For ages I’ve run websites that are image galleries of silica gel packets. You could say that I’m a pioneer in the field of silica gel packet collecting. It all started when a coworker gave me a silica gel packet with the word “candy” written on it.

In 2009, I bought the domain do-not-eat.com [Archive.org September 2010]. It was just a simple photo gallery with a dozen or so packets, but it managed to get some organic traffic. I sold the domain for something like $30 and the new owner kept the site up for a year or two.

In 2012, I bought the domain silica-gel.org. I built a Django site and added a bunch of packets, also linked by ink color, language, and manufacturer. I ad a packet now and then as I discover new and different ones.

These are my favorite packets.

This one has a nice transparent blue flower that lets you see the silica gel balls.

This one has a phenomenal amount of text and has nice fonts and imagery.

I like this one just because it is orange. There are a few nice orange packets, especially ones from Topcod.

This is another nice orange packet and I enjoy the skull and crossbones.

That’s it for the highlights of my silica gel packet collection.

If you’d like to download a copy of the silica-gel.org website (including archived images), it’s available as open source on GitHub.