Sciencemadness Discussion Board

dumb question

ThoughtsIControl - 28-5-2020 at 20:05

Since I couldn't find an answer on the internet, I figured I'd turn here.

Is there home chemists that sell chemicals online that they make?

For instance, I whip up some hydrogen peroxide or methanol and post it on ebay.

I don't plan on doing this, I'd just like to know

B(a)P - 28-5-2020 at 20:29

I don't know the answer to this, but I don't see how anyone could do this and generate an income, or even do it without making a loss. It isn't a big market and the cost of analysis to confirm purity, bottles, labels and compliance with local legislation ect would all add up very quickly. Then you need to compete with the cheaper commercial organisations that sell to the general public.
Maybe you could pick one or a few compounds popular with home scientists and optimise your synthesis to minimise your costs. I think it would be tough, but maybe I am missing something though.
It is an interesting concept and the thought of spending your days producing interesting compounds to supply to like minded people is quite appealing.

j_sum1 - 28-5-2020 at 20:42

There are probably some niche products that you could produce and find a suitable sized market.

If you had a ball mill you might for example make powdered aluminium.
KClO3 by electrolysis is another possibility.
Or if you had something you could extract easily from plants readily available in your area.

Basically anything where there is a bit of demand already, where the synthesis is straightforward, where the reagents are cheap, where it scales well but is a PITA at the quantities people normally want. And of course something that is not going to be problematic to sell, market or ship. (Rules out ethanol.)

I had once considered putting together simple chemistry kits and selling them on eBay with a booklet of suitable reactions. That could actually be a cool thing but I decided it was not something that I personally wanted to invest the time in to make it worthwhile.

Ubya - 29-5-2020 at 02:06

i don't know where you live but every country has some hard to find chemicals that most of us need. for example i know that australians have a hard time buying sulphuric acid, well if you live there you could make and sell sulphuric acid (if you sell without shipping).

Lion850 - 29-5-2020 at 02:29

Poormanschemist sells chemicals he makes, he is in the USA. He sells on eBay and I think direct as well. I think you can only see how eBay listings if you are based in the USA, I cannot see it being registered in Australia.

https://www.ebay.com.au/usr/poormanschemicals?_trksid=p20537...

http://www.poormanschemist.com/home.html

I'm not sure if he is on sciencemadness. He sells some exotic stuff. On his YouTube page it says: "Owner of the PoorMansChemist chemistry channel on YouTube. Specializing in small amounts of chemicals for hobby chemists. For a complete listing of all chemicals available please inquire at poormanschemist@gmail.com. Thank you! :-)"



[Edited on 29-5-2020 by Lion850]

mackolol - 29-5-2020 at 02:41

Quote: Originally posted by Lion850  
Poormanschemist sells chemicals he makes, he is in the USA. He sells on eBay and I think direct as well. I think you can only see how eBay listings if you are based in the USA, I cannot see it being registered in Australia.

https://www.ebay.com.au/usr/poormanschemicals?_trksid=p20537...

http://www.poormanschemist.com/home.html

I'm not sure if he is on sciencemadness. He sells some exotic stuff. On his YouTube page it says: "Owner of the PoorMansChemist chemistry channel on YouTube. Specializing in small amounts of chemicals for hobby chemists. For a complete listing of all chemicals available please inquire at poormanschemist@gmail.com. Thank you! :-)"
[Edited on 29-5-2020 by Lion850]

That's very interesting, unfortunately I can't see any of his products at ebay as you have said and I don't know if it is worth it to ship from USA to Poland.
But in future I plan on doing similar, selling homemade chemicals seems interesting

B(a)P - 29-5-2020 at 02:58

I didn't realise he had a web site and what an amazing site it is, thanks for sharing!

Lion850 - 29-5-2020 at 03:57

mackolol - Poormanschemist told me (a minute ago) he is re=doing all his item listings on YouTube and they will be up again a few days from now. Or else just email him on the above mentioned gmail. He is now also making uranium compounds (small scale of course) and these are also available :)

Syn the Sizer - 29-5-2020 at 04:05

Quote: Originally posted by B(a)P  
I didn't realise he had a web site and what an amazing site it is, thanks for sharing!


It is a valuable website, I love how thorough it is. I also like his digital logbook he shares.

monolithic - 29-5-2020 at 05:50

Solvents and commodity chemicals are unprofitable. I think some people make a small profit selling stuff like homemade PdCl2 and AgNO3, however. And then niche stuff is profitable but your market is very small.

[Edited on 5-29-2020 by monolithic]