The first jars I owned were a set of plastic ones with screw lids that came three to a pack, and within a month the lids had gone cloudy and started cracking at the hinge. What I learned is that the lid does almost all the work, and cheap lids fail first, every time.
When you're checking one in a shop, or the day it shows up, put the lid on and take it off a few times before you decide anything. A good lid should settle with a little resistance and a clean seal, not a loose wobble and not a fight. Check the rim where the lid meets the glass or ceramic body, run a finger around it, because a rough or uneven seam there means moisture and crumbs will work their way in no matter how careful you are. Look at the base too. If it rocks even slightly on a flat counter, it will drive you up the wall every single time you reach for it. And think about what's actually going in there. A jar that's perfect for pasta might be hopeless for flour, because the opening is too narrow to get a scoop in without an avalanche on the counter.
Over time, glass jars age better than almost anything else in a kitchen cabinet, which is one of the few genuinely good deals in home goods. They don't absorb smells, they don't stain, and a wipe with warm soapy water brings them back looking new for years. Ceramic ones can craze a little with age, which I actually like, it gives them some character, though if yours is glazed on the inside only and bare clay underneath, expect it to pick up stains from oil and spices eventually. The lids are where things go wrong first: cork dries out and shrinks, rubber seals perish, wood swells in a humid kitchen and stops closing properly. Wipe seals dry before storing anything, and don't put a warm jar straight into a cold cabinet, the temperature swing is what cracks glass more often than any drop ever does. A well made jar has a lid that still works the same way in year three as it did on day one. A disappointing one has a lid you're already babying by month four.
On a counter or in a cabinet, three or four matching jars read as a decision. Six mismatched ones from six different sets read as clutter, and they crowd a counter fast, especially in a smaller kitchen where every inch of surface is already doing double duty.
So before you buy, ask yourself: if I fill this to the top and use it every single day for a year, does the lid still close like it means it?
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