I’m Seeing random supplies of jars and sometimes lids in the stores. Target, Walmart and my local secret place - there’s only two stores in my state so not useful as a source for you guys. I shop there at midnight-2am when they’re restocking so I sometimes luck out.
I do reuse my lids for years and have not had any problems. I agree that people need to check seals before and after. Before storage, I would hold the jar by just the lid and jiggle in the air to make sure there’s a good seal. I do the same thing before opening one. There’s also the air pop test when I open the jar. You can’t miss that suction break when there’s a good seal.
I also use Tattler lids for most of my jars but they don’t seal well with half pints and smaller. Tattler have the lids available right now for shipping. I just bought another 500 last week.
I’m not a pro at canning but since I have over 1000 jars put up especially since last January, I’ve had a lot of empirical data.
My in laws went through 500 lbs of tomatoes in 6 months and it was complemented by canned tomatoes so I cycle the reused lids a lot.
