West System Epoxy vs others

I may be getting into a business reselling West System epoxies and their items. I am hoping to get idea of what people in this great big world think of it and what kind of prices your paying for the gallons for example.

 

Retail pricing for epoxy by the gallon in 3 gallon or more increments is about $45 for the cheapest, with $50 to $60 being typical. This is retail marine grade 2:1 non-blushing epoxy. How close to this will your pricing be? Don't get me wrong, I like West System epoxy, but you do have quite a hill to climb in pricing.

 

Would you buy it at $65 a gallon

 

You could sell 105/206 or 209 at $65 a gallon? Quoting the resin cost alone is pointless. I'm talking resin and hardener packages, per gallon of cured product.

 

Good point... $90 for both. For everyone here, this is market research, I am not trying to actually sell product. Which brand you use now?

 

I use several, depending on requirements, but I'm mostly using a proprietary version of a local company now, though Marinepoxy is had to beat and was the one I was referring to in the mid $40 range, which assumes an account with them and business license, plus purchasing 3 gallons or more at a shot, which most will for even the smallest project. If not then their gallon kit will run about 60 bucks, still a full 1/3 less then West System.

 

How is their quality compared to West.

 

Never had a bad batch of either brand. I've had bad batches of goo before, but only from my local formulator. In fact, I've purchased bad batches intentionally from them. They can toss them or give me a realllllly good deal on something they don't have an accurate hardener ratio for (as an example). I've gotten some interesting mixes. Because I work with these guys frequently, I now have a "PAR mix" that is a supper slow that is as slow as West 209, maybe slightly slower. In Florida's mid summer heat (95 to 100), I can work in the shade of an oak tree and have 45 to 50 minutes of working time. Try that with what ever you're using. Yep, it blushes to high heaven, but I can live with this for that kind of working time.

In short, I've found quality is typically an end user thing, not a formulator issue.