[TmDrak]

Hello everyone, im a friend of TmDrak and I speak english. He would like me to translate this to you guys: Hey everyone its me again, can any of you tell me if its possible to make money by collecting elements or anything in chemistry? I'm very interested in chemistry, I want to do many expiraments..but I know none. How would one go about making Potassium Nitrate? So heres my three questions: Can you make money through chemistry, Is there a good website on fun chemistry projects, and last is how would you make potassium nitrate. Thanks

[Donaldson Tan]

if you are curious on the prospects of being a professional chemist, checkout the American Chemical Society (ACS) http://www.acs.org

There was a discussion thread comparing chemistry and chemical engineering. Here is its URL: http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?board=24;action=display;threadid=3670

Jdsurg is our forum's authority of element collection. Do ask him alot of questions regarding the collection of chemical elements.

Fun experiments? Well..  
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education%5Ccurriculum%5Cwondsci.html

[jdurg]

In terms of collecting elements, that hobby will COST you a lot of money, but it won't really make you a lot of money.  There isn't really a large secondary market for most of the elements out there, as random people aren't scrambling around trying to get some elemental boron or vanadium.  The only metals which do have a secondary market are the precious metals silver, gold, platinum, rhodium, etc.  For those metals, most of the trading is done on paper and not with physical metal, so it's difficult to really make a profit on them.  They're just a more risky form of playing the stock market.  If you are thinking about becoming a dealer of the elements, that's not really a long term solution either.  For a short while, when you're getting new customers, you may be able to make a nice profit, but once those customers complete their collections, you really won't hear from them.  I bought a LOT of my elements off of Dave Hamric (www.elementsales.com), but once I got the last element I needed I really haven't bought much of anything from him in quite a few months.  It's just a sad reality in terms of a collector/dealer relationship.  I still keep in touch with Dave, but I just don't buy things from him all that often.  Maybe here or there I'll pick up an 'upgrade' or a replacement, but that's about it.  Even Dave has had to go and get another full time job just to support himself as many of his regular customers have completed their collections.