Thanks for the tips so far!
I re-read through the aging and cellering FAQ online again and think I have come to the conclusion of doing it how I initially planned. I'm going to go for the lots of smaller jars route. I think for me this is the best idea as far as my smoking pace and how I feel about opening and closing the jars overtime and how that will affect the aging process. I was pretty much leaning this way already, but was really more curious about those who may have done it this way and wish they would have gone another route or vice versa.. Maybe it was a hassle dealing with all the jars or after a while the space became an issue. Maybe they stored theres in larger jars and wish they would have went with smaller ones etc etc.
I have pretty much decided on the way I will go about the actual "canning" process of the jars so that is covered.
I looked pretty hard again last night and still didn't come up with a wholsale type solution on the jars via the web. Cheapest I found non-branded "wholesale" jars after lids & shipping still came out to aprox $100 for 72 of them. This is either right at or more then buying them locally.
Kind of hard to believe that somewhere on the internet there isn't a better solution. In me searches last night, I actually found countless other people in various activities looking for the same thing. Cheap wholesale canning jars. Could be a lucrative market!
Any other thoughts/ideas/opinions/experiences are still greatly appreciated!