Pinacyanol: gauging interest in group buy

[stamasd]

I assume I'm not the only one attempting to source panchromatic sensitizers unsuccessfully for the past few years. The big chemical houses like Sigma-Aldrich sell them in small amounts, but only if you have an established business relationship with them, which rules out small individual amateurs like me. Also it seems that some chemical forms of them like pinacyanol chloride are not even available through them either and appear to be discontinued.

Well I may have found a source of pinacyanol iodide.
A non-conventional source, and I will leave it at this for the time being. If it works I'll clarify.

What I am trying to do is gauge the interest here for this dye. Because there is a minimum purchase amount, which would be more than I personally could use in several lifetimes.
So I would be looking at parting that amount with other enthusiasts.
The initial purchase price is fairly high for the amount involved, but the price per gram would be much better than what Sigma sells it, for instance.
I won't be looking at making any profit from this, just recoup part of my investment at cost (which would be reinvested in other materials for the lab) and also benefit others with the same passion as mine.

So let me know what you think.

 

[koraks]

I've moved this to its present place in the Member Organized Functions forum and added some words of clarification to the thread title. The intent is to make this easier to find for anyone interested. There is a a permanent link in the original place you posted to the new place.

 

[keesbran]

This might also be interesting for people that make their own emulsions for Lipmann photography. I did find Pinacyanol Chloride in small quantities at a local supplier in the Netherlands. And what about other panchromatic additive dyes like Erythrosine B?

 

[stamasd]

Actually, it's not really about organizing a group buy... I'm not trying to collect money to buy it, I will pay for the whole amount myself. But since I won't need all of it, I would be willing to part some of that stash for other people who may want this chemical.
As for erythrosine, I have a sufficient amount of that for my needs. I'm aware that in the past 2-3 years it has become more difficult to find commercially, but the situation is not as dire as pinacynol, by far. I have actually recently purchased 5g of erythrosine on ebay from a seller in the UK.

 

[stamasd]

In fact I have finalized the transaction already, now it's a matter of waiting.

When I mentioned it's an unconventional source, what I meant is... it's not a commercial source. I have exhausted all possible leads for that in the past 3 years or so.
So I started thinking outside the box.
I found an organic chemist willing to do a custom synthesis of pinacyanol iodide for me. But he wouldn't be bothered for only a few grams of product, so I had to agree with a bulk synthesis of a large amount. Now I have to wait for him to order the precursor chemicals, have them delivered and perform the synthesis.