08:05 – I’m always surprised at the price increases when I reorder kit components. For example, one of the components of the biology kits is a quarter-ounce (7.5 g) packet of gelatin. When I was ordering components for 60 biology kits in February, I paid about $19 including shipping for a box of 64 Knox unflavored gelatin packets, or about $0.30 each. Yesterday, I planned to order two boxes, but the cheapest I could find them on offer was $49 per box including shipping, or about $0.77 each.
So instead I’ll order five pounds (2.2+ kilos, enough for 300 packets) of bulk powdered gelatin for about $30, or $0.10 each. Barbara and I will just make up our own packets. Counting the cost of the gelatin itself, a coin envelope, a label, and labor, those packets will end up costing us about $0.30 each. We try hard to keep the prices of our kits as low as possible, and saving $0.47 on the cost of one small component is significant when you consider the number of components in the kits.