Oddball

I think Potassium ferricyanide is red. I only remember because it was mentioned in a metallurgy class I took in regards to tempering steel. Probably not relevant to what you have, but...

I don't have pictures of most of my elements, but here's one my favorites: Ti Crystal Bar 5N (iodide/van Arkel - de Boer process)

I was pretty jealous too, which is why I "bought" it from him. The second pic is from the 50g sample i paid him for. It's very beautiful, although it is a little annoying seeing a picture of something online that someone essentially stole from you.

Well, that's certainly true. I think I just need to do my due diligence and establish some sort of relationship before I send a check to random people half way around the world. It's not so bad though, if I ever want to see the Cs sample I bought, I can go see it's picture on Wikipedia!

Unfortunately, it not being an actual eBay transaction, they were less than interested. That's OK though, I'm busy practicing my ampuling skills. I think I'm going to get some heavy wall tube and make some ampules to store my iodine in. As expected, it seems to be doing a number on the teflon seal of my jar. I think I might try casting the ampule in resin when I'm done to make it shatterproof. Anyone know of any good clear casting resins?

Greetings Everyone, I have been lurking around this site for a while and decided to say hello! After reading a lot of the posts around here and checking out Theodore Gray’s website I have rekindled my interest in Chemistry and recently started my own element collection. So far I have nice samples of Cr, Ni, U, Th, P, Na, Li, Zr, Ti, Nb, Co, Ni, Ag, Au, Zn, Hg, C, Al, O, Cl, I, Ar, and Xe. A lot of my samples have come from eBay, the big dealers like Dave Hamric, and some private individuals (many from Theo’s website). It’s been a lot of fun, a great educational experience, and I have met a lot of great folks. I am surprised at how much interest my hobby has had from friends and family. They are often amazed to see what the elements look like in their pure form (sodium is a metal!?). On a sadder note, after all the great experiences I have had, I had my first bad deal. I had decided I would like to add a Cs sample to my collection. I have always thought Cs was a fascinating and beautiful (albeit hazardous) element. I noticed a fellow from Denmark was selling a really excellent ampoule on eBay. Of course, eBay pulled the auction. The fellow had good feedback up till then, and had lots of videos on YouTube of his collection as well as many pictures on Wikipedia (as well as some crazy large Cs ampoules). So, I decided to do an off eBay transaction with him (first mistake). Well, to make a long story short; I sent him the money (a rather sizable sum) and got nothing back. He won’t respond to emails now, and it looks like he did the same thing on the last eBay auction he had. I guess I figured someone who shared the same hobby would act honorably, but it seems outside the structured confines of eBay, some people just loose all sense of responsibility. But, I did learn a few valuable lessons: -Off eBay transaction with private individuals are dangerous (duh). -Off eBay transaction with private individuals from foreign countries are very dangerous (double duh). I think I am just going to stick with domestic sellers from now on; at least there is the possibility of legal recourse there. -If you use PayPal and haven’t received the item in 45 days, file a dispute. Period. It doesn’t matter if they have the best excuse in the world, file a dispute. After 45 days are up, PayPal could care less. -If you use PayPal, use a credit card. It gives you leverage in getting PayPal to investigate fraudulent sellers. Regardless, I won’t let one person’s greed discourage me. I look forward to expanding my collection and hope to have some good discussions with all you fine folks. Thanks!