HouseCat said:
tcpnomad said:
indolent said:
You need to tell apart two different things:
- An actual group buy: typically 1 or a few individuals located in the US, Europe or UK who handle negotiations with China-based vendors and run everything on their own.
- Something called a "group buy" on a vendor's own platform: this is either just a promotion run by the vendor, or (even worse) a handful of people in the discussion channel who team up to negotiate with the vendor. Those people are either a) shills/sockpuppets or b) morons; but not both
My read is that they were referring to what you'd describe as a "real GB". I'd really like to hear what their reasoning was.
IronCircuit said:
Calm Logic said:
Almost everyone in my circle, me included, tends to skip the Chinese pricelists. The usual route is American GBs/vendors over on TG, who handle their own buying and testing of peptides from China.
That said, I've gone back to watching the Chinese vendor groups, because I want to find out who else, apart from Uther, is going to carry elora.
Honestly, the very idea of having to participate in a group buy is something I'd rather avoid entirely.
Zippity's take on the downsides of GBs can be found here: /community-link/post/174228/
Just so you know, what the majority of folks label a GB (typically run on TG, overseen by 1 or a handful of admins, with testing and discounted product included) isn't what he'd call a real GB. For him, 1 of the criteria is that pricing is fully transparent — meaning the person running it isn't skimming anything, or (as I understand it) they're at minimum disclosing the size of that cut, where every dollar is allocated, and so on.
Edit: even though I've participated in plenty of GBs, they've all happened recently, so nothing has arrived yet and I'm in no position to speak with any real authority…other than to admit it's somewhat habit-forming. I can't resist a bargain (and in my view, the included testing is what makes it a genuine bargain)…we'll find out whether I've been a fool! Ping me in 2 months