Changing conditions at seed suppliers.

[Donnyboy]

Many, many years ago, Dr. Carolyn got me started ordering most of my seed from Tomato Growers Suppy. She was correct! They ususlly stocked the seed at reasonable prices. Shipping charges were reasonable. The seed was always of high quality and shipped promptly. It has normally been common for me the high
price of seed was shipped at low cost. The low cost of seed indicated a high shipping cost.
I ordered five small packets of pepper seeds yesterday of varieties I want to grow and evaluate. I would estimate their total weight at less than two ounces but the shipping charge was $6.95. I'm seeing a lot of new suppliers coming online and I'm wondering if I should try some of them.

How have your experiences been with old "tried and true" suppliers?

[MissTee]

You need to look beyond the ‘shipping’ and the cost of a stamp and understand you are paying labour for the ‘handling’ … Someone needs to go through your order, locate/put together your seeds, pack and double check your bill of sale, and mail your order which often means a drive to the post office. It could take an hour or two for a small seed supplier to put together custom-filled seed packages. For $5 or $7 ‘shipping and handling’, that is fraction of minimum wage. A lot of smaller suppliers aren’t gouging, just asking for fair compensation.

[habitat-gardener]

I probably spend more money on seeds by taking advantage of “free shipping” deals than I would otherwise! I’ve signed up for the mailing lists of many seed companies that I’ve either done business with or hope to order from. When I see an offer of free shipping, I often take some time to look through the whole catalog to see if there’s anything I might possibly want. And there’s almost always something! And then I don’t want to order just one or two packets….

[slugworth]

Leery of online companies,my CC info got ripped off years ago and they got my name,address,telephone number,email address.
I still get spam emails from across the globe in different languages.
I just buy seeds locally now.

[Tormato]

I probably spend more money on seeds by taking advantage of “free shipping” deals than I would otherwise! I’ve signed up for the mailing lists of many seed companies that I’ve either done business with or hope to order from. When I see an offer of free shipping, I often take some time to look through the whole catalog to see if there’s anything I might possibly want. And there’s almost always something! And then I don’t want to order just one or two packets….

What? No more garden center dumpster diving to rescue plants?

[habitat-gardener]

What? No more garden center dumpster diving to rescue plants?

Haha good memory!! I moved away from that area several years ago. These days I bring home the occasional plant the arboretum is getting rid of. Lately when I pick asparagus, I’m reminded of the day I wrestled some old asparagus roots out of the ground (as an arboretum volunteer), and my partner is reminded of transplanting them from one community garden plot to another, including the 4’x4’ gopher cage! Those green asparagus spears are earlier, but the purple asparagus roots I later bought from the local garden center are more productive.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Baker Creek/Rare Seeds has free shipping https://www.rareseeds.com/

The Gotch

[Yak54]

Many, many years ago, Dr. Carolyn got me started ordering most of my seed from Tomato Growers Suppy. She was correct! They ususlly stocked the seed at reasonable prices. Shipping charges were reasonable. The seed was always of high quality and shipped promptly. It has normally been common for me the high
price of seed was shipped at low cost. The low cost of seed indicated a high shipping cost.
I ordered five small packets of pepper seeds yesterday of varieties I want to grow and evaluate. I would estimate their total weight at less than two ounces but the shipping charge was $6.95. I'm seeing a lot of new suppliers coming online and I'm wondering if I should try some of them.

How have your experiences been with old "tried and true" suppliers?

I still buy a few packs of seed from TGS but not as many as I did 10 years ago. They have another new owner these days. That makes 2 since the original owner Linda Sapp sold the business approx. 9 yrs. ago. You may want to check out Heritage/Bunny Hop seeds. Ellie is a delight to deal with !

[wykvlvr]

Like you, Carolyn turned me on to Tomato Growers Supply but I stopped using them a few years ago as they rarely had to odd varieties that I wanted. I find I am using trusted small sellers these days more then some of the bigger names. Shipping costs are going up but I love variety of things I can get and in smaller seed amounts then a few 100 when I only plant 4 or 5 of them a year. This year most of my new seeds came from Etsy from 3 or 4 seeds sellers I trust with some from bigger stores like Bunny Hop, Renaissance Farms, and Forgotten Heirlooms for tomatoes and peppers. Quail Seeds is a general seed store with a great selection of OSSI varieties.
One reason for me moving to smaller seed sellers, which are often a 1 man show, is the variety and yes I only need 10 to 20 seeds of that new to me tomato or pepper or plant type so why pay for a packet of 100 or more when I may not want to plant it ever again. Shipping has been going up and it is starting to become a factor in choosing who to order from but often it is more in the form of what else do they have that I want... and do I feel like my trust is worth that higher cost, seed or shipping or sometimes both.

[maxjohnson]

Overall I gear more toward supporting seed sellers who are about preserving heirlooms, they tend to be mid to smaller operation.

In term of pepper, I was unhappy with one tried and true seller this year which I won't name, did eventually get 90% germination, but took very long, almost 3 weeks for all to come up. Make me feel like it wasn't fresh seed from previous season, this is a speculation I can't prove therefore more reason to not mention name.

I am not a fan of Johnny's Seed even if they do have good quality, I made a post about this before but their price is way too high and they push a ridiculous amount of hybrids. Also purposefully label a open pollinated variety as hybrid.

As bad as the controversy with Baker Creek due to the purple tomato, they seems to be more affordable than competition. Their pepper seed were excellent quality and all came up in only a few days.

I tried Bounty Hunter Seeds, and their pepper seeds all came up too. A new favorite.

Victory Seed is worth mentioning who have a big heirloom catalog.

[TomatoNut95]

I buy from Victory Seed and Baker Creek. Victory Seed prices have gone up on some, and the taxes and shipping prices can make your total rather steep. Baker Creek is great because it's tax-free, free shipping on only $10+ orders and you get a free packet of seed. Sometimes they have special offers to. I'm not holding a grudge against them after what happened with the stupid purple galaxy tomato. Personally I don't think it's their fault. The lab they had those seed tested at either lied to them or they didn't do an accurate enough test.

[rxkeith]

sandhill preservation is still inexpensive, both seeds, and shipping.


keith

[crunch1224]

I agree that some suppliers do charge excessively for shipping. It's a way of milking out more money from the buyer. They price their seeds at market value or under market value to entice the buyer into a transaction. Then charge a high shipping fee after all the details were filled out, cc, address, name, ect... By this time the buyer has spent a lot of time picking out seeds and filling out purchasing details, so chances are after all that they will still purchase the seeds because they dont want to go through the process again. If sellers ask up front what they actually want you to buy their seeds at, most people wouldnt purchase them. The thought of a person counting out seeds for each order and spending hours to put together a order isnt realistic. Seeds are sold in amounts 25/50/100 ect that has been pre packaged. Putting together a order takes maybe a couple minutes.

[karstopography]

I don’t like being charged for shipping or if they do, I like to see upfront in sinmple and uncomplicated terms, what exactly are the shipping charges. I’m perfectly fine with shipping charges being waived on orders over a certain $ amount. My typical order might be $30 or $40 and if they charge $6 or $8 or more, then it wasn’t really a deal their seeds are %15 or 20% cheaper than the competition. I mean anyone that’s ordering online or mail order catalogs is going to have the seeds shipped, so build those shipping costs into the cost of the seeds.

The whole free seed packet that some do is a mixed bag. I have gotten free seed packets of things I actually likeand want to grow, but I’d say the majority of the time the free packs aren’t anything I wish to grow.

[TomatoNut95]

Yeah, I just got the same free packet of Yedikule lettuce with my Baker order today. That makes the 3rd packet in a row. Ome packet went in my "keep" bag and the 2nd and now the 3rd will go into my "rehome" bag.

[karstopography]

Yeah, I just got the same free packet of Yedikule lettuce with my Baker order today. That makes the 3rd packet in a row. Ome packet went in my "keep" bag and the 2nd and now the 3rd will go into my "rehome" bag.

I actually like that lettuce, I order it every year, and it grows well here in the cool season. Very cold hardy and a very flavorful lettuce. That would be a good free packet. I seem to get free Datil peppers seeds or wasabi arugula when I order anything from Baker Creek. Definitely not interested in the datil peppers and not interested in an extra spicy arugula.

[TomatoNut95]

Yeah, I just got the same free packet of Yedikule lettuce with my Baker order today. That makes the 3rd packet in a row. Ome packet went in my "keep" bag and the 2nd and now the 3rd will go into my "rehome" bag.

I actually like that lettuce, I order it every year, and it grows well here in the cool season. Very cold hardy and a very flavorful lettuce. That would be a good free packet. I seem to get free Datil peppers seeds or wasabi arugula when I order anything from Baker Creek. Definitely not interested in the datil peppers and not interested in an extra spicy arugula.

I love spicy!!! If you have any of that wasabi arugula on hand I'll send you the lettuce.

[karstopography]

Yeah, I just got the same free packet of Yedikule lettuce with my Baker order today. That makes the 3rd packet in a row. Ome packet went in my "keep" bag and the 2nd and now the 3rd will go into my "rehome" bag.

I actually like that lettuce, I order it every year, and it grows well here in the cool season. Very cold hardy and a very flavorful lettuce. That would be a good free packet. I seem to get free Datil peppers seeds or wasabi arugula when I order anything from Baker Creek. Definitely not interested in the datil peppers and not interested in an extra spicy arugula.

I love spicy!!! If you have any of that wasabi arugula on hand I'll send you the lettuce.

I’ll have to check!