Oh yeah - I have bought a lot of bottles from my local bottle depot. They were actually friendly enough to stockpile Grolsch swing-cap bottles for me. I have bought over 400 of them for next to nothing.
Here is my method for cleaning that involves almost no scrubbing. First, rinse every bottle (especially the really grungy ones) with a bottle washer. Then soak them in a combination of TSP and bleach overnight. That should dissolve almost anything in them. Third, rinse REALLY well with a bottle washer. Then sanitize as usual (I use Star-San).
If I get some really stubborn bottles, I use a bottle brush in the chuck of my cordless drill after they have soaked for a couple days in TSP and bleach. Oh, I should also mention that I have also started using Oxyclean, which seems to work just as well as TSP and bleach, in case you can't find TSP.