Glass Alchemy Sale

**Simian** · 02-12-2016, 07:10 PM

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** · 02-12-2016, 07:15 PM

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

**Simian** · 02-12-2016, 07:38 PM

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** · 02-12-2016, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by Skuzz

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

TAG ran a seconds sale around Christmas.

**FifDeez** · 02-12-2016, 09:21 PM

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.

**unfunraygun** · 02-12-2016, 10:10 PM

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** · 02-12-2016, 10:12 PM

If wisdom prevails you did not read my last post.

**kittypooh5** · 02-12-2016, 10:22 PM

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

**Simian** · 02-12-2016, 10:25 PM

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** · 02-12-2016, 10:38 PM

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

**Simian** · 02-12-2016, 10:49 PM

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** · 02-12-2016, 11:15 PM

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** · 02-12-2016, 11:51 PM

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.

**Dom** · 02-13-2016, 12:15 AM

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** · 02-13-2016, 12:20 AM

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

**yinzer** · 02-13-2016, 02:41 AM

***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** · 02-13-2016, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by 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".

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** · 02-13-2016, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by Simian

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** · 02-13-2016, 08:14 AM

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** · 02-13-2016, 08:38 AM

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...