I think it's healthy skepticism. I keep a list of sellers I consider more risky than others based on posts I see here and other places and order based on that. I'm also only a month in, so I obviously have less information than someone who has been doing this a while.
I'm here, I clearly decided to take the risk too. But the POSSIBILITY that these products were made in a place that deals in other things was a part of that calculation. Again, there's smuggling involved. Is there enough money in peps to justify that risk alone, with the price race to the bottom? That was my concern- because that's a question I didn't have an answer to.
I know enough to know what I DON'T know.
I'm not going to argue that it's healthy to be skeptical.
My problem lies with faulty logic:
"Everyone" is in on the race to the bottom - Chasing low price as a main metric and discussing how cheap it can get. Which at some point (One i personally believe we passed already) will cause issues with manufacturing quality and consistency
"But the raws are so cheap"...
Yes, they are almost free, so why the price? Well, because of risk and operation costs. Who would want to risk their license by producing this stuff in a high quality lab when they are paid with scraps?
"Pay with bananas, and you will have monkeys doing the job"
At the same time, I highly doubt the amount of fent being produced in approved facilities is not strictly monitored - So i have a hard time believing that is the main source and not a dirty warehouse lab. I doubt the fent users are very picky about purity and sterility testing... So if that assumption (keyword being assumption) is correct, who knows what else those labs are used for.
I do believe that cross contamination is a very small risk here tbh, since it would be very bad for business. But could it happen by accident? - I guess.
And I honestly haven't really dived deep enough into the case to comment on the situation specifically. But it was mentioned that this was about raw materials being repurposed after arriving in the US. So I'm unsure if there is any real risk of cross contamination even if the business names are the same.
Concerning what it says about what kind of business you are dealing with - If that wasn't obvious from the get-go, now it is. So the question then would be, how do you separate between those who really doesn't care at all whether the product is safe or has good quality as long as you believe it - From those who actually deliver a quality product and don't take (too many?) shortcuts?
I would say that price is a good start, though not a guarantee. We pay significantly more than most users on here as a vendor - If that's strictly necessary to get a good product, I can't tell for sure. But it allows us to deal with a manufacturer we know more about.
In any case:
The point I was trying to make in the post you replied to, is that users that have been very comfortable with a bunch of different vendors - Needed something like this case for them to properly understand that these are not corner stores that skimp a bit on taxes and maybe sell some expired products, they are the source behind the drug dealer on the corner (figure of speech).
And now, instead of reconsidering how to evaluate and source - we figure all the vendors do the same stuff... But we will still order when the dust settles, so how helpful is that evaluation? ^^,