What happen to the Price of Shellac

[Thomas Hotchkin]

I went to my local hardware store to pick up a qt of Zinsser clear Shellac. The price was $16.95 a Quart. I pickup a quart two months ago for under $ 9.00. Did I miss something? I saw that lacquer thinner had a large price increase, DA alcohol is about the same price now it is was last year. Tom :confused:

[Steven Hsieh]

I went to my local hardware store to pick up a qt of Zinsser clear Shellac. The price was $16.95 a Quart. I pickup a quart two months ago for under $ 9.00. Did I miss something? I saw that lacquer thinner had a large price increase, DA alcohol is about the same price now it is was last year. Tom :confused:

China is buying a huge volume of shellac, that they ended buying up all of it. Even the
On the meantime, India is having drought, when they can't meet the demand.


We pay $22-25 a quart here in California, so stop complaining about the price.

[Howard Acheson]

For the past couple of years, the shellac harvest has been quite small. Supply and demand at work.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Thanks for the up dates, I don't think shipping to California will be less $6.00 sorry can't help there. Tom

[Steven Hsieh]

It would make sense to buy in gallon since they coast around $38.

[Gary Max]

Heck BLO was over $30.00 a gallon yeaterday---- glad a gallon goes a long ways.

[glenn bradley]

We pay $22-25 a quart here in California, so stop complaining about the price.

Zinsser's Seal Coat did jump to $12.98/qt at Home Depot but I have not seen the $20+ figures. Although Lowe's, at $15.97 for the same exact product (1 block away from each other) is close.

[Steven Hsieh]

Zinsser's Seal Coat did jump to $12.98/qt at Home Depot but I have not seen the $20+ figures. Although Lowe's, at $15.97 for the same exact product (1 block away from each other) is close.

$18-20 is what Home Depot charges where I live.
If I buy it from a paint store in contractor price its around $13

[Jerome Hanby]

I noticed the same price difference between HD and Lowe's...


Zinsser's Seal Coat did jump to $12.98/qt at Home Depot but I have not seen the $20+ figures. Although Lowe's, at $15.97 for the same exact product (1 block away from each other) is close.

[Sam Hamory]

I demo at a lot of different Lowes and have discoverd that prices are not exactly the same from store to store.

[Trevor Howard]

I demo at a lot of different Lowes and have discovered that prices are not exactly the same from store to store.

I found this out with Sears several years ago, when I was pricing a Dewalt Miter saw. Basically they price the product to compete with competitors close by. I had 6 local Sears and the price of the Saw ranged from $580 to $630, I was told they had to compete with the local (closer) Lowes, Home Depot etc.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Don't say I didn't warn you....... :D

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?161263-Price-of-Shellac-is-probably-going-to-rise&highlight=shellac

B*I*N just about doubled in price overnight back in March.
What's surprising is that it took so long for the other shellac products to catch up.

[Dave Lehnert]

I use to do some buying for a retailer. When prices shoot up it is not uncommon for a big difference between retailers at first. In this case I'm sure Lowe's just had to place a new order so you see the price increase first. Next order Home Depot puts in they will go up also.
Also some retailers lock in a price with a distributor for X amount of time. Our store was selling paint thinner for $4.99 gal when the big guys were $10 gal. But when our contract was up with the distributor. our price jumped too.

[Harold Burrell]

Does shellac keep well? Would it be good for someone to stock up?

[Jerome Hanby]

Flakes store well, indefinitely I think. Once mixed it has a fairly short shelf life. I think the Zinsser products have some additives that help with shelf life, but I don't think you want it more than a year old.


Does shellac keep well? Would it be good for someone to stock up?

[Don Selke]

I buy Shellac flakes and make my own. Don't do this for cost savings as alcohol is around $15.00 here at HD. The problem is that all the shellac I find at HD or Lows is at least 2 to 3 years old. I do not trust it at that age. In addition, Zinsser no longer seems to date the can as they did in the past. Living here in the desert SW, shellac is not a hot item. I vacuum seal my shellac flakes and keep them in the frig here due to the excessive heat. It is only 113 here today. I guess it all boils down to material costs and shipping. I guess it won't be long before they remove all oil base products from the store shelf and you will have to be a professional or a licensed contractor to use the stuff. Progress at work. Big brother is watching you, be careful out there!

[glenn bradley]

I noticed Zinsser started using date codes instead of dates. I emailed for an explanation of the code. Here's the response:

Thank you for your recent e-mail.
We apologize for the delay in this response but your e-mail was not properly routed by our system.

The batch code on the shellac should always be a 6- or 7 digit number, beginning with a letter. For example: S01231D

The first number after the letter will be the last digit in the year of manufacture
The second number will correspond to the month
The third and fourth numbers will relate to the actual day of the month.

In this case a batch code reading S01231D will have been made in the year 2010, in the month of January, on the 23rd day.

The Bullseye Shellac will have a shelf life of three years.

Sincerely, etc.

I am not sure how the single digit month works when they get to November and December. Maybe it switches to a 2 digit number abd that accounts for the "6 -or- seven digit number" statement(?).

P.s. you should tell your HD why you are not buying product from them. I told my Lowes (about 3 times) and they started keeping fresher stock and even discounting the stock that was old. @ year old Zinsser would not bother me if I were to use it pretty quickly. As it is I have trouble using up what I do buy. when it starts to age-out, every jig and tool handle in the shop gets a fresh coat before I toss it out ;-)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Glenn.....I read that as being manufactured on 12/31/2010..........but I could be wrong......

[Russell Neyman]

I think the lac bugs are Arabic, actually. So we can blame this crisis on the Middle East conflict. This is extortion!!