Posted: 1/28/2009 9:12:03 PM EDT
| So does anyone know where to get some strike anywhere matches? I have looked at walmart costco and target and all they sell is the strike on box kind. asshole meth heads apparently use them to make meth so they stopped carrying them. It would be nice to have some around in a ziplock. I have other fire starters like a blastmatch I bought for shtf but then i was like WTF why not just get some blue box matches. |
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They still sell them here in Albuquerque, the meth capital of the US.
I wonder if the USPS allows them to be shipped because of the fire hazard? I won't ship UPS anymore unless I absolutely have to... I shipped two partial boxes of ammo to a member on the Surivival board (I'd sold the gun they fit in) and paid more in shipping than the ammo was worth! |
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Ace hardware and iga groceries generally sell them still.
As mentioned they are not as good as what you could find a couple decades ago, but they are not that bad. They need special shipping I think, so that is a part of why some places don't carry them anymore. |
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Another thing about the current 'strike anywhere' or the basic strike on box matches is that they don't hold up to well for on the shelf storage. I've resorted to either putting them in freezer ziploc bags or vaccum packing them to keep fresh.
Friend of mine bought a three pack of the standard strike on box wooden matches in the summer and went through a dozen of them before one lit to light a kerosene lantern. Just a heads up. |
If you guys are concerned about your matches going bad after being stored in a damp area you might want to consider making them waterproof. Buy a block of parafin wax in the candlemaking section at your local craft store. Melt the wax in a double boiler and dip the matches in about halfway for a couple of seconds. The non-messiest way to do this is to secure your matches in a large acco-clip before dipping them. Once dipped, you have waterproof matches at a fraction of the cost of commercially available brands 
I like to dip mine twice-dip once for a couple of seconds, remove from wax, let dry, and then dip again. This makes a thicker coating. |
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Quoted:
In my local Albertson's they still sell them in the bbq section. I actually have a ton of them and have sold lots of them on ebay in the past. I usually give them in my SF Christmas exchange package too. Locally here we have them only at PC food and Ace hardware stores for $2.75 per 750 (three boxes). Its getting harder to find these matches. The nice thing is that they last forever. I recently found an old ball canning jar at my parents house in their basement, it was full of SOA matches from when we use to family camp in the 50-60's and they are at least 40 years old, they worked flawlessly. When I was selling them on ebay I shipped them USPS, wrapped in plastic and then heavy tin foil. I stopped selling and shipping them because I thing it was illegal to ship them via USPS. I never had a problem, I stopped because it was only a matter of time before something went bad with a shipment. While the matches are good, I personally use lighters as a first line of firestarters. I also bought a few thousand water-proof matches with cheapy water-proof plastic containers recently at Target for pennies on the dollar. KDX |