Where should I buy my locks?

You could go to home depot and buy up all of the padlocks they have on the shelves, but most of them are practically the same lock. What you want to do is get a variety of different locks from different manufacturers.

Here are good recommendations:

Craigslist - You may get lucky and find a locksmith going out of business Local Locksmith - Talk to them about getting cheap or scrap locks, you may be able to get them for cost of scrap, so pounds of locks for a couple of bucks Local scrap yard - Get down and dirty and you may find that pot of gold Lockpicking Forums: http://www.lockpicking101.com and http://www.keypicking.com are the best sites to learn about all things locks and they both have great Buy, Sell, Trade sections with a lot of cheap locks. Additionally, participate in the chat of keypicking.com to get to know some great people while you're there. Home Depot/Lowes - Retail prices for lower quality locks. You will find locks like Master, Kwikset, & Schlage here, but you will normally pay full price for them (save as a last resort) Walmart - They normally have a good selection of residential locks for cheaper than hardware stores with a decent range of locks, from cheap defiant to decent quality brinks locks. Habitat for Humanities ReStore - They have great deals on all types of construction hardware, including locks. Local Thrift stores - You may have luck finding some locks at your local thrift shops, like salvation army or goodwill. Ebay - You can get good deals on "lots" of locks (e.g. Lot of 25 assorted locks) Here are some good ebay search terms:

Lock cylinder lot No key padlock lot Browse the category:Business & Industrial ->Facility Maintenance & Safety ->Access Control Equipment ->Locksmith Equipment