Glass Alchemy Sale

[Simian]

Its on kids! Got my 14 lbs.

2x GA-OK Chocolate Crayon, 804 for $24.00 each
1x GA-OK Red Crayon, 104 for $24.00 each
10x GA-OK Eclipse, 9977 for $18.00 each
1x GA-OK Portland Gray, 9992 for $18.00 each

What did you get?

[glassdocnc]

WOW, that went quick. Loads of stuff that was in my cart was unavailable at checkout.

[Simian]

Heard that a bunch. Glad I was after 10lbs of Eclipse primarily. I wanted Raven but the extra $6 off a lbs had me buying eclipse. The other 4 lbs were for 2 specific projects.

[Chad S]

Here's a list of what I scooped up: (variety pack)

Rain Drop Tube - 1.0lb

Lemon Drop Tube - 0.6lb

Andromeda - 2lbs

Purple Potion - 1lb

Lemon Drop - 1lb

Orange Crayon - 1lb

Cherrywood - 1lb

Sno White - 1lb

Tiger's Eye - 1lb

Disco Sparkle - 1lb

Purple Rain - 1lb

Brilliant Blue - 1lb

Rain Drop - 1lb

Blue Dream - lb

Total - 14.6lbs @ $475 shipped

Thanks GA, appreciate the customer sale!

[jr23]

Have fun with the air and stones.

I used to get so pumped up but found year after year the way it played out was cheap thrills are good stuff .

The ratio off seconds to odd was in favor of seconds .

But it's a great way to get everyone to pile in and spend and buy every second they have .

Truly the best way to ditch seconds for odds price ,

It's a total crap shoot I would rather buy northstar odds or odds from anywhere .

I did it every year but this one and always gave away the shitty stuff and ended up with a few good things but on average I never saved much considering working with seconds sucks .

Simian you are a real come up quick Millie guy that loved Mantis untell it broke your Millie cane .

Oc glass can be full iof air off color . And I think off Coe . Not sure on that .

Do you use this in your first quality Millie work

[jr23]

Sapphire was good shit last year and the orange and red and jackpot and eclipse tube was all gangster and just odds .


Ever bit of lemon drop and Rosay . Jamboree and orange rod was seconds seconds ,


How where the Thomas treats priced

[yinzer]

meh. i thought about it but the start time was too late for me to care, after what i got the last few times. at least i didnt waste hundreds of dollars on completely worthless color again, though. after recieving quite a few "firsts" that were off this year, i cant imagine what "okaysional" quality is like now. i used to love this sale so much. wish they'd go back to worrying less about hype and more about quality color.

[jr23]

Yinz we have the exact same views on a few things . Plus one

I just stopped in to watch how fast the serum and potion and flamingo went .

My favorite social media pencil maker . Has a army of followers that where buying glass for him . Lol

The uv stuff sold out in seconds .

When it comes to the new way people are all talking about making pencils all day .

They don't understand the new game . Or how to play.


There are people cring the blues over what he and a few other Instagram cats did .

It's supposed to be a fair drop with pound limits . Social media took care of the pound limits .

And when somthing sells in seconds .

Even clicking two pounds instead of 10 people hitting one and pay

[LooseSeal Baller]

The annual we love our hyped up consumer sale...lol what a joke

Glass Alchemy...-1...:tongue2:

Hehe...clear that glows in blacklight...garbage

Transparent garbage...overpriced..waterd down... Raindrop...lol...blue dream...lol...tangie...ha...gosh... Take your Crayola's and mix'em down with clear...:bangHead:

I think maybe the tain has made people retarded

If you make cookies with a cookie cutter, they're gonna look the same(boring)... I like to shape them individually gives my cookies more character.

[PyroChixRock]

I've never gotten in on their sale, and I picked up some things this year. Now after reading this thread I'm not sure I should have! I guess I'll find out. Hope I didn't waste my money, I work my ass off for it and I can't afford shitty color! :wes:

[H1JACK3R]

Some of it is really good, their discontinued stuff and the cheap thrills, the others can be hit or miss.

I've got some rozay from last year that's almost unusable, but have had more good luck than bad.

[Simian]

JR I go through and clip out stones and remix and pull into stringer. Last year I ordered a bunch of eclipse and all but about 8 rods were first quality but oddly shaped. I have no problem with odd shapes as long as the quality of the glass is good. I know that I am gambling a bit but I see nothing wrong with odd shaped glass and me going through and cutting out the imperfections. Takes time but in the ends since i pull most of my black into stringer it doesn't really matter. I think out of the 16 or so lbs of eclipse I bought last year about 1 lb was unuseable. So in total, under 2 lbs or so of random rods out of 22 total pounds of color bought at a steep ass discount. I like that ratio. Keep in mind my milli prices are well below most other milli artist prices. This is one of the ways I am able to do that and this allows me to experiment without shooting myself in the head if I lose a pound or two of color. In the end the quality of my work matters not whether I found a sale and spent the time to sift through the glass to remove imperfections.

I had no idea people would be so bothered by this, I was having some fun.

Oh and one of my black rods turned out to be aquatic carnival if I remember right.

[istandalone24/7]

i'll say one thing.....last year's jamboree o/c is WAY easier to strike then the 1sts. i'm going to keep an eye on the page...they drop more glass as the weekend progresses i think?

[LooseSeal Baller]

The glass has always been usable. Specially if you're not worried about diameters or straightness. I bet you'll be happy

[PyroChixRock]

The glass has always been usable. Specially if you're not worried about diameters or straightness. I bet you'll be happy

I feel better now. I use a lot of stringers and dots, so I'm sure I will be able to use it. Unless it's crap like I keep seeing people say it might be. Hopefully not, I need some of those colors as I'm out of stock on a few, but I never buy occasionals normally so I don't know what to expect. I know some of my "firsts" are not fucking firsts, so that has me worried. And, worried about GA and their long term success.

[LooseSeal Baller]

TAG has the best.

i've gotten glass from sundance that was worse than any OC glass i've gotten on these sales

[FifDeez]

Its for sure a gamble. 3 years ago I got 30 lbs andi think half was usable but had stones, but some was a sketchy coe cause it cracked something horrible or was full of air. In fact the Oregon grey was so full of air i swear it could a damn near floated in water. So be cautious, and buyer be ware.

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[Simian]

I feel better now. I use a lot of stringers and dots, so I'm sure I will be able to use it. Unless it's crap like I keep seeing people say it might be. Hopefully not, I need some of those colors as I'm out of stock on a few, but I never buy occasionals normally so I don't know what to expect. I know some of my "firsts" are not fucking firsts, so that has me worried. And, worried about GA and their long term success.

Honestly Misha, unless you are needing this stuff for stick stacks, vac stacks or some other application that requires uniform diameter you will prob be stoked. Since I pull a metric ton of stringer sorting through this stuff is fine by me for the smokin deal. I ordered 14 lbs this year...if I have 1 un-useable pound of glass then I think that is acceptable loss given what I know about their occasional quality. I have heard way more happy stories than shit stories in the last year regarding last years sale. I am hoping that is the case this year. I am optimistic.

[yinzer]

I hope yinz all get the good shit. I was a devout GA user until recently so I'm just sharing my opinion/experience, not being bitchy or trying to be a downer.

That being said, I don't agree that any unusable purchase is an acceptable loss. Maybe odd shaped, doesn't strike, "eclipse" that DOES strike, a couple stones...thats whatever. But nobody should be selling unusable material. That's bs, and they are the only company that I've ever gotten unusable color from. That should be THEIR business loss, not something they pass on to a customer. you wouldn't sell your finished work as "seconds" if it exploded in the kiln, and expect the customer to be happy taking the loss.

When i say completely unusable, I mean so full of air and stones that clipping/remixing isn't even an option. It was like every color was a blizzard color, except you can use blizzard colors.

having this viewpoint actually really bothers me, as i love that family something fierce.

[Dan Kooper]

the last batch of eclipse i got is 100% unusable. this was a month ago. it ruined alot of my work.

[PyroChixRock]

\I don't agree that any unusable purchase is an acceptable loss. Maybe odd shaped, doesn't strike, "eclipse" that DOES strike, a couple stones...thats whatever. But nobody should be selling unusable material. That's bs, and they are the only company that I've ever gotten unusable color from. That should be THEIR business loss, not something they pass on to a customer. you wouldn't sell you finished work as "seconds" if it exploded in the kiln, and expect the customer to be happy tkaing the loss.




agreed!! I have recently gotten a few batches of eclipse firsts that are complete garbage. it's bs that these batches ever passed quality control. I got them from a distributor so I'm not going to return them and make them pay for GA's lack of QC.

Currently looking for a new black to replace my love of eclipse. I did pick up one pound of the occasionals to see if it was just a few odd batches that passed the QC crew somehow, but this is the last chance eclipse is getting from me. I hear I need to try blackjack, and possibly knight rider.

[PyroChixRock]

the last batch of eclipse i got is 100% unusable. this was a month ago. it ruined alot of my work.

guh. it's not just some fluke then. I should totally return this garbage. :(

[yinzer]

nope i got it too. another friend did, too. i also do not want to cause trouble for distributors, so ive eaten quite a few lbs of "first quality" color from them in the past year, which really sucks in the position ive been in.

[hashmasta-kut]

Still havent seen any of the crap, eclipse has been #1 for me for quite awhile, and what I have now is still great. Last time i tried something else, Night Rider, IT was un-useable, so go figure.

[istandalone24/7]

I hope yinz all get the good shit. I was a devout GA user until recently so I'm just sharing my opinion/experience, not being bitchy or trying to be a downer.

That being said, I don't agree that any unusable purchase is an acceptable loss. Maybe odd shaped, doesn't strike, "eclipse" that DOES strike, a couple stones...thats whatever. But nobody should be selling unusable material. That's bs, and they are the only company that I've ever gotten unusable color from. That should be THEIR business loss, not something they pass on to a customer. you wouldn't sell your finished work as "seconds" if it exploded in the kiln, and expect the customer to be happy taking the loss.

When i say completely unusable, I mean so full of air and stones that clipping/remixing isn't even an option. It was like every color was a blizzard color, except you can use blizzard colors.

having this viewpoint actually really bothers me, as i love that family something fierce.

this was my experience with the Beryl from two years ago. so bubbly, so stony that it's basically unusable.
as for the Eclipse, like Dan Kooper said it's been total shit lately...and i'm talking about firsts. so much air in the rods, color not fully saturated (part of rod very saturated, the other end way less saturated) that put me off on GA color..which sucks because i do love their color...when it's good.

[istandalone24/7]

Misha, have you used the Black Violet? the last few lb's of that i rec'd was very good. i went from Jet Black exclusively, to Black Violet for almost every application.

[LooseSeal Baller]

North star jet black #1

[wesleypipes]

Did anyone else notice that GA raised their OC prices $10 a pound not long before the sale. Also paying $60 a pound for OC rev 33 seems risky but it sold fast. I get some glass every year in this sale but it is a toss up. Everything form $10 a pound acid yellow that seems like firsts to disco sparkle I would not wish on my worst enemy. Its fun because you can do projects where you use a lot of glass and you don't have to worry about it. On the other hand if you do make something nice and it brakes or has some imperfection because of the glass it make you wish you payed for first. You don't have to lose a lot of time/pieces to offset the advantage of cheep glass.

[istandalone24/7]

North star jet black #1

Bleeds too easily ime. especially in dot stacks on top of white.

[HerbChambers]

wasnt about to stay up till 3 for the okaysional color. im good on that.

[unfunraygun]

If colors bad remix and pull it out. We all have mags, cobras, 65's, grands and cc+'s here on the forum right?

[oG Glocc Coma]

No risk, no reward

[Liquidsand]

I find this whole discussion really interesting. I'm going back and forth between feeling stupid for letting myself get sucked in again, after last year's Rozay and Haterade debacle, and feeling happy and excited that I got 13 or 14 lbs of color for something like $360.

[Liquidsand]

That being said, I don't agree that any unusable purchase is an acceptable loss. Maybe odd shaped, doesn't strike, "eclipse" that DOES strike, a couple stones...thats whatever. But nobody should be selling unusable material. That's bs, and they are the only company that I've ever gotten unusable color from. That should be THEIR business loss, not something they pass on to a customer. you wouldn't sell your finished work as "seconds" if it exploded in the kiln, and expect the customer to be happy taking the loss.

This is a very good point when you think about it. I lose a ton of working time and materials cost to my own high standards of quality control.

[Banditt]

Someone help a noob out and inform me what sale you guys are referring to? Is this like a direct from GA sale or one of the resellers?

[glassdocnc]

http://glassalchemy.com/

[Banditt]

http://glassalchemy.com/

Thanks :)

[FifDeez]

We do a lot of us have large torches but remixing is a waste of time and fuel. So if you value your time and quality of your finished product make sure to take that into account before going with odds, seconds or worse , alchemy's were sorry about your luck sale 😀

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[Swim]

I have always been happy with what I got from them, but they are expensive. For the last six months, I think all of my color has come from TMP members. I hear alot of people complaining about northstar selling their UV colors too cheap and fucking up the market but, shit overall, color is my largest expense. I am not sure if it should be cheaper, but i am not sure at all why people would want color cost to be through the roof. The only GA color I am familiar with is the olive and andromeda. Right now I have a lot of momkas, all off this weird lined rod.... its almost like a shitty milli. What do you do with that stuff?? Its not like I like it or anything, but I almost use nothing but northstar because its the easiest to buy secondhand for cheap. Never see any tag or GA second hand for a deal.

[unfunraygun]

Remixing is the whole point of valuing the time and quality of a finished product. If I have some GA firsts I dont necessarily trust I remix. I also remix NS jade firsts every time I get it, and really most dense opaque colors I use. I have pretty much always taken the Fowler approach to most color use.

[Simian]

I guess I am lucky and have had great luck. I also understand the economics of what I am doing.

If I buy that glass at 18/lb, and I buy 10 lbs that is $180.
I then sit there and patiently clip out all the stones (last year that was minimal) and imperfections leaving only first quality shorts.
Lets say WORST case scenario I lose 2 lbs of weight...that means I now have 8 lbs of useable glass. $180/8 = $22.50 a lb.

I refuse to feel guilty for putting in some elbow grease to lower my costs to do the same exact quality work. If that cranks you off, so be it.

MANY guys doing crucible work will buy bulk odds, cullet and seconds ( I know this first hand) and do the same thing and turn right around and sell you that tubing. It is a shit ton of work to clean it up in order to not pay First quality prices. But my elbow grease is way cheaper than paying $60 a pound when I don't have to. If I need pristine 7mm or 4mm for a project thats what I get. When I don't require uniform size I go the other way. I sacrifice ZERO quality and pay way less. If you have a problem with this that is your problem not mine.

[unfunraygun]

I agree. Also throw a clear dot over a stone and enhance.its natural beauty +$5

[Simian]

I don't understand why some people are so quick to shit on stuff they clearly don't understand. I get it if YOUR experience was bad. But if I have sound logic behind why I am doing something the crankiness of others is not going to deter me from doing something reasonable. That is some ignorant high school lunchroom shit.

[menty666]

Never see any tag or GA second hand for a deal.

TAG ran a seconds sale around Christmas.

[FifDeez]

Don't get me wrong if you can make a profit and don't mind the time I totally agree its the way to go. In the Midwest prices are so shit and knowledge of glass process involved in each piece is so poor that you have to make prodo to survive and ship headies elsewhere. So hourly is so critical to me and I'm sure it is to other glass artists in similar poor areas of the country. For example a new shop opened in Alton Illinois and I brought in some headies that all wholesale for over 300$ and they offered me 30$ each! So I sold them all next day for my asking price to my usual headie peeps. The most the guy spent was 5$ on anything I had. Luckily I had some simple bats with me . but even in st Louis headies are put on display sometimes but rarely ever move off the shelf, in fact my favorite store still has a headie case from 2002 when I started blowing that hasn't sold one piece from its case. So I only bring stuff to st Louis stores if its under 100$ wholesale but honestly their bread and butter falls in the 5-15$ category. So until I find more stores I'll continue to value my time like gold. Because volume is only way I still have a job, and I just keep the headies to move myself to pad my wallet.

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[unfunraygun]

Remixing and pulling crucible tube gives me the understanding of a color and the batch it is from. I put out such a low volume of work I cant have a piece or pieces fail because I trusted rod or tube direct from a color company, or from a rebatching custom color outfit. If I was prodo and needed reliability of stock color and also reliability of a price point I would definately be in a different boat. That being said I would also never expect color from odds seconds occasionals etc. to fit into prodo because I could never trust it to be of the standards I could expect of first quality color so I would stick to the standard colors at the standard price point. If a deal came along for a cheaper price point for the standard quality of color I would buy it. So why would anyone trying to maintain consistency and price point expect occasionals etc to ever be held to first quality standards? I am the slowest glassblower ever, but I also have my own quality controls that are built into being slow and very picky with color application and fume sections/attachments that I am willing to use. Things that are not to my common standards dont get used in work I put my name on. If I buy cheap glass I wont use because it is risky I will right it off as glass to lay with or give away with no expectation of it other than being cheap. I do believe all glass is useful and I also believe every torch and tool is useful, but you pretty much always get what you pay for. So odd offbatch second occasional glass does require my remixing to ever be useful to me. Simian is dead on with his cost benefit analysis of how to use the GA sale colors that are, to be honest, of lower quality and in that lower quality require more time and work on the buyers end to be useful. Same story with all the batches of chinese colored tube that people put into prodo use and when the glass changes batches and becomes unusablefor their prodo they get pissed, but didnt we always get what we paid for? I am now going to spend the next week working 12 hour days on a piece that is 8 pounds of atomic kumquat, illuminati, og moss, and meta terannia inside out line/latticino sections, and expect it to not crack?

[unfunraygun]

If wisdom prevails you did not read my last post.

[kittypooh5]

i placed a large order (well, at least for my scale of work and skill). I am hoping for the best!

[Simian]

Cheap glass is just not the same as good glass selling at a low price. Again, the vast majority of what I have gotten has ben great. When I find stones I remove them. For what I do it works great. And my time is worth money....I happily take the nearly $40 a lb discount I get by nipping up my odds and seconds into filtered first shorts.

[unfunraygun]

^^^^^^ Listen to Simian! The glass kick ass for the price. Learn how to use it in Simians posts

[Simian]

lol, not trying to teach but definitely not trying to take shit for being smart with my money or have a bit of fun with a pretty cool sale.

[unfunraygun]

I hear you man! I have preached remix for over a decade. People dont seem to understand that most colors have a supersaturated version that goes by a different name and if you remix with clear you save tons of money. Or do blow in and again and again of dense opaque colors you end up with a shit ton of transparent colored tubing, and it is super duper stable. Is disco sparkle even usable factory direct? How bout you mix it with clear and how about hhhhmmmmmm dark elvis? Holy shit transparent sparkly red!

[FifDeez]

Hope you don't think I was giving you shit , just wanted to cover all the bases so each artist can make their own informed decision on what works best for their application and working style. No offense meant, I thought I was making valid points just from the pessimistic side vs your optimism.

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[Dom]

Hey Simian just an FYI, not shitting on the GA sale cuz I grabbed some lapis for 14 a lb.. Hoping its not shitty.. But hey nobody has lapis in stock right now cuz people want blue cheese tube...

But if you blow glass full time you shouldnt be spending 60 a lb.. Try to get your color for 35-40% off, and youll get first quality for 40ish a lb.

[FifDeez]

Good point Dom, who pays retail for bulk glass, most suppliers advertise the shit outta volume discounts in the catalogs

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[yinzer]

***TRIGGER WARNING- OPPOSING VIEWS BELOW***


i dont think anyone was trying to force you to feel guilty. lol. i also dont think anyone was offended, or cranked, by your thoughts/feelings/experience. nobody was trying to say you are wrong, convince you to change your mind, or get you to break down your finances for us. the only one i see getting heated in the least is you.

i shared my personal experience because i thought this was an open discussion, and i think it is a very relevant topic and something that should be discussed. i think EVERYONE in this post makes pretty valid points. it fits your needs but not mine, simple as that. does that make either of our opinions better than the other? no. i believe others who chimed in felt the same way, but i can't really speak for anybody but myself.

actually, im not sure anybody said anything about your situation at all, unless you are the newest addition to the grimmett family. i know the closest i got was saying that i disagree.

my apologies if any of my posts were the ones that ruffled your feathers. not every disagreement is a personal attack. im not going to go slinging to insults around, but not being able to participate in an open discussion on a public forum without getting offended by opposing views is pretty close to ignorant, high school, lunchroom shit. if we were supposed to follow specific guidlines, maybe you should have layed them out... or titled it something like "Glass Alchemy Sale- list what you purchased', or "Glass Alchemy Sale- Not interested in your opinion" or maybe "Glass Alchemy Sale- shut up I'm only talking to myself".

[Simian]

***TRIGGER WARNING- OPPOSING VIEWS BELOW***


i dont think anyone was trying to force you to feel guilty. lol. i also dont think anyone was offended, or cranked, by your thoughts/feelings/experience. nobody was trying to say you are wrong, convince you to change your mind, or get you to break down your finances for us. the only one i see getting heated in the least is you.

i shared my personal experience because i thought this was an open discussion, and i think it is a very relevant topic and something that should be discussed. i think EVERYONE in this post makes pretty valid points. it fits your needs but not mine, simple as that. does that make either of our opinions better than the other? no. i believe others who chimed in felt the same way, but i can't really speak for anybody but myself.

actually, im not sure anybody said anything about your situation at all, unless you are the newest addition to the grimmett family. i know the closest i got was saying that i disagree.

my apologies if any of my posts were the ones that ruffled your feathers. not every disagreement is a personal attack. im not going to go slinging to insults around, but not being able to participate in an open discussion on a public forum without getting offended by opposing views is pretty close to ignorant, high school, lunchroom shit. if we were supposed to follow specific guidlines, maybe you should have layed them out... or titled it something like "Glass Alchemy Sale- list what you purchased', or "Glass Alchemy Sale- Not interested in your opinion" or maybe "Glass Alchemy Sale- shut up I'm only talking to myself".

I was mostly referring to Jr implying that some how I was doing something wrong. Trust me, I have no problem with opposing views. I do have a problem with someone insinuating that my work is less because they don't understand what I am doing.

[LooseSeal Baller]

I was mostly referring to Jr implying that some how I was doing something wrong. Trust me, I have no problem with opposing views. I do have a problem with someone insinuating that my work is less because they don't understand what I am doing.

if you think of the members as stock holders trying protects their "assets"...it will make more sense to you...

[METICULOUS_MAN]

I fuckin love the sale. I Pull lined tubing with it and never have any issues just have to get around the right diameters with micrometer, great for practice. just Funny how seems like everyone is complaining about it but if you know what your doing shouldnt be all that hard to figure out the best way to make your money back off the glass dam near immediately after getting it.

And i dont understand why people are bitching because they are making "watered down" color. Dont like it dont buy it. And then u can mix your own and pull it into 7mm rods seems easier. My customers seem to like it just as much as all the other colors. And that electric flamingo is bad ass who cares if its clear that means anything u want, can glow pink!

It does suck that it sells out so fast i even got cart jacked. But its fun to try and get what ya can. I've gotten some bad ass stuff from that sale!

[Olhm]

Cart jacked lmao, like a black Friday brawl out there. My broke ass would've loved to score some 14$lb + shipping! if I had a couple hundo to drop I'd of been cart jacking too, posted what I got here & had a good laugh with whoever I cart jacked (its that time of year again, GA's cart Jackin sale) I'm rolling over here...

[METICULOUS_MAN]

Also about the people having their friends and or customers buy all the "hot" colors for them to have a shit ton of it are just douche bags. Somewhere i read someone ever made a program to get alot of it... Kinda crazy.

[Greymatter Glass]

I got them from a distributor so I'm not going to return them and make them pay for GA's lack of QC.



nope i got it too. another friend did, too. i also do not want to cause trouble for distributors, so ive eaten quite a few lbs of "first quality" color from them in the past year, which really sucks in the position ive been in.

I don't know which "distributor" you're dealing with, but you should always send it back and demand good products. IF the seller doesn't know there's a problem they will keep selling it. If you buy color from me I stand behind it 100% and I will not take a (big) loss if I sell you shit color and have to refund it.

I have pretty much nothing good to say about what GA has become, but they've always stood behind their product in the past. It's part of a resellers job to handle the customer service, that's why we get the discounts we do (or did...grumble)

[scanale]

i don't blow glass very often...and usually work with all clear vessels, although i do make the occasional 5 pound color purchase. i noticed glass was on sale the other day, so i ordered some. now i understand what "seconds" are. stuff cracks like crazy and requires lots of babysitting. in the end, to me, the added value doesn't justify the additional headache. (typically a retail merchant puts things on sale that aren't moving at full price, not because they feel like making less profit on an otherwise quality product).
i'll stick to full priced items, thanks.

[Greymatter Glass]

I've never understood the purpose of selling glass seconds the way they're sold.

Plenty of manufacturing industries produce occasional or second quality products, but you usually don't see those products being sold in the same market, under the same trade name, with the same model/product identifier, and NEVER directly marketed by the manufacturer against their own distribution system.

[unfunraygun]

When Alchemy first started the sale the colors were pretty much spot on firsts that were out of their tolerance for 4mm and 7mm rod. The occasionals were slightly off color and really not very far off. The old GA standards were much higher than they are now, but demand has definately grown and the pallette of colors us broader. TAG standards years ago were absolute perfection, and no seconds or odds were ever released for retail, and the only way to get color that was slightly off was from an employee, and it had to stay on the dl (secrets out now). Now odds and seconds are snatched up quickly so the companies sell them to meet the high demand and pocket the profit. If the current demand and price people are willing to pay happened 10 years ago we would still have draconis colors because draconis could maintain production costs if people were willing to pay around $200/lb. Nobody gave two shits about uv color years ago and serum would have been laughed out of the market because it is so lame (only my opinion and I suck). Times are just goofy, but just like dick pics and make believe instagram lifestyles people will wise up in a couple years. I am just glad good fumework came back in style.

[yinzer]

Fwiw doug, I have always alerted distributors, aware of the fact that they may be receiving product that is below standards, without knowing...As I'm sure not every single batch is tested. When i say I "ate" it, I just mean I haven't asked for refunds or anything, because I really don't believe the qc should trickle down to them.

[yinzer]

I was mostly referring to Jr implying that some how I was doing something wrong. Trust me, I have no problem with opposing views. I do have a problem with someone insinuating that my work is less because they don't understand what I am doing.

Understandable. The post I am referring to sounded a bit sensitive, like you were angry with everyone, but I admittedly may have been reading it wrong

[Greymatter Glass]

Fwiw doug, I have always alerted distributors, aware of the fact that they may be receiving product that is below standards, without knowing...As I'm sure not every single batch is tested. When i say I "ate" it, I just mean I haven't asked for refunds or anything, because I really don't believe the qc shous trickle down to them.

So the end user who is spending the most money should take the loss? I hope no suppliers have ever told you that... maybe you need a new color supplier *hint hint*

I don't sell seconds, I rarely sell odds and they're the only thing I sell without a guarantee because that's how i have to buy them. The costs of firsts has the cost of replacement or refund built into the cost from the manufacturer. At worst you'll be out the cost of shipping and what you've used.

[chevelleface]

I would like to to know who else has success using sale glass in vac stacks or murrine. I have always been afraid to use it in those applications

[kq9ak]

I use northstar odds in vac daily. I have found the Distro makes a huge difference in the quality of firsts, and have received 2nds sold as firsts. I don't complain anymore, I just move my business elsewhere. As for the alchemy "sale", no personal experience but you get what you pay for. In my biz if I have a shop constantly trying to get a cheaper price my quality drops or I drop the shop altogether. I can only make so much product the 1st's go for 1st price 2nds are cheaper.

[istandalone24/7]

I have found the Distro makes a huge difference in the quality of firsts, and have received 2nds sold as firsts


doesnt the mfg sort the 1sts, 2nds and odds? i always thought this was true, that the color mfg does the sorting.
i've gotten 2nds that were sold as odds, odds and 2nds sold as firsts etc. mtn glass is the ONLY company that has not fucked me over in this way. lampwork supply....forget it. dude will just curse you out for even mentioning that the quality was mixed.

[kittypooh5]

it would be awesome if people would be kind enough to post reviews of color quality as they receive their glass and work with it =)

[FifDeez]

We can kitty, we/just need to create a new thread dedicated to color quality by batch from each distributer or mfg. Just post comments on quality and where ya got it. Sounds like a great idea

Sent from my PLT7649G using Tapatalk

[Simian]

it would be awesome if people would be kind enough to post reviews of color quality as they receive their glass and work with it =)

All of the black in every pull but 2 for the last year was eclipse I bought last year during this sale. sifted out the naughty bits, pulled into stringer and used without issue.

[jr23]

I don't understand why some people are so quick to shit on stuff they clearly don't understand. I get it if YOUR experience was bad. But if I have sound logic behind why I am doing something the crankiness of others is not going to deter me from doing something reasonable. That is some ignorant high school lunchroom shit.

I get good and bad but it's not just stones. They are easy .

It can be off color . Full of air or off Coe .

And being a Millie guy I just figured why buy oc glass .

It's odds and seconds lumped together .

Sure people re melt and re sale .

I am not cranky just shocked that if you miss a few stones or put a of Coe in a Millie you spend a week on .

You also swore mantis green was great until it took a bite out of ya .

I did think when the Instagram kids got a army of buyers to get all the serum and potion that people would squeel and they are .

Most of the industry shows have guys selling odds cheeP and you can hand pick .

A few years ago a friend picked me up 12-15 pounds of good odds for 20 a pound .

So no I don't roll the dice anymore . The average don't pan out .

But I do enjoy cheep thrills .

Pink Louie coils and strikes out like it was pulled out of a dip .

It was made special for Lewis Wilson man if would have bought 10 pounds when I had the chance .

[jr23]

Hey Simian just an FYI, not shitting on the GA sale cuz I grabbed some lapis for 14 a lb.. Hoping its not shitty.. But hey nobody has lapis in stock right now cuz people want blue cheese tube...

But if you blow glass full time you shouldnt be spending 60 a lb.. Try to get your color for 35-40% off, and youll get first quality for 40ish a lb.

This I don't have to nip up seconds and stones out of off color airy batches and tell myself it's first to save money .

I will find a way to buy bulk get on a percentage discount and save that way .

The sale is fun . I had fun watching the Instagram army cause the hype stuff to disappear in seconds .

It was crazy watching the feeds .

[jr23]

Understandable. The post I am referring to sounded a bit sensitive, like you were angry with everyone, but I admittedly may have been reading it wrong

No nothing is wrong with buying oc glass and picking out stones but the Coe issues or comparability with clear or other colors can't be nipped out . Nor can scratches or so much air or bubbles running length of tube .

I am glad you are brave and are willing to get this glass used up .

It's a good sale .

As everyone is having issues with ga from distros to people that want good cads again what there company is built on .

Buy odds are not seconds

Oc glass is odds and seconds or both .

And if you nip out stuff you got shorts

Good first shorts sell for what 15 bucks a pound from ga

Why not just buy a barrel full of em . And stick em together instead of nipping apart .

Cut out a step and save more .

[BORO]

shorts are mixed colors. You don't choose your pallet

[Simian]

I had zero COE or off color issues last year. I cleared out the stones in the rods that had them and then, like I do with firsts, pulled them into stringer. It is simple economics. Totally worth my time to do that since the price per lb is still way lower than with a discount and it really didn't take a ton of time to do it. Safe to say I am comfortable with what I do. It did not effect the quality of my work one bit.

Justin at GL33 is a sociopath and had literally no quality control and made wild claims, blamed his dealers and everyone but himself. Turns out I was lucky on the first mantis pull that I did based on his claims and when I mentioned I lost an entire pull due to his lack of QC he straight up attacked me for like 2 days before offering "compensation" which at that point I refused on principle and now will never use his products. This is not the same as getting odd shaped rods and some stones to clip out of perfectly good color (and yes, all the actually color was uniform and usable last year...sorry that is the reality for me. Until this sale goes bad for me I have to say my experience has been positive.

And FYI, I am not the only person doing this. Lots of milli guys do this because we go through pounds of color on a single image.

[PyroChixRock]

Has anyone received their order yet? Mine still hasn't shipped according to their site.

[Simian]

Has anyone received their order yet? Mine still hasn't shipped according to their site.

My tracking says Thursday delivery.

[PyroChixRock]

thanks, can I ask when you ordered?

[glassdocnc]

Mine, ordered shortly after mn PST first day of sale, should be here in NC Thursday (tomorrow) or Friday.

[Simian]

thanks, can I ask when you ordered?

6 minutes after the sale started. So 106am my time. :)

Just checked the shipping and it is still on schedule to be here tomorrow.

[MUPH]

Mine just shipped today. I ordered the morning of the sale

[Chad S]

My order just shipped out today as well, with an expected delivery date of 02/23/2016. Placed my order about 30 mins into opening of the sale.

[Greymatter Glass]

Shipment exception
Barcode label unreadable and replaced

gotta love it, should be here tomorrow tho

[PyroChixRock]

I ordered at about 7:30 am PST and my order still says nothing except they got it.

[oG Glocc Coma]

The site changes to fulfilled and you get an email with the tracking info. Or at least that's how it went for me this year.

I saw them post a pic of IG yesterday that looked like a Delivery Service Gang Fight was about to go down! They had USPS, Fed Ex, and UPS all outside of GA at the same time shipping yesterday.
Hope everyone gets their orders filled soon. Mine arrived in today's Mail! Super excited!


PS - I also got a new poster with the 6 Missing colors that they just discontinued :( its all true! Cherrywood, Gone... Cobalt -2, Peace! ...I also heard of a letter from GA about cutting some distributors if they don't spend a minimum of $50,000/year this year...

I'm becoming more and more of a North Star only guy as this works out... It seems they actually care about the customer, spend time actually releasing colors instead of hyping them, and they are working on keeping price points down rather than raising them like GA... I mean Abe bought an entire new facility and is still lowering cost per lb on all his new new colors!

[BORO]

^Thanks o.g.


Just snatched 3# of cheery wood o.c. For 14$ each.

Figure in a year, it wont even matter it's o.c. Some people I know live off that cherry wood.

Anyone know if amazon bronze got the boot? That color makes a crazy blow in. And good bird feathers. I imagine the metal content in the o.c. Will be non existent, or so over the top you can't work it.

[oG Glocc Coma]

Cherrywood
Solara
Silver Strike -3
Spring Luster
Cobalt -2
Jamoboree

All Discontinued!

[Greymatter Glass]

So my glass came in, it mostly looks decent...

Not sure what purple potion is supposed to do, this isn't CFL or UV reactive at all from what I can tell - looks like a kinda off/purple version of pink slyme.

Thomas Transparents are 95% awesome - some of it is just Lemon Drop but the rest is banging. The green and orange transparents are sweet. The blues are all just blue dream, lite cobalt, and rain drop - can't tell them apart at all from what they look like.

One tube of Blue Dream is not even what I'd call seconds... stones, devit, and bubble city, kind of disappointed in that one. Lemon drop tube is nice, a little seedy, but consistently so.

Serum is a little variable in intensity/shade but it's clean and not seedy or stony.

Pink Flamingo is a little light if anything (color wise), scratched up, a stone in one rod, some short rods, that's about it... otherwise about 90% of the quality I paid $100 for last go around.

The Blue Dream rod is, for the most part, first quality, maybe a tad off in diameter and length, one or 2 scratched rods, and a few bubbles... still, I've seen worse from firsts from GA.

[mbashaw]

Wow I'm really surprised people already have their glass. I bought all my crap on the first day the sale started and I just got the email with the tracking number saying it shipped today. It's so new that fed ex doesn't even have it tracking yet. Over a week to ship for a product bought in the first 12 hours of the sale? Are you kidding me?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Greymatter Glass]

Wow I'm really surprised people already have their glass. I bought all my crap on the first day the sale started and I just got the email with the tracking number saying it shipped today. It's so new that fed ex doesn't even have it tracking yet. Over a week to ship for a product bought in the first 12 hours of the sale? Are you kidding me?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My understanding is that for the most part they pack and ship orders in the order they're placed. Yeah, you got it on the first day, but maybe behind 500-600 other people who got in on that first 5 minute crush. It takes a lot of time and labor to pack glass carefully, double check packing lists, and get them staged for pick up.

I ordered an antenna the same night from a seller on ebay, and it hasn't even shipped yet, and I'm fairly certain I'm the only one who ordered that particular antenna that day, still waiting for shipping notification.

[PyroChixRock]

Mine shipped today, just got the email.

[BORO]

Silver strike 3. And cobalt 2, smeh.. (other options)

I really liked the jamboree , solara, and obviously cherrywood.

[Trevor]

No more solara? Bummer thats one of my favorites:(

[Simian]

Got mine today. lol, At first glance it all looks like firsts, stoked I have some 4 mm in there too. Actually looks even better than last year.

[Dom]

How does it look at second glance bro? Did you get any lapis

[oG Glocc Coma]

Dougie, Can I get a pic of the Purple Potion? I saw a guy get a lb bundle and half was transparent and the other half looked opaque.

It should be a transparent light purple/dark purple depending on light source

[Simian]

How does it look at second glance bro? Did you get any lapis

No Lapis. I will have to check on Monday or Tuesday. The kiddo Strep bombed our house and I have been laid up for a few days now.

[Greymatter Glass]

Dougie, Can I get a pic of the Purple Potion? I saw a guy get a lb bundle and half was transparent and the other half looked opaque.

It should be a transparent light purple/dark purple depending on light source

That's what I have, looks more like pink slyme than purple potion - until it's worked. The it works (so far). I made some marbles with it tonight, I'll post pics eventually.

[oG Glocc Coma]

Or maybe I'll have to come visit soon!

[Aymie]

If anyone gets Jamboree and is unhappy with the quality, I will likely take it off your hands.

[Greymatter Glass]

Or maybe I'll have to come visit soon!

I don't have any for sale - I get the same bum deal everyone else does, but by all means swing by the shop if you need some normal non-hype stuff (sometimes I have some hype stuff, just not this time what I did sell, sold already...)

[D. dino i ninjah]

DAMN U GUYS .. AND THIS THEAD .. I swore this sale off last year as a never again .. got sent orange rods as rasta gold .. and some of the worst yellow ever .

Thanks to this thred I just rolled the dice .. I still have 1/2 my order from last year .. idk why . I just had to roll the dice

[hashmasta-kut]

glass alchemy gives the worst shipping prices to Canada. I'd rather buy their color elsewhere for more and probably pay less in the end with shipping :D

[Dom]

Got some glass today. My buddy got about 8 pounds.

As expected its mostly garbage.. The lapis is pretty bad, but sadly not much worse than first quality which is paid 4x as much money for.

The other pounds are about half and half. Haterade was decent, some nice slyme looking rods in the mix. Aquas and stuff were decent. Some shitty rods and some 4mm here and there.

[BORO]

My cherrywood is better than my old firsts.

Only melted a stick so far.

Im assuming the rest is similar, and does not turn to mud.

Perhaps it is firsts, and they discontinued it? (really looks like firsts)

[MUPH]

I finally got mine delivered on the 1st. I only ordered 2 lbs of Black Violet and 1lb of lemon drop total but everything looks good

[Joe Userton]

My cherrywood is better than my old firsts.

Only melted a stick so far.

Im assuming the rest is similar, and does not turn to mud.

Perhaps it is firsts, and they discontinued it? (really looks like firsts)

For what it's worth, I got a couple of colors, including the cherrywood, that looked like that.

I noticed that those colors are no longer included on the poster that came with the shipment, so ...

[PyroChixRock]

I got my box and made sure it was all there, but I haven't pulled any out to use yet or really taken a good look at it. I hope the lapis is ok!! that's one of the main reasons I ordered from the sale. And eclipse bleh, not holding my breath on that one. I ordered some knight rider to test out soon.

[Simian]

So stoked on the quality of what I got and the great price. Spent 15 minutes clipping some stones out of my eclipse and I not have a metric ton of great quality eclips to pull stringer with. Another great deal!

[bombheadster]

I've always thought this was a slightly weird practice, but chalked it up to the fact that they don't create as many odd or off round rods during the year as other companies, so therefore don't have a constant supply of odds. That's just a hunch, but maybe has to do with the way they pull their color? Slightly more machinated?

In any case, I love the annual sale, but only buy a few pounds typically. Happy with what I got this year.

But I'm REALLY HAPPY with the lined tubing I ordered from GA. Way high quality and way nicer colors than the golden gate. Mainly, I was after some rainbow tubing, and was impressed at the amount of different colors in the GA stuff. I'm a dumb stubborn fan of Northstar Color, but GA won me over with their lined tubing at least...for whatever it's worh

[unfunraygun]

Pictures people, pictures! Is this The dark ages of 2002? Nips, remix tips, and usefulness tips!

[sirhempsalot]

I got 7lbs of all different colors and it was all good but the lapiz was in all 2ml-5ml random sizes, the only color that had a lot of imperfections was Amazon bronze

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[JDNACEglass]

i got a bunch of raindrop and blue dream, and for the life of me, cannot tell why its not firsts. pulled a vacstack of the raindrop and blue dream, the blue dream did have a few air streaks, guess thats why it wasnt first, but when pulled ended up very tiny bubbles. got some haterade that scared me, some had whitish streaks running the length of the rod, which mixed in completely when coil potted. i totally scored! ill try and get a pic posted....

[PyroChixRock]

I used about an inch of one of the eclipse rods last night, and while that's not enough to form an opinion yet, it didn't piss me off.

[hashmasta-kut]

I got my box and made sure it was all there, but I haven't pulled any out to use yet or really taken a good look at it. I hope the lapis is ok!! that's one of the main reasons I ordered from the sale. And eclipse bleh, not holding my breath on that one. I ordered some knight rider to test out soon.


well who knows right? I tried some knight rider and it was horrible, tried it a few times. my eclipse is still working fine. I have a pile of knight rider rods somewhere i dont want now thats for sure, weird grey greening.

[Unlmtdglass]

Man so many people talking hate on the seconds, I got
2x GA-OK Spring Luster,
1x GA-OK Silver Strike-5
1x GA-OK Cherrywood
2x GA-OK Jamboree
3x Thomas' Transparents Yellow
1x raindrop tubing
1x GA-OK raindrop rods
1x GA-OK Tequila Sunrise,
1x Midnight - Cheap Thrills
1x GA-OK Purple Rain,
1x GA-OK Singular Passion,
1x Tru Blood-Cheap Thrills
2x Solara Extreme - Cheap Thrills
1x GA-OK Andromeda

The cheap thrills all works like firsts and is fantastic color, I wish the Solara extreme was a normal color, I had some variance between sizes but nothing crazy and so far I've only had to pick out maybe ten stones over all the pounds I got,
The only issue I've had was with the raindrop tubing, it has some very weird streaky bits in it, not a fan. But for under 500$ I'll take 19#s

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[D. dino i ninjah]

I got my stuff from the sale .. the Jamboree is the JAM .... aqua mist is better than anything Ive received .. Twilight is also fucking awesome ... My black violet is a little stoney/airy but .. its totally usable .. My big regret is I didn't buy any cads because the cads I got last year in the sale were total shit... and now GA just released some sshit about how their not making fucking cads anymore .. and .. well suddenly shitty light tinted cads .. sound fucking awesome .. compared to NONE ? .. I was so psyched . about getting good glass. . and then I read about the cads kinda blew my high..

[coloringdan]

Where did you hear about GA not making cads anymore?

[Chad S]

http://glassalchemy.com/blogs/the-formula/112757444-crayon-colors-temporarily-unavailable

[wesleypipes]

Crazy do you think the distributors will sell out quickly/ prices go up? Someone said thats what is happening with bulls-eye glass.

[FifDeez]

Holy fuck no cads!?! Oh man I use that shit so damn often.

Sent from my ALCATEL A564C using Tapatalk

[hashmasta-kut]

I wondered what happened at mountain glass, they have been out of some of their cads for awhile now. I just went and found a few pounds somewhere.

[FifDeez]

Makes ya wonder how much is being horded and how much is really left to be grabbed. Thanks a lot bullseye. Another "reputable" company for ya

Sent from my ALCATEL A564C using Tapatalk

[JDNACEglass]

yeah, ive been watching the inventory of the ga cads at m.g. for a bit, all out of stock leading up to this announcement, i feel there was deffinitely some sort of notice given, to some, just not the general public

[istandalone24/7]

Abe from NS said he is not suspending the cads in his line. he is however, installing new filters and whatnot in the new plant to proactively deal with possible future legislation in regards to cadmium pollution.

[piedpiper608]

Red crayon has been very scarce the last year