I dunno if it is a lifetime supply, ive gone through a litre in the last year... Which would cost more than a 5 litre one if I was to do it through that auction...
I don't mind the extra price, at a smaller volume I don't have to worry about it going 'off'. 0.8mL/500mL, and 500mL goes a long way, that's I'll I'd use per brewday or kegging, maybe a little more for bottling.
It is my auction - and I agree that it seems expensive but here is how I justify it.
$3 - the cost of the idophor
$2 - the cost of the bottle from the plastic shop
another couple for the bag from the post shop plus some trade me fees
gives direct cost of a bit more than $7
The pain in the ass factor of me buying the big bottle, divying it up, making labels and an instruction sheet, posting it on trademe and making a trip to the post shop - dont want to do all that for much less than $6.50.
If no one buys it its no trouble I'll use it (for the rest of my life!)
If I had the choice of 250mls for $14 or 5L for $60 when I was buying I would have gone the 250mls for convenience, but buying in bulk and sharing with friends will end up cheaper if you get around to it.
5l doesn't last forever either. I'd not really want to be using Iodophor much more than a year after purchase. I was amazed at the difference in colour between my year old iodophor and my "fresh" iodophor when i last purchased.
Feel the love bro! I just ordered 10kgs of hops for everyone and im making absolutely no profit whatsoever, ill still have to go and buy some glad bags, and divvy up everyones share, and get down to the post office, so really I lose time which is in effect money, but I did it because I know that the people I helped will probably help me if they have the chance to!
I dunno, thats how I feel about it anyways, but each to their own... And as James pointed out thats more of a bulk buy thing but its just so much friendlier :o)
Yeh, i started off doing that with malt but it was taking up too much time so i moved on to the proof of concept. in my mind there is this great little beer store that sells everything a homebrewer could want... plus a few interesting, regularly rotating, tap beers on for fill-yer-own... who knows. There's a bigger, far grander plan in behind that. Both could happily co-exist.