WOW! Just went to order magnets to refill my inventory and found out the magnets I had been paying less than $5 for are now $20. As I understand the Chinnese have control of the market and wont be selling the material for them at an afordable price. I am being told the price will continue to rise quickly.

Forget gold buy magnets:)

Do not know your price point for the magnets, but Lee Valley Tools are still the same.

I order the sampler pack for $14.95

Pete

Hang on to your wallets, folks...we are in for a bumpy ride! As the US Dollar continues to plummet in value due to the insane practice of continually printing more money with nothing to back it up, we will see a sharp increase in inflation.

I anticipate a worldwide economic downturn for at least the next year or two, unless the US Congress can grow up, act like adults and tighten their belts the way us "normal" people do when things get tight.

Right now, though, they seem hell-bent on spending us into oblivion.

If this continues, prices on commodities will spike, as will oil.

Magnets, I believe, fall into the "Rare Earth" category of investing, which is expected to increase sharply, as will silver, gold, and other precious metals.

Gimpy,

Check out seller emovendo on Ebay. I've been buying from him for years.

~michael

I buy from Amazing Magnets....best price and service

DITTO! Their website is the best I have seen. Service is fantastic.
We have ordered thousands of magnets from this company.
Some folks have found other companies a bit cheaper but we swear by this company.
Service is most important and I'll pay a bit more for that.
I have not seen a price increase this time.

Would have been cheaper to buy them- though they're called "rare earth", the actual material they're made from is fairly common. Unfortunately, the last US-based mine for the materials was closed, and the equipment moved to China. There were costs associated with environmental cleanup in the US that were irrelevant/ignored in China. Of course, after this, China decided to clamp down on the exports.

The magnets are used in everything from cars to batteries, so not having any operational mines is a bit of a security risk for the US; it would take a few months for the operations to come back on line. Of course, if the price of buying them from China becomes too high, I bet the US-based mines will re-open.

A great website to get lots of different types of magnets is, http://www.kjmagnetics.com/

If you sign up for their newsletter they will send out discounts once in a while. They don't send out many emails.

KJ Magnetics is great and is my usual source for neodymiums, and I have also purchased from Amazing Magnets. Both companies have great prices that do not seem to fluctuate very much.

You may have heard of this before, but if you have the right tools, you can remove as many as four fair sized rare earth magnets from a scrapped hard drive.

HI. Good reading for an education on magnets, thanks.

I'm searching for a very strong pk ring. Suggestions for sources? Mens average sizes.

There may be others out there, but I have found the Wizard PK rings and the Tabman PK rings to be among the strongest. I am not sure what is going on with the Tabman line right now, whether they have halted production on new orders, if the business is up for sale, or what.

Any major magic dealer will have the Wizard line, available in Silver, Gold and Dark, in rounded or flat styles and they also make identical non-magnetic rings as well. If you go to your local jewelry store and have them size up your fingers, you will know what sizes to get. Just FYI, the PK rings are usually measured in millimeters.

I hope this information is useful to you.

Dr. J - Yes, I've looked at the Wizard lineup of rings and see Generation 1 and 2. Are there any where the m****t may be removed? I'm looking at Frank's new 'Jump" dvd and am interested in his setup. He's got a separate one apart from his ring........ Thanks.