My torch cost $700. My kiln cost $1200. Then there are the oxygen concentrators and the cost of fuel and electricity to keep these things operating.
Honestly, when I do my taxes at the end of the year, glass is one of my smallest expenses, and that's despite buying silver glass, boro, and Bullseye, among other things. I think I spent $600 on glass last year... that would be a lot if I wasn't selling, but I support my family on proceeds from my beads. If I wasn't selling, I wouldn't have needed so much glass. I buy the glass I need; sometimes I make a lot of boro beads, so I buy more boro. Sometimes I make a lot of Effetre and Vetrofond beads and Mike Frantz gets my business. I don't think, "Oh, Effetre is cheaper than BE so I'll buy more Effetre and just make Effetre beads for a while". It just doesn't factor in.
My main concern is whether the glass is good quality. I also take other factors into consideration, but that's at the top of my list. Like I said before, if it's lower-quality it's perfectly fine for practice, but in terms of overhead, if you're breaking it down financially for business purposes, the glass is such a tiny percentage of your costs that whether you pay $5/lb or $40, it's barely worth taking into consideration for pricing purposes, IMO.
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-Kalera
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