lugols comes from the manufacturer with a ten year shelf life. and thats only because they dont want to keep track of it forever.
what will happen with dropper bottles is the rubber will break down and air get in all the time and it will start to lose I2 to sublimation. even then its still good, just not quite as potent.
for some, an extra 20 bucks can be hard to come by. i been there, done that, aint much beyond that! these are hard times we are going into.