Seed purchases - labeling - the buyer experience

Breeder's Lab Seedbanks
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So I bought some (to me) expensive seeds from a well known breeder through a well known seedbank and I am left with questions and a sense of unease.

I’m not going to publicly call anyone out but I’m scratching my head a bit about what was sent and without naming names I think I’d appreciate the community’s opinions and perspectives.

To set the tone, I’ve seen plenty of good references for both the breeder and the bank. I’m not saying there aren’t negative reviews out there, but I haven’t gone looking for them, haven’t seen them, and really don’t have a foundation of distrust.

Because of this, my instinct is to have good faith, choose “trust”, grow the beans out and leave it alone. Thats the direction I’m headed, but what do you think?

Here’s the story.

I purchased a pack of what was supposed to be a stabilized line of a well known strain in what appears to be a special release.

They weren’t cheap.

The foil-pack, when it arrived, had print on the actual packaging that appeared to be from a different release. and a decorative sticker label had been slapped over the other side matching what I had ordered.

Hmm…curious.

I asked the bank about this and was essentially told the foil-packaging had been purchased in quantity for a previous promo and the breeder was trying to save money and run the inventory out by slapping a sticker on for new stuff.

That made sense and I decided to go ahead and crack the package open. The seed count inside far exceeded what I was expecting. -a good thing, right? Everyone loves a generous scoop. Me too. Yay!

Thanks guy.

Unfortunately or perhaps more precisely, disturbingly, the seed count did seem to match the promo count for the strain shown on the foil-pack.

Ah shit.

The seeds themselves didn’t look great. -Quite a few immatures, and even a little debris from the shuck.

Maybe that’s why the scoop was so generous?

Wanting to get a better look, I poured them on a plastic table. They were lite enough that the static electricity from the table caused them all to dance around crazily.

-Not something I was expecting or used to seeing.

Onward.

I started one of the healthier looking ones and I plan to see it through. It germinated in about 3-days. -all good. If the line is as stable as indicated, the results shouldn’t be surprising.

Trust but verify?

But in thinking again about the buyer-experience I am left SMDH a little bit.

I understand breeders have costs. All businesses do, and I’m sure there are more than a few around these parts that could give me an education. -No disrespect intended. -Appreciate you and your work.

I don’t know much about selling seeds, but I do know a seed-run can produce thousands of seeds. -Serious quantities.

There are a lot of folks out there trying to make a name for themselves selling those serious quantities and hoping to generate a customer-base. Some are reputable. Others not so much.

Again, no disrespect to anyone who is trying to make a living doing this, breeding and selling seeds. I’m foolish enough to be your customer.

I would think though if you’re generating that much inventory, have a good-rep and are actually managing to sell your beans for >$100, it shouldn’t be too much for your expensive-seed buying customer to expect proper or at least consistent packaging, especially in an industry where trust can be hard to find. (?)

Maybe I’m wrong, but to me it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think the margin on those $100+ seeds would cover the operational-loss on the unused packaging. (?)

One might hope a business-person selling what is supposed to be high-quality seeds in a competitive market really wouldn’t want to risk also losing the trust of their customer.

And I want to trust those I’m doing business with and the value of their products.

It tweaks me a bit when the folks I’m doing business with seem to take that trust for granted and threaten it with what I would consider to be faulty business decisions.

But what do I know?

There’s certainly a long way to go for the industry and I’m just bitching.

Caveat emptor, man. Thanks for reading this far.

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https://707seedbank.com/shop/bulk-seeds/

Breeders selling directly now.

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Might as well include the seed brand and seed bank at this point. If nothing else, someone else could help ease your mind through their experience with the same seeds.

I will say, though, that there seems to be some long standing legit seed banks turning a corner to shady behavior as seed sales slow. And also long standing shady characters gaining traction as legit people through careful brand cultivation on social media, despite still shady behavior if one looks closely enough.

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Kind of hard to give accurate advice without details.

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Yeah that could go either way. It’s common to reuse old packaging if you can tweak it to look decent. It’s actually more expensive than you might think for packaging and labels especially when you’re buying hundreds or thousands. It also could be what you fear happening. Guess you’re gonna have to grow them and see.

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My thoughts as well. Keeping the faith…

But right now, TBH I’m much less inclined to take the risk and keep spending money like that when there are other offerings from other folks that don’t leave me with those questions.

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I could tell you right now if they’re legit/not/ or questionable…Who’s the breeder and what bank? In that situation I’d usually hit up the breeder, if they don’t respond they don’t care too much about your business. If I get premature seeds from a breeder I’m usually done with that person, and plant material within the seeds is a representation of their laziness and reflection of how they operate.

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As someone who has purchased, designed, and made packs for seeds I’ve made and given out, it ain’t that expensive. Not unless you’re trying to be real fancy like NightOwl or calyx bros or something, but, no one needs that level of packaging either.

I could get reusing old packaging, but, why not put the new sticker over the old label? Why do both? The fact it’s the same quantity as the old label would make me think it’s the old packs and the breeder or the bank just slapped a new sticker on it to try and pass it off as a different strain.

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Incredibly well said and insightful all around. I think you’re quite valid and reasonable in your feelings and opinions. As I was reading along my first thought was, oh well it’s normal to want to be efficient and recycle old packaging if possible. It happens often and across industries of many types not just cannabis seeds.

Then to read that the generous count of seeds matched the old packs description and was different than what you had purchased I felt the rationale start to shift from the packs just being reused to now two things are seemingly off about the purchase. That would start to have me questioning their authenticity considering you mentioned they were fairly expensive. If the seeds were also immature looking and not that great looking it would really have me start doubting their quality.

It really does come down to trusting whoever it is selling and packing up the seeds. Do you think it’s more likely they got careless with the seed count or that they’re being purposely deceitful? That’s what it would boil down for to me.

I’ve had some inconsistencies with breeder packs from authorized retailers in the past and it’s never an enjoyable feeling wondering if your recently purchased expensive seeds are genuine or not.

Your comment about plants being able to produce such copious amounts of seeds is something I think about when interacting with breeders and seed companies. If they seem stingy with the seed count as if they’re prescious faberege eggs then that speaks volumes to me. If ever a valid customer complaint and you’re not offered replacements and a proper resolution it tells me everything I need to know about that seed maker, breeder, and/or retailer.

I think it could go either way in your situation and their correspondence along with the resolutions offered will mimic their inherent quality.

For what it’s worth, I’d much rather have heard in the story that they reused the old packages because it’s better for the planet than just tossing them out. To hear it’s about saving some coin shows where their motives are placed. Perhaps I’m looking at it too narrowly in that regard but however conscious or subconscious something is said, words to me are important. Many blessings and much love

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If they put a price tag on them like they’re precious fabergé eggs it kind of pisses me off too (sorry I’m triggered). I buy six seeds from an industry leader for $24 each, which is too much to begin with, and not all of them sprout always. That company is pretty generous with the freebies, but I’d rather get 10 seeds for $10 each - and THAT’S expensive too.

I’m pretty stoned right now. Hopefully I don’t regret posting this rant.

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No body’s perfect. We all go through things in life etc. Who knows what said breeders got going on.

But at the same time I do agree. You should have your affairs in order before you supply your products to the paying customer. Its a lose lose for both parties if not.

On the note about the seeds. Personally if I got the seeds I paid for and had some extra duds in there… I got what I paid for. Maybe theyre a one man ship? Maybe theyve got a lot going on and are a bit overwhelmed? Maybe they dont care. I try to give people the benefit of doubt.

But overall things seem a bit unorganized. Said breeder can always improve.

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In 2005 we paid 10$ + for a seed, no complaints as people got fire consistently to the point no one ever thought about seed prices as returning your investment from 1 pack was almost guaranteed and by the truck loads, today they doubled the prices and do 1/3 of the work, inflation baby.

I love the fact that you went for a worked line to get something better than a random plant… and even then all sorts of problems arise like you mentioned… damn people just wanna grow a nice seed and enjoy their hard work and precious time.

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You can literally make 10s of thousands of seeds without any effort. Mother mature.

This is like the perfect lane for scammers and lazy people.

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Stabilized seed? You mean a clone?

Whining about packaging, while already accepting random mystery smoke.

They sell seeds because they can’t sell clones. Accept what kind of custie you are.

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Stabilized seeds just a term for a worked consistent line of seeds.
Worked = high % of phenos from that seeds are like the clone the breeder started with.

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A couple things here:

  • It’s unwise to compare a healthy full term “real” pot plant’s seed output to some of these feminized projects. A lof of time bad plants have weird flavors, and people want weird flavors. Many times these are not healthy beautiful plants producing 10k++++ seeds per girl. I’m a pretty boring small time home hobbyist, not an authority, but at this point we’re making xeroxes of xeroxed documents and some of these lines haven’t even sniffed a Y chromo in generations.

  • Packaging and branding are super important to customers. Many “passion” type artisans skip this important step and throw expensive rare goods in a cheap bag and call it a day. Penny wise, pound foolish.

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my experience is different.
Between 1995 and 2005 I popped literally thousands of seeds per year. It was my job to hunt seeds for keeper cuts for the commercial rooms. “keepers in every pack” was a rarity at best and you had to sift through a whole lot of mediocre to decent to find the real killer plants.

Branding… I stuggle with this one.
My location doesn’t make it easy to cover all the bases , especially branding, package art ect.
Maybe I’m clueless I dunno but I don’t have a printer that I can use to print even basic labels. I have priced out labels made with my artwork at the popular places like sticker mule and vistaprint and others but by the time I order labels for a whole drop… the cost is ridiculous.
Maybe I’m missing something… or maybe that’s just the cost of things here in Canuckistan. Drops have to go bulk in the stealthiest way possible and that is the only way they happen.
GLG does a good job of packaging and labelling for me but it is very basic. Canadians who order direct get mylar packaging usually with a small coinflip and washer to protect the seed ad my visually inspiring (not) handwriting hehehe
I will endeavor to provide a better packaging experience for those who seek out my seeds but at the end of the day… the plants speak louder than any packaging ever can. If fancy flashy packaging is what gets people buying seeds and not the plants they see grown from those seeds… well that’s a head scratcher for me.

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95-2005 was just before I started putting seeds from Amsterdam that I bought from seed shops there, before that it was just local seeds worth shit so I can understand where your coming from aswell.
Anything I put from 05 onwards was always special, I have to say I felt genetics were in a linear decline ever since.

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It’s sad, but people want to buy the quarter pounder they see in the picture, not the one that actually comes in the wrapper.

Word of mouth is the best, but there are so many people in the game now, I don’t know why anyone would want to get into selling seeds. I normally buy from NASC and they advertise 2200 different strains. You have to have something that stands out. Even if that means fancy packaging.

There are so few grow reports anymore, no one really knows what they’re getting. Tons of pics of veg and flower, but very few reports on the actual ease of grow, quality, terps, etc.

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I do know one thing , growers in Canada and parts of northern michigan were taking the Coastal Blueberry full term outdoors with excellent resistance to the typical late season blights like molds, mildews and pests. So I figure I will do a grow and show at 52N… if it can thrive here and finish , it will be a true torture test hehe

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