> since not everyone has access to oligos I don't know about that. I've bought 50-mer oligos at $20 a pop to do a 6-part assembly in my garage (I made a strai

> since not everyone has access to oligos I don't know about that. I've bought 50-mer oligos at $20 a pop to do a 6-part assembly in my garage (I made a strain of yeast that generates cannabinoids). DNA oligos "basically last forever" if you handle them relatively correctly, even in a terrible defrost-cycling consumer freezer. Enzymes, especially specialty ones, not rock solid ones like modern TAQ, have a very short halflife in your freezer, especially if your freezer is consumer-grade. > how many different PCR kits are there? Yeah, just buy NEB. Seriously. Not worth screwing around with companies that have lower QC standards.