This talk of glow sticks got me to thinking that even at $1 per stick even that seems to be a bit high so I went searching for other opportunities.

What I found was enlightening (excuse the pun). Apparently there are different grades of brightness and more shades of colours that I had previously thought. I knew that they were available in 4" and 6" lengths and that you can even get them in very slim tubes that can be used as coloured bracelets, etc.

The chemical light stick was patented in 1977. I'm not familiar with US patent laws but I suspect that it was a 19 yr patent period and that the patent has since expired (please correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm only guessing). Is so then a similar/identical product can and is being made by companies other than the original rights holder. The chemical reaction is actually quite simple and the chemicals themselves are not proprietary (Hydrogen peroxide activator in the glass ampule and an phenyl oxalate ester which varies according to the colour desired).

You can get a 12-hr, 30 min. and even 5 min. lifespans for usable brightness depending on the combination of the chemicals. The following is a link to a number of retailers of the product. The first link sounds like the best overall deal to me, especially the variety paks of the premium light sticks at 69 cents ea for a lot of 25.
http://tinyurl.com/4ekbro
http://tinyurl.com/4optvj
The lowest price that I have found is 35 cents ea for lots of 500 sticks! or a more practical number of 45 cents for a lot of 25 sticks (unpackaged 6" 12-hr standard quality).