Is Joining a Group Buy Worth It? [Poll]

[Gerry]

I’m thinking about pursuing a group buy for tripeptide. After spending a lot of time searching and even (regrettably) trying to propose one on FB, I’m unsure if it’s worth it. I don’t need that much, and with prices in the $0.80/gram range, it works out to less than $5 a week for me right now. The real benefit seems to be in the shared cost of testing or if you’ve got a big stack of peptides, which I don't (yet).

I’m a lurker by nature (like I bet a lot of the nearly 3,000 members here are—great work, zippy), so getting the recognition to join a group buy feels daunting. I’ve tracked down the two big ones, but I’m not in yet. I’d love to hear the community's mentality regarding group buys. Hopefully, this thread can help prevent some newbies from making the same mistakes I did (like trying to set up a GB on FB ).

If you buy from GB, please share your thoughts.

 

[rkl123]

Group buys are a trade off. You trade some money for enhanced safety that things are tested thoroughly.

 

[Graymaxxem]

At their best, group buys are just a bunch of people who've pooled their $ to get a better deal, then hanging out and shooting the shit while waiting on international gray market shipping, then waiting on testing. The best ones are places to learn things (like, why is there taurine in some bac water, what is counter ion, etc) and build community. But there are definitely a lot of buys now that are just vendors putting things on sale, and prices have dropped so that good deals can be had without the whole communal experience. I guess if my goal is making connections and learning, a good group buy is it. If I just need some kits, I'll get those direct.

 

[SLZRdad]

I’d like to join a big group buy of Reta

 

[ZippityDooDah]

Honestly, no.

The early evolution of "group buys" in the peptide space were great in that they leveraged the ability to take advantage of large MOQ pricing with the supplier handling payments and shipping plus the hope that any guarantees would be honored (especially given the per mg pricing this time last year).

Now, I'm of the opinion that group buys are 99% domestic vendors by a different name, and that all but one or two of them are not trustworthy. With the dramatic drop in prices (especially for GLP-1's) and essentially daily promos from the Chinese there's really no difference in pricing between buying from China or a GB.

About the only advantage that a reputable GB offers are the guarantees if you're buying a significant amount of an expensive product, and of course the testing. Anyone just buying one or two kits of anything really isn't going to see much advantage from a GB, and if it's from any of the sketchy groups there's actually a greater risk of being ripped off compared to dealing with one of the known Chinese suppliers. With the availability of crowdfunded testing it's pretty common to get in on a test of the products you purchased for anywhere in the $5-$25 range so IMHO there's very little reason to bother with a GB.

 

[geoguy78]

I haven't been around long but I have a tendency to do a really deep dive into anything I get into, and from all the investigative work I've done, I personally don't see a huge advantage to GBs as they are now (maybe a few years ago it was a different story like Zippity is alluding to). I have found a few GB discord/pepchat now, and they all look like vendors pretending to be GBs to me. Maybe there's some customer input on what the next item will be, and some guaranteed testing, but they are operating like storefronts. I've bought from a Chinese vendor GB and it's been kind of a snafu with the testing bit. Nobody wants to donate vials, and I'll be honest: if there are three tests being paid for, and only two other purchasers wanting to donate for testing, I'm not coughing up a vial from a single kit. Especially when there's no sort of credit for the vial. The random chance of getting batch testing while not having your vial win the testing lottery is part of the appeal. I bought from an established, big vendor and don't think I'll die pinning their product untested. The dosing might just be off, but worst outcome there is a week hungrier than I want to be, or sulfur burps. Anyways, I don't think they are bad in any way, I just don't think they are essential.

 

[fetefille]

Yea, buying from a vendor during a sale isn’t a group buy and you may or may not be getting a good deal. The process isn’t for everyone either, there’s a fuckton of new/er folks losing their shit in a vendor buy rn bc it’s been over 2 weeks from order.

Now, there are some peptides and some other things (intl beauty products, equip, etc) that would be out of reach w/o the groups I’m in and as mentioned above, I appreciate the edu I’m getting, too.

 

[tuscaloosa]

Do people ever JUST do group testing after buying individually directly from a supplier ( like during a big promo sale ) and how do those group testings get organized ?