Canning Finding used jars

[lonestar09]

I will throw this out. May not really work for all at the moment due to the flu thing now. I have found canning jars reasonably priced at the thrift stores especially goodwill. Years back I would go to their clearance center and up jars for 19 cents a piece. Picked up about 600 that way. I still find them and puck them up depending on size and price. Just letting all know. Wish I still could get them for that price though

 

[Publius]

Try yard and estate sales we got most of ours that way.

 

[Jeepcats27]

Craigslist, Dollar General, Salvation army, Goodwill, neighbors, and family are good sources.
If you are lucky you will find jars for 50 cents on the 50% off days at Salvation Army.
Jars have definitely have gone up in price in retail stores.

 

[moldy]

Ace hardware when on sale and buy in bulk

 

[summerthyme]

Walmart ships jars free, and their prices have been decent. I haven't checked lately, however...

(But as recently as last fall, their prices were lower than an Amishman who buys truckloads of jars to resell, and I know he's not marking them up more than 10% over his cost)

Summerthyme

 

[Orion Commander]

I just walk by jars in thrift stores. Here the have been a dollar a jar for years. This is when I could buy a new dozen will lids and rings for $9.00 for qts and$8.00 for pints.

Bought most ten years or so ago for 10¢ each. I did pay 25¢ for some as the sale money was going to charity.

Currently new are about a dollar apiece here.

 

[Tundra Gypsy]

You are lucky. Most of our thrift stores are closed! No yards sales yet either. Its buying lids for those jars that will be the challenge...and when you do buy lids...you better think about next year as well. Most stores have limits on what you can buy around here. It will be a very slow process of purchasing enough lids this year to can.

 

[4bears]

Couple of years ago I bought a pickup truck load at an auction for around ten dollars total.

Ok, ok it was a short bed pickup. :-0

.

 

[Esto Perpetua]

I quit buying mine at the thrift store. I had some that must have been ancient because they broke in the canner. Sometimes you can do okay in our area if they're 75% off or something. One thrift store I rarely go to was charging FOUR(yes, 4)dollars for a quart jar and it was just a plain old canning jar not some kind of rare special edition item.

 

[packyderms_wife]

I will throw this out. May not really work for all at the moment due to the flu thing now. I have found canning jars reasonably priced at the thrift stores especially goodwill. Years back I would go to their clearance center and up jars for 19 cents a piece. Picked up about 600 that way. I still find them and puck them up depending on size and price. Just letting all know. Wish I still could get them for that price though

The goodwill here wants close to two dollars per quart jar, chipped or no chipped rim. Thank heavens we have jars, back when his work place was actually giving out an annual good employee reward we spent that money on canning jars. His complaint now is slow down on the canning I have no place to put this stuff, which means I need to go spend a day in the basement to organize... and if he reads this he’ll be like PLEASE!!!

Parkinson’s sucks balls and big time! Never saw this shit coming, Parkinson’s that is, the rest well yeah just thought it was five or so more years out.

 

[Publius]

Try yard and estate sales we got most of ours that way.

My wife picked up another 27 canning jars this weekend for just $3 dollars. she does a bread run for the church every Saturday and stoped at a yard sale along the way. Over the years she has come across people that tried canning and decided it was not for them and sold the jars at a yard sale cheep and sometimes it's grandmas stuff and she passed away and they are unloading all her stuff by doing a yard sale, my wife has come home to tell me to fire up the truck to get some canning jars and we end up with 100 or 200 canning jars for $20 or $30 dollars.

 

[packyderms_wife]

My wife picked up another 27 canning jars this weekend for just $3 dollars. she does a bread run for the church every Saturday and stoped at a yard sale along the way. Over the years she has come across people that tried canning and decided it was not for them and sold the jars at a yard sale cheep and sometimes it's grandmas stuff and she passed away and they are unloading all her stuff by doing a yard sale, my wife has come home to tell me to fire up the truck to get some canning jars and we end up with 100 or 200 canning jars for $20 or $30 dollars.

I've gotten quite a few, probably close to 500 or so, for free, the grandkids just wanted them gone.

 

[Tundra Gypsy]

When my mom was moving to be closer to family before she passed away, she had to get rid of all her canning jars. My sisters weren't interested or wanting to bother with them; so I dumped out all the old food; cleaned them, and took them ALL home. They are now sitting on shelves (150 various sizes) , waiting for me to start canning this year. Too bad sisters; you had your chance and thanks for not wanting her cast iron cook pot either. I cleaned that up as well and took it home. It makes the best stew in it!

 

[Old Gray Mare]

If a yard sale advertises jars, I suggest calling first and getting an actual number of jars for sale, verifying they're canning jars and if they're quarts or pints. I've been screwed a few times with the: "Oh I've two BIG boxes!" only to find a handful of actual canning jars and those were not in the best condition.

I've auctioneers swear they hate auctioning jars no one wants. I left my name and number with auctioneers noting that I wanted jars. I've never heard from them. Ever.

 

[Zahra]

Whoever is pricing canning jars at our Goodwill is a greedy jerk too - they want .99/jar for quart size. Why would I pay that for used jars without rings or lids when I can buy a dozen new quart jars with rings & lids for $11.99 at Fred Meyer?

Check your Facebook marketplace & Craigslist. I've seen people wanting to get rid of canning jars cheaply.

 

[20Gauge]

I will throw this out. May not really work for all at the moment due to the flu thing now. I have found canning jars reasonably priced at the thrift stores especially goodwill. Years back I would go to their clearance center and up jars for 19 cents a piece. Picked up about 600 that way. I still find them and puck them up depending on size and price. Just letting all know. Wish I still could get them for that price though

So did we. That in fact is how we began to collect jars. This changed about 3 years ago. They began to price them as if they were new. So might as well buy new unless there was something interesting about it.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I've bought several cases over the years, myself. Once my mom gave up gardening, she gave me all of hers, plus all of my grandmothers. I'm pretty sure I have a few hundred. I haven't counted them, lately. I make sure I'm well stocked with lids and rings.