Glass & plastic storage bottles - expensive in small amounts - group buy?

So I've been looking at prices for various glass and plastic bottles/containers that are adequate for storing chemicals and they are outrageously expensive when buying in smaller amounts (even 12-24). Prices start to come down when you by 96/144/288 to even 1,000+, and I'm talking about 20-30% of the price when buyint 12-24 at a time.

I've found a number of sellers for things like essential oils, soap/candle suppies and other suppliers such as this as well as talking to people on a number of forums where they make things like the above and they all complain about the price. the forum members have been very eager to do a group buy of bulk items and I've contacted a number of supply resellers who package their products and they are interested in a large purchase as well if it would give a sufficient decrease in pricing. Most of them buy by the case which is 24-48 units and the prices are still pretty high at that point, no where near the pricing of the 12pack of cases (~780 - 1440 units per cases of cases).

So, I was wondering if there were people here who would be interested in buying various containers which could them be re-packed for individual buyers and shipped out.

Here are some of the bottles I found that I think would be good for storage. For the most part, all the clear glass is also available in amber and some in cobalt (blue) but both of the colored are more expensive. There is also a wide selection of lids/caps that can be selected such as PP, PE, HDPE, PTFE, etc and the bottles can be purchased without lids (in many cases) and the lids can be purchased seperately.

There are also serum vials that range from 2ml to 250ml and have stoppers (rubber type that can be crimped on) of 13mm and 20mm, depending upon the size. You need a crimping tool for these but they are really nice to work with if you want to store some things semi-permenantly and extract them via a syringe (or remove the crimp & remove stopper then recrimp if needed - the aluminum crimps cost about .5 - 2 cents apiece depending how many you buy). There aren't any pictured here but think of injectable medications and that is what they look like.

Is there any interest in buying fair amounts (not just 2-5 bottles)? I'm also looking at test tubes and petri dishes (pyrex glass) and have access to a few hundred in one auction and ~1400 more in another auction for petri dishes is people have interest.

It is 'nice' to have borosilicate bottles that can withstand thermal shock, and look pretty all in a row,
but I read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_glass that
soda-lime bottles of a particular formulation are preffered for lower dissolution rate of glass into liquid.
Is it true ?
Is it significant ?
Do we care ?

I have not bought any glass storage bottles other than
two 1 gallon demijohns (£5 ea.) to stockpile drain unblocker sulphuric acid,
six 30ml amber borosilicate bottles with pipettes (£1 ea.) for test reagents
twenty 2ml borosilicate vials (£2 total) for samples.

I use miscellaneous ex-food product bottles and jars from the kitchen.
At first I wanted to have a beautiful matching set of 'proper' storage containers,
but now I like having an ecclectic collection - it makes finding stuff quicker,
I look for chemicals by jar/bottle and size/shape then only a few labels to check.

Last, but not least ... I hate the idea of paying more for a container than its contents.

However, partly for the look, partly for convenience and mainly for school chemistry nostalgia,
I would like a set of bottles with ground glass stoppers and etched labels, as in the sixth photo' above.
But I would not pay the current going price.

For no particular reason, I'm keeping my chemistry hobby spending at £1 per callendar day average ... £365.25 / year.
(£1/day for nearly four years = nice chemistry set )
A nice set of bottles would be a few months of my 'allowance'.
So as much as I would like to, I shall not be joining the group buy.
... unless costs are a lot less than I expect

P.S. Dr.Bob, our resident equipment supplier, has mentioned that storage bottles are expensive
BUT
are occasionally availble at massive discount prices - if you keep looking.

I would add my name to a list of members willing to make a quick decision on a bulk buy at the right price.
but if the bulk purchase was in USA then I suspect that the postal costs would be ridiculous,
plus I'd have to pay tax.
Postal costs from China are incredibly low and I've never been taxed on anything from China,
whereas EVERYTHING from USA gets taxed, with a hefty 'handling charge' for the postal service providers

I one nice borosilicate 90mm petri dish (to match filter papers for my Buchner funnel)
and many cheap disposable 35mm plastic petri dishes - which save on washing up
Some eBy sellrs list petri dishes as just 'glass' whereas they are actually borosilicate,
e.g. I bought mine here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60mm-Glass-tissue-petri-dish-cult...

[Edited on 24-2-2018 by Sulaiman]

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman

It is 'nice' to have borosilicate bottles that can withstand thermal shock, and look pretty all in a row, but I read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_glass that soda-lime bottles of a particular formulation are preffered for lower dissolution rate of glass into liquid. Is it true ? Is it significant ? Do we care ? I have not bought any glass storage bottles other than two 1 gallon demijohns (£5 ea.) to stockpile drain unblocker sulphuric acid, six 30ml amber borosilicate bottles with pipettes (£1 ea.) for test reagents twenty 2ml borosilicate vials (£2 total) for samples. I use miscellaneous ex-food product bottles and jars from the kitchen. At first I wanted to have a beautiful matching set of 'proper' storage containers, but now I like having an ecclectic collection - it makes finding stuff quicker, I look for chemicals by jar/bottle and size/shape then only a few labels to check. Last, but not least ... I hate the idea of paying more for a container than its contents. However, partly for the look, partly for convenience and mainly for school chemistry nostalgia, I would like a set of bottles with ground glass stoppers and etched labels, as in the sixth photo' above. But I would not pay the current going price. For no particular reason, I'm keeping my chemistry hobby spending at £1 per callendar day average ... £365.25 / year. (£1/day for nearly four years = nice chemistry set ) A nice set of bottles would be a few months of my 'allowance'. So as much as I would like to, I shall not be joining the group buy. ... unless costs are a lot less than I expect P.S. Dr.Bob, our resident equipment supplier, has mentioned that storage bottles are expensive BUT are occasionally availble at massive discount prices - if you keep looking. I would add my name to a list of members willing to make a quick decision on a bulk buy at the right price. but if the bulk purchase was in USA then I suspect that the postal costs would be ridiculous, plus I'd have to pay tax. Postal costs from China are incredibly low and I've never been taxed on anything from China, whereas EVERYTHING from USA gets taxed, with a hefty 'handling charge' for the postal service providers I one nice borosilicate 90mm petri dish (to match filter papers for my Buchner funnel) and many cheap disposable 35mm plastic petri dishes - which save on washing up Some eBy sellrs list petri dishes as just 'glass' whereas they are actually borosilicate, e.g. I bought mine here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60mm-Glass-tissue-petri-dish-cult... [Edited on 24-2-2018 by Sulaiman]

I've been keeping my eyes open for large sales of surplus items from businesses that are closing doors (bio chem/chem/pharma companies). I picked up about 70+ 500ml and 1L glass pyrex/schott/kimax bottles for $25 + shipping and packaging! I've also come across lots like this where boston rounds are available in 144, 96 & 72 ct cases of 4oz, 8, oz and 16oz and about 400+ other misc bottles with the lot closing at just under $100. The thing is that sales like this can kill you with shipping if a packaging company does it b/c they want to wrap each bottle seperately or some such foolishness. So if they are within driving distance (the larger the lot, the further I'm willing to drive) I'll pick them up and I'm lucky that there are LOTS of these companies within 75-100 miles and probably 1/2 in the nation within 300 miles.

The thing is when I see these auctions, I don't know what to do b/c I don't need all of them and I don't know how I would split them should people go in on a group purchase.

I'm looking at a really large glassware lot of beakers, flasks, condensors, bottles, dessicant "tubs" and a lot more. 4 shelf units full with no bids as of yet and I doubt most people who are buying at this auction would look at glassware as it is mostly shop machinery (lathe's, presses, etc), so I may get lucky and can pass on some of the haul at good prices to members should they wish to buy.

[Edited on 2-24-2018 by RogueRose]


These are the media bottles of which I wrote in 500ml and 1L for about 33 cents apiece! the problem was that there were only about 20 lids (GL45) and I've been trying to find a place to buy bulk lids at a reasonable price. I checked China (alibaba) and they were $3-5 each for standard polypropelene caps, more than domestically available ones bought in packs of 12. I'd REALLY like to find some lids from food containers that will fit these and have tried about 100+ different caps and the only one i've found that fits, but doesn't seal perfectly, is the Coffee Mate flavored coffee creamer that comes in a plastic flip top bottle and in a variety of flavors. maybe I could talk to a local coffee shop that uses them (not a chain, a locally owned if they use them and see if they will save them..?) They are good for some things (non-volitile) and it is nice that it has a pouring cap, so there are some benefits.

some of the special GL45 caps cost $12-19 each! these are PTFE lined with a PP body and are specially color coded. I found a 12 pack of neon green ones selling for someting like $134 + $20 shipping! It's things like this that make buying containers a difficult situation in some curcumstances.

If anyone knows where I can buy 72-144 of the GL45 caps for a good price, I would be very interested. I'm wondering if contacting local universities about getting their "trash" which I think these bottles and caps are often accounted as.




[Edited on 2-24-2018 by RogueRose]

I also recently got a dessicator for $20 + auction fee (12.5% to the damn auction house) and as bonus has about 100 20-30ml screw top glass vials.

These are the things I'm looking at (in addition to the group buys from wholesalers).



Excuse the line going through the image, I'm not advertising for the site b/c they can be VERY fickle and if you are not careful you can loose A LOT of money by bidding (I learned from the school of hard knocks in this case).