg today, well packaged, promptly shipped, looks really shiny. Actually looks like more than I was expecting. Thanks Praxichys!

Zephyr - 22-5-2014 at 21:03

I received my pound of mercury yesterday, and was very happy with it.

Thank you, Praxichys.

Praxichys - 23-5-2014 at 04:55

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the great feedback. So far 17 orders have shipped. I was admittedly apprehensive about this whole thing but I am really glad I did it. I still have plenty left for those who want some!

Prax

alive&kickin - 23-5-2014 at 08:45

just a good word on this, got my 2 lbs, packaged good and spot on......thanks!

macckone - 23-5-2014 at 13:17

One more satisfied customer :)

Rogeryermaw - 5-6-2014 at 16:55

Came in today. Thank you prax!

Praxichys - 10-6-2014 at 06:02

Looks like Amazon pulled my listing. Oh well.

Amazon thinks 15-18% markup in fees is OK. To keep my prices low, THEY make more money than I do on the Hg. It's amazing that they get any sellers at all. As for shipping, FedEx takes it for $12 at the local office. FedEx through Amazon for the exact shipment? $16. I'm not going to buy from Amazon again unless I absolutely have to. "Fulfilled by Amazon?" more like "Stolen by Amazon."

I guess this works when you buy a crate of knockoff handbags from China for $1 each and mark them up 4000%. Amazon's 15% doesn't sound so bad then. But quality goods where the seller aims for 10% margin over cost? Forget it. Amazon's cut is going to drive the price for the item much too high to support a market for them, and sellers will take their business elsewhere.

In short, If you want poor-quality goods at insane markup, go to Amazon. It's the only market they can support.

It's a shame eBay won't list mercury.

[/rant]

nannah - 10-6-2014 at 11:22

I would maybe like to buy some. Notbut i wonder if you ship to the europe? If so, have your customers experienced any trouble with their orders over here, due to that some countries here in the EU have banned mercury.

Ps. Do you accept paypal?

[Edited on 10-6-2014 by nannah]

Praxichys - 10-6-2014 at 11:28

Hi nannah. Unfortunately, exporting Hg to Europe is illegal. The USA has an export ban in place. Sorry!

nannah - 10-6-2014 at 16:33

It´s ok, it was just an impuls i got. I havealways liked it, and so i figured i post and ask. :)

neptunium - 3-7-2014 at 05:46

got 4 lbs yesterday from Praxichys! nice guy smooth transaction good price ! well sealed no leaks.
highly recomanded! .... and very closed to me in Michigan! Thanks !

PHILOU Zrealone - 3-7-2014 at 06:29

I have bought lately 1kg mercury for 70€ (included taxes) here in Belgium.

Dr.Bob - 3-7-2014 at 09:40

I have had a terrible time with anything but books on Amazon, they change their rules and make nearly everything harder than they need to. And their fees are way high, they take a portion of every sale, then a fixed amount, then a cut of the shipping. But they are simpler than Ebay, but more fees. I have tried to sell beakers and flasks on their, but they restrict lab supplies to only "authorized sellers" which is nearly impossible to become. Same for many other items.

But I did not know that Ebay did not allow mercury to be listed, that is a new one. They are normally easier than Amazon for more unique items. There may be some way around that, I will have to look. But they are easy to sell glassware one, maybe you need to sell bottles there and say that for a small extra fee they can filled with liquid ballast.

Praxichys - 22-7-2014 at 09:48

Just relisted: http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=75909.0

Almost half gone... business is booming!

Manifest - 6-8-2014 at 11:05

I wish you the best of luck and a big vouch for Doug.

TheChemiKid - 7-8-2014 at 09:42

How much mercury do you have left?

Loptr - 7-8-2014 at 17:37

I just bought a pound of it. :)

mrTrifaziux - 19-8-2014 at 13:06

Too bad I live in Lithuania(you can't even get methanol here. Only from reagent suppliers), I would buy kilo of Hg. :(

macckone - 19-8-2014 at 19:55

Quote: Originally posted by mrTrifaziux  
Too bad I live in Lithuania(you can't even get methanol here. Only from reagent suppliers), I would buy kilo of Hg. :(

Distill from windshield washer fluid. The winter mixes are usually at least 40% methanol. Can't imagine the mix would differ across countries since
most of it is made in china or india.

Loptr - 19-8-2014 at 20:00

I received my mercury today. Very nice! Thank you!

mrTrifaziux - 21-8-2014 at 11:27

Quote: Originally posted by macckone  
Quote: Originally posted by mrTrifaziux  
Too bad I live in Lithuania(you can't even get methanol here. Only from reagent suppliers), I would buy kilo of Hg. :(

Distill from windshield washer fluid. The winter mixes are usually at least 40% methanol. Can't imagine the mix would differ across countries since
most of it is made in china or india.

Wow, never thought to distill windshield washer fluid. Thanks for the idea! :D Most brands here contain isopropanol. I've done some internet digging and found one brand that contains no isopropanol. finally!

[Edited on 21-8-2014 by mrTrifaziux]

IrC - 21-8-2014 at 19:36

Would it not be cheaper and more logical to make methanol from ever available trees instead of wiper fluid? After all there is a reason methanol was long called wood alcohol.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Zyklon-A - 21-8-2014 at 22:28

I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper indeed. In fact, I want to do that if I can get time.

IrC - 22-8-2014 at 00:17

If he uses the proper type of wood he can collect the tars, mix with water and flavor his barbequed ribs. Just brush it on the meat both before and while cooking.

mrTrifaziux - 22-8-2014 at 15:04

Quote: Originally posted by IrC  
Would it not be cheaper and more logical to make methanol from ever available trees instead of wiper fluid? After all there is a reason methanol was long called wood alcohol.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

It might be a good idea to do destructive distillation of wood. I bought 4l of whipper fluid (30% MeOH) for 10lt(~4$) so I think that will be enough for some time. I think I will make moonshine still with a 40l boiler for destructive distillation of wood. Or I'll just order some from chem supplier.
Probably not the best place to talk about methanol lol.

Texium - 22-8-2014 at 16:11

I don't know about using destructive distillation of wood. I was just reading about it a few days ago actually, and from what I could find, the procedure is apparently quite inefficient unless performed on an industrial scale, and a lot of further refinement is required afterwards to obtain a decently pure product. I guess if you use a 40L boiler you might be able to get a decent yield. It'll probably still be a lot of work to purify it though.

mrTrifaziux - 22-8-2014 at 16:50

Concoction of acetone, acetic acid and methanol will be a big pain to separate. maybe a very careful fractional distillation. (?)

IrC - 22-8-2014 at 20:04

You guys would never have survived in 1800's. They did this commonly all the time. Distilling easy, mainly only the acetone cannot be separated by careful distillation. Small amounts of minor impurities besides acetone no problems unless ultra purity work is needed. If so buy it if you can by 2017. If he is running an alcohol lamp for chemistry or doing non critical experiments the purity should be fine for the most part. All in how carefully fractional distillation is done. Yet another plus is if wood stoves or fireplaces are common in the area no one will notice much unless he builds the mega factory zts requires, sounded like zts thinks he needs to cut down a forest and build a big factory. How many hundreds of gallons does he need anyway. This is a reasonably set up operation if he is only needing home experimenter amounts. And if he uses Hickory he can make a great BBQ baste. Done it many times decades ago no big deal.

Isn't this too much hijacking of the mercury thread to keep discussing this?

Texium - 22-8-2014 at 20:35

Quote: Originally posted by IrC  
You guys would never have survived in 1800's. They did this commonly all the time. Distilling easy, mainly only the acetone cannot be separated by careful distillation. Small amounts of minor impurities besides acetone no problems unless ultra purity work is needed. If so buy it if you can by 2017. If he is running an alcohol lamp for chemistry or doing non critical experiments the purity should be fine for the most part. All in how carefully fractional distillation is done. Yet another plus is if wood stoves or fireplaces are common in the area no one will notice much unless he builds the mega factory zts requires, sounded like zts thinks he needs to cut down a forest and build a big factory. How many hundreds of gallons does he need anyway. This is a reasonably set up operation if he is only needing home experimenter amounts. And if he uses Hickory he can make a great BBQ baste. Done it many times decades ago no big deal.

Isn't this too much hijacking of the mercury thread to keep discussing this?

Well, I wasn't exactly suggesting full factory scale. I was just saying that to really be efficient it must be done larger than normal lab scale. In fact, I said that the 40L still he wants to use should be big enough to use. A 2L flask full of wood chips on the other hand, which would have been the scale I would have used when I was first considering the process, would be too small and inefficient to get a decent yield. I could be wrong, but based on the threads that I read the other day (right now I'm too tired to dig them up, but I will tomorrow), it sounded like the process needed to be done on a larger scale (bigger than lab, smaller than factory), so that's where I'm getting my information from.

And yes, this part of the thread should probably get moved, because it's a great discussion, but most definitely doesn't belong here.

IrC - 22-8-2014 at 21:06

I can buy that. True it must be somewhat larger than a small bench top project. I just though it was funny the way it sounded. I kept getting visions of moonshiners and thunder road, old but interesting movie.

mrTrifaziux - 23-8-2014 at 03:28

I agree this discussion should get moved. Infact I need quite little amounts. That's why I said whipper fluid will do for now. I will use MeOH for few simple fischer esterification reactions (oil of wintergreen, methyl benzoate etc.)

Praxichys - 19-3-2015 at 11:09

Hey everybody,

Thank you so much for your purchases. I hope I have satisfied everybody who wanted some.

Your enthusiasm and support has enabled me to expand my laboratory with a few hundred dollars worth of new equipment, and for that I will be forever grateful. Please enjoy the fruits of your contributions on YouTube - if there are certain demonstrations you would like to see, let me know and I will do my best to film them.

That said, I must announce that I am finally running out of the amount I wanted to sell. There are only 8 pounds left of over 70 orders fulfilled through SM, chemicalforums, and Amazon. If you would like some mercury, I am putting in one final plug to get the last of it out the door. Look out for more lab videos on YouTube, and, again - thank you!

Doug

Loptr - 19-3-2015 at 11:25

No, thank you, Praxichys!

1lb is way more than I will ever need!

carrant - 27-3-2015 at 09:39

Just received my order - excellent packing and fast shipping!

Sulaiman - 27-3-2015 at 10:42

I'd really like 100mL (3 lb) or so of mercury
but UK postal regulations make it too difficult/expensive.