What's up with Pyrex? Prices have gone nuts!

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Prices for used Pyrex items on eBay are remarkably high. And this is to say nothing of what sellers are asking for shipping. If you already own your share, be protective and take excellent care of the Pyrex items you might have the good fortune to possess.

I was lucky, back in the 1990’s, to run across a second hand shop which was offering Pyrex items of all sorts at (what seemed to me) giveaway prices. I pulled out all the stops and brought in a copious supply of Pyrex glassware, thanks to that opportunity. I assumed, back at that time, that for whatever reason Pyrex had fallen out of favor.

During this century I was able to add to my Pyrex stash, buying mostly used but some new pieces. Not a day passes that I do not use these items, along with some Corningware, for a wide range of cooking purposes. The applications are within both microwave and air fryer contexts.

So why are prices so high today. I dunno. Maybe younger folks have rediscovered the high utility of Pyrex items.

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REAL Pyrex, I assume, right? (not just the brand-name)

It’s the same kind of thing with Corningware. (my parents had an old set that my dad went on ebay to buy replacement lids for one time, and was shocked at how popular/expensive things were)

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I don’t know what that means. Most of my pieces are marked “Pyrex” with that word molded right into the glass or printed indelibly in some manner.

I do have one or two “Glassbake” pieces and an Anchor Hocking item or two. These are not Pyrex, but they serve the same purpose. And of course the Corningware pieces are not actually Pyrex, but they also serve the same purpose.

This is all highly useful stuff. I have no clue why people were casting such items aside at the end of the last century.

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It means that “pyrex” (now a company name that stamps their label into all kinds of glassware) is originally a trade name for borosilicate glass (high-temperature-range specialty glassware that could tolerate going straight from the oven to the sink without shattering).

Modern “pyrex” (things stamped with the brand) – unless you are buying lab equipment – is NOT borosilicate glass.

“PYREX” – all uppercase – is borosilicate glass (the good stuff)
“pyrex” - all lower case – is the modern brand name stamped onto lower quality glassware

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Thanks. That is good to know. All my pieces are older. They all have the uppercase lettering. I was unaware of the newer stuff.

Maybe this is why, at least in part, the eBay prices for older PYREX items are so high. As with so many other things, older is better.

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As with so many other things, older is better .

I would say that kind of sentiment is extremely case-specific…

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I nearly forgot:

My dad was a physicist. He passed away decades ago. Dad made his own telescopes, grinding and silvering his own mirrors. Among the things he left me there is a large container of mirror blanks, a few quite large. These all are Pyrex, very old from the 1930’s. And they are damn heavy!!

I should have sold off those blanks years ago, but never got around to it. Besides, here where I live it’s tough to locate people who grind and silver their own mirrors. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Inflation! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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For the Blue or the Gray? :rofl:

Joking aside, that was quite the talent back then, and even rarer today.

ETA: @arch8ngel’s description is positively accurate. I presume that there are still heated message boards about the difference in older Pyrex and those products sold in the last couple of decades.