Collective, On weekends I work at a homebrew shop. While staring at a drum of malt extract it occured to me that there was a way to save a lot of money on Petromalt. The ingredients on the tube say that it almost 50/50 malt extract and liquid Petrolatum. Through the store, I can get bulk malt extract pretty cheaply. My local pharmacy has generic 13 oz jars of Petroleum Jelly for less than a buck. Bottom line is (with my discount at the store), for about $3.50 I could make 2 lbs of Petromalt like substance when a 3.2 oz tube of Petromalt costs $6.99. This puts Petromalt at $34.95/lb vs homemade goop at $1.75/lb. Petromalt does have Glyerine, Acacia, and Vitamin B1 in it too....but are these other ingredients really necessary for hair ball treatments? Am I missing something or am I onto a great money saving idea? I'm half thinking about designing a nice package and seeing if I can sell the stuff in local pet stores. I hope Bill will allow me to put on a market researcher's hat and ask the collective one more question. (If the question is out of line, please Bill, just remove it from my post.) If you could get a pound of cat lax for say $5.00, a dollar from each package being donated to ferret shelters, would you buy it? I would love your thoughts on this crazy idea. Cheers! Matthew in VA. [Posted in FML issue 2627]