Buying Used Canning Jars
Old or vintage doesn't mean good
If you are a home canner you know we have gone through periods of low stock and high prices on canning jars. Many of us turned to fleamarkests, thrift shops, and online marketplaces to source new or used jars.
They saw many of us coming.
As of this writing, wide-mouth pint jars are going for $10.99 per case, new with rings and lids, at the big box store we all love to hate. That makes them about $0.92 cents per jar/lid/ring set.
So why would I pay $1.50 for a “vintage” or “very old” jar?
I wouldn’t.
It is eay to get caught up in the scarecity, panic mindset. We understand hard times are coming, or are here, and we want to prepare. We’ll grab anything, no matter the price, just so we have something. Don’t do that with used canning jars.
I am hard pressed to pay $0.75 for one used jar. Older jars can have micro-cracks that cause failure when pressure or waterbath canning. They may have chips along the rims that will prevent seals. Could you use them for storage of dry goods? Sure you can. The true vintage, blue glass, interesting forms jars make attractive and efficient storage options.
The jar pictured below looked fine before I placed it in the dishwasher. The simple heat of the dishwasher cause the glass to crack, probably because of a micro fracture as it was not in direct contact with anything.
I paid $0.25 for it at a thrift shop.
Just keep this in mind as you source and price used jars. I might have lost two pounds of meat (no less than $3.00 per pound for cheap stuff) in the pressure cooker.