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Prices of raw chemicals

josephchesshyre

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Chester, Che
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Wow. What is going on with the prices of photographic raw chemicals? I've just been looking on Silverprint's website (not that many other places seem to sell raw photo chems, let alone an extensive selection), and the prices have gone mental since I last bought some.

In Dec 2015 I ordered, amongst other things, 25g Metol and 100g hydroquinone at £5.40 and £7.80 respectively.

Now, the smallest quantity of Metol they sell is 100g @ £42.40, and 100g of hydroquinone is now £28.80!!!

So much for mixing your own developers being economical. This is depressing!
 
Those prices are very high compared to what we pay for the same chemicals from Artcraft here in the US, but you are buying in very small quantities so you are paying a lot for convenience. It takes the same amount of time to measure out a little as to measure out a lot.
 
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I know it's less economical to buy in small quantities, but what I don't understand is the quadrupling in price from the same website since this time two years ago.
 
Silverprint seems to be pretty expensive for most raw chemicals.

Usually i'll look on eBay and on apcpure.com (they have an ebay store but it doesn't have the full range of products, and pricing is sometimes significantly different).
 
the main benefit of mixing your own is having it always fresh and the satisfaction of being able to do it yourself. Prices are up but there is no danger of a manufacturer closing production of your favorite stuffs with film or paper.
 
josephchesshyre said:
I know it's less economical to buy in small quantities, but what I don't understand is the quadrupling in price from the same website since this time two years ago.
Click to expand...

Yes you are right, there is no logical reason of such increasement also if you want just small quantities.
Have a look on the "Alibaba" site and look for prices of chinese chems.
Then began with small calculations for example metol.
25 kg metol /pricing ?

25g x 1000 = 25 kg
....but £ 5.400 isn't the price Alibaba listed.

In other words : ask your dealer if it would not be more correct if he would calculate his own costs and then add + 175% to his profit? (and not 7600%)???

In other words : todays business is often with pure gangsters.... !

with regards

PS : Be sure the chems come from china!
 

I think there's a lot more to it than just mark up.And no one can divide a metric ton of metol (for example) into 25 gram parcels without incurring a lot of expense. If your bulk chemical sales volume is plummeting you have to make your money with a higher markup (or close your doors)! I doubt that that new selling price adds very much additional profit.
 
Of course there's a lot of cost involved in repackaging etc, but still, it does seem a bit excessive. I am currently looking at ordering some of the more difficult-to-get (at least at a reasonable price in the UK) chemicals from Chinese suppliers, for repacking/resale, most likely via eBay, but also happy to deal with people on the forum.
 
check out a German supplier in Hamburg called Suvatlar;he has almost anything and that at reasonable prices.
 
It always pays buying the right stuff from the right source. Buying raw chemicals from photography related sources it will cost you a lot more than buying it from a source that sells chemicals and chemical lab equipment.
Here in Greece, one can find Metol for 11 euros per 100 gr.
 


....exessive sounds nice to me to describe such form of price increasements on such a lot of examples
from analogue photography.
Of cause I overplay allways - just to make it more clear.
(Perhaps your calculator has shown you meanwhile that it is less that 7600%...)

with regards
 

That looks more realistic to me. So the calculation from your dealer to 1kg metol is in the near of 80,- € - am I right?
And this should be a little more than 100% calculated profit for him - that shall be allowed todays.....

with regards
 
DavidJRobertson said:
Silverprint seems to be pretty expensive for most raw chemicals.

Usually i'll look on eBay,,,
Click to expand...

Alan Johnson said:
Or you may buy on ebay.uk from Poland or other E Europe suppliers.
Click to expand...

I too have looked around for various suppliers of photo chemicals, and as said, the cheapest that I have been able to buy of just about everything is off of ebay, with most of it coming from Polish companies.They are MUCH lower than what Silverprint charges!

Terry S
 
I've used eBay for a few things recently - KBr, KSCN for example - but some, for example Metol, don't seem to be available on there.

Thanks for all these suggestions. I don't immediately need more supplies as I bought the ingredients to make Kodak D168 and D158 (for B&W reversal) ages ago - Dec 2015 as previously mentioned - but have only just plucked up the courage to do some developing with these rather than off-the-shelf developer. But now that I've started using them (they worked beautifully I'm pleased to say) I thought I'd check the prices of replacement Metol and hydroquinone specifically (as the other ingredients aren't expensive) and couldn't believe what I saw on Silverprint's website!
 
I have 2.5kg of hydroquinone on the way from a supplier in China. I'll be able to resell it for similar price to process uk (£14 for 250g) but I'll also offer smaller quantities, as 250g is a fair amount.

Haven't yet found a competitive bulk supplier for metol or phenidone though....
 
Also note that the listed price ranges on Alibaba are often not valid if you ask for, say, 1kg, even if that's listed as the MOQ. Plus of course there's the international shipping to consider.
 
trendland said:
That looks more realistic to me. So the calculation from your dealer to 1kg metol is in the near of 80,- € - am I right?
And this should be a little more than 100% calculated profit for him - that shall be allowed todays.....

with regards
Click to expand...
Gross sales - cost of materials - government compliance -wages - insurance - fixed overhead - packaging materials = net profit (and it is NOT 100%) BTW your example if you double your cost your markup is 50% NOT 100% I teach this for a living.
 
darkroommike said:
Gross sales - cost of materials - government compliance -wages - insurance - fixed overhead - packaging materials = net profit (and it is NOT 100%) BTW your example if you double your cost your markup is 50% NOT 100% I teach this for a living.
Click to expand...
....yes Sir ...and I know that...but have to ignore it (also for a living)
Once again if an increasement has (is increased) with 50% you would pay 150,- before that happened you paid 100,- right..?
And to double the price you should add/calculate + 100% = 200,- right ?
But we may also speak about internalized costs and externalized costs
to make it much more suspensefull to All the others here???..?
But what was wrong now?


with regards

PS : Sales Prices : 100g = 11,- €/ 1kg = 80,-€(estimated) / costs from the dealer is estimated 40,- in total for this.
(the raw chem, shipping,storage,
THE SO MUCH EXPENSIVE WEIGHT AND
PACKAGING a.s.o)
And if he is selling his stuff to the double of all his costs (would we like to name this his total investment [his total costs])
then his profit is 100% - hope so?
 
....may be you are right 50,- is the investment 50,- the profit so the profit is the half of both if you regard the whole sum. Then it is a profit of 50%.
But it is much to expensive - thats the issue.
AND I LIKE TO SEE SUCH KIND OF BUSINESS (with profits much more than 100% [to you it might be only 50%] )
as a form of modern robbery.
So the OP felt as one will steal his money.

with regards
 
Update I got from CG-Professional Fotofachhändler-Preisliste (Saban Suvatlar)
 

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