RALEIGH - Until about April, a 65-gallon rain barrel was the must-have tool to save water, fight drought and show the neighbors you're the greenest Earth dog on the block.

Now the rain barrel looks like this year's Hula-Hoop.

Stores that sold 300 barrels a week last year are sitting on inventory and cutting prices. Rain barrels go for as little as $25 online -- down from the $100-plus price tag common in dry months.

"Oh, my gracious," said Lynn Ruck, who co-owns Rain Water Solutions in Raleigh, which makes and sells barrels. "It's just basically stopped off. We hope it's going to become a lifestyle rather than a weather pattern."

The best hope for sales is year-round eco-thinking -- or the slow return of the drought, now reaching the "severe" category across the Triangle.

At its worst last Christmas, the drought left the Triangle nearly 10 inches short of normal rainfall. Raleigh and Durham outlawed watering lawns by sprinkler. Restaurants stopped serving water. Cars stayed dirty. Waterless urinals got installed.

Rain barrels provided an easy way to keep a lawn green without straining the water supply, and they made easy money for overnight barrel moguls.

The demand inspired Cher Durham of Garner to buy pickle barrels in Mount Olive or Goldsboro for $5 apiece, fashion them into rain barrels and sell them for $55 as a sideline. Typically, you putty a few holes, add a spigot and a screen, et voila! The Mount Olive Pickle Co. launched dozens of sales sidelines in the Triangle with cheap cast-off barrels.

In dry times, Durham had orders for about 10 barrels a week. Once the rains came, that business slowed to one or two.

"I sell them cheap because I really want to help people out," she said.

Business is slower for big operators, too.

Rain Water Solutions was offering its barrels for $95 on sale. And unlike pickle barrels, said Ruck, the co-owner, these won't draw mosquitoes or form algae. Barrel business comes and goes, she says, and it's hard to fit a rain barrel into a household budget with gas and grocery prices so high. Sales are starting to recover since rainier times, and she hopes customers will get thirsty for the higher-quality water a barrel catches, along with smaller water bills.

She recalls having orders backed up four to six weeks last year, but now there are plenty of barrels on hand.

In Durham, Cindy Berglund at The Rain Barrel Co. echoes the optimism. Sales have slowed from 900 a week to closer to 250, she said, but people will soon realize that barrels are not strictly an emergency item -- especially with lake levels dropping again.

"It has dropped off from the crazy numbers," she said, "but if I could keep it at 250 a week for the rest of my life, I'd be thrilled."

Even cities are seeing customers turn up their nose at conservation, and local governments have been some of the barrel dealers' best customers.

Holly Springs unloaded just 81 barrels at a one-day sale in April. (At a sale in March, the town sold 228.) With demand so low, future barrel sales are iffy.

"We haven't sold any since, and we've sort of left it open," said spokesman Mark Andrews.

Raleigh eased its watering rules in April, along with the rest of the Triangle, and also resumed issuing $50 permits that free a resident from any restrictions for 45 days. Since April 6, the city has issued 536 such permits.

"Those have been selling like hotcakes," said Ed Buchan, Raleigh's water conservation specialist. Barrels no longer rate as a hot commodity, spokeswoman Jayne Kirkpatrick said.

Still, Falls Lake isn't full anymore, and even though Raleigh's council isn't calling for a return to tight restrictions, city officials note that consumers are using less water at the tap.

So dealers hope their barrels take hold as a way of life rather than an emergency fix -- especially with Raleigh's water rates rising 15 percent, effective today.

Everybody should own a barrel, Ruck said, and keep it nestled near the recycling bin.

(Staff writer David Bracken contributed to this report.)

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