SSE and Amazon

[Doug9345]

The product you get from Sandhill is fantastic. I've always been more than happy with the seeds I've gotten from Sandhill. There's always more many more seeds than stated, have germinated well for me and they've always been grown true. The orders are relatively complete, but I do remember that they have returned funds for stuff they were out of. I just counted and they list more than 1600 items not including sweet potatoes and chickens. I think they raise all the stuff themselves. That is a phenomenal accomplishment. However that accomplishment is getting lost in a cumbersome ordering process.

I have and want to order from them but to make out an order against an outdated list, as I don't have a paper catalog, and wait two weeks to three weeks to see what I didn't get. It's even worse since you aren't getting a paper catalog until the end of February. I can live with huge delays from the time I order to the time I get the seed if it is guaranteed as a maximum and I know for certain I'll get what I ordered.

I disagree with Drew on some points. The main one being that because this is a second business that they don't take it seriously. I suspect that many if not most of the owners of small seed houses have another source of income. It's very common for this to be true for farms around here. They are either very large or someone has one or more off farm jobs. Driving school bus is a common one. However when basic maintenance for a business decreases or stops then it's a warning sign that there are problems there.

I've never seen a grocery store that started having dirty floors make it more than a year, maybe two at the most. I did retail inventory for 16 years and one of the things I use to look for on a pre inventory visit was the store able to keep up their daily maintenance. If they weren't there was no way they were going to be ready for inventory and it was time for me to make some phone calls to my DM and to the customer service coordinator because I wasn't going to take the heat for the problems we were going to have. In addition it wasn't fair to your customers management if you didn't give them a warning that they had better get in there and fix a problem they had.

My concern is that many of these small seed houses are the only source for some varieties and if something happens to them, it becomes very hard to find those unique to them ones.

There are three that give me the sense that they are struggling. One has been named, This one makes me wonder when I see much of the online catalog out of date by a year plus. The third site, which I'm not going to name, was down for a while because of health issues. I wish them all luck.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by remy

Wow, they are seed preservationists that sell seeds. So no you do not have to go there.

About PayPal, they don't have PayPal, so I'm assuming, that is something about my site or sites like mine of small vendors. All 'Add to Cart' links are redirected to PayPal. Any security issues would be theirs, not mine or anyone else that uses their services. Nothing you input is known by the seller until an email copy of what you bought without any information about how you made your purchase (no CC numbers) arrives.
Also, I update my site most every day. Sometimes, it is easy, but sometimes it is long and time consuming. It depends on how long the list of changes is.
Remy

As I said in the previous post I like what they are doing, but seeds just as with knowledge if it isn't accessible to people then it isn't preserved.

I found out when I had someone get a hold of my credit card. In the process I found out that one of the things he used the CC for was to buy a box of checks with a closed account number on them. They looked like payroll checks which reduced wariness over them. He then typed out a check, opened an account at a credit union, deposited the check and was able to draw a portion of the money out before the whole thing went tilt.

When you hand someone a check you hand them ALL the information they need to empty that account. Checks are easy to print on a computer today and while Ids are check they aren't checked all that well.

At work the boss laid a small payroll check on the front desk and asked me to mail it. About that time the crew came back from an inventory and in the resulting confusion the check disappeared. She'd gone to the post office which was in the same building so I assumed she had mailed it and she assumed I had mailed it. Anyway when it got all the way back to us after the employee complained that he never got his check the name had been whited out and another employee had written her name on the check and cashed it at some check cashing place. Because it was for under a $150 the police said they'd take a report over the phone, but simply didn't have the manpower to pursue small amounts like that. The people that do such things know exactly what will and won't be pursued.

I was around a woman that I had handed her my debit card so she could put gas in her car. Well it didn't work in the pump so she took it inside. They punched the numbers in and after she signed it which looked like my signature the owner looged at her and said "you don't look like a Doug Smith." Her reply was "it was my name before I had a sex change operation." He didn't want to know anymore.

[carolyn137]

Doug, I'd say that close to 95 to 98% of what Glenn and Linda list each year is permanent, adding some here and there, which reminds me I haven't sent him seeds for trial yet for this summer, on the new ones, and also noting which ones are out of stock for the given year.

Linda Sapp at TGS adds very few new ones each year, and demotes the others to the infamous back of the catalog for sale, and those are still listed at the online.

We've had thread after thread here about some folks being insistent on getting the newest and latest varities, but ignore so many that are time tested and proven that they've never even considered. And at Sandhill you'll find just OP varieties, about 400 listed whereas at TGS, with a staff to deal with lots of things, you'll find both OP and F1 hybrid ones listed.

About the place with health issues, actually I know two of them, and fingers crossed that the situations with both of them improve. Both are excellent places to buy seeds from and both offer a wide range of varieties.

When folks ask me if they should join SSE to get, now lets say just tomato seeds, I ask them how many varieties they've already grown and that b'c the annual Yearbook is overwhelming, and unless they've grown out a few hundred varieties and know how to rogue out wrong plants, I can't see them joining. What they don't seem to realize is that seeds offered in the Yearbook by listed members are just that and some may bag blossoms, most don't, so there's a good chance that they will receive crossed seed. Some in their blurbs say how they save seeds, most don't, and request prices are all over the lot now that most listed members know they don 't have to adhere to the suggested request prices that SSE puts in the Yearbook.

This 2014 year is THE last time I'm going to SSE list varieties, after having Joanne at SSE delete all I still had listed last Fall and only added 6 back. The reasons for this are many and after being a listed member for so long there's a bit of memory pang, but I'll still get the paper catalog Yearbook and other publications b'c I'm a Lifetime member.

And on that note I'd better finish packing up the seeds for Rob, who is local and is going to raise plants for me this year for Freda to care for, well, Rob just called and is at that Chinese place and asking what I want.

Carolyn

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

I figure if someone is trying to mess with me even before they get my money the situation is going to be worse after they get their hands on my money.


I agree with everything you say about Sandhill seeds. My biggest frustration with them is that they update their catalog so late and add to that you have to mail your order in with no assurance that stuff is in stock, that you almost have to order this year for next. They STILL haven't updated their squash page for 2014 which means that for TWO consecutive year they have missed an order from me.

I feel the same way. Plus, there are times when they don't take orders. I'm terrible about procrastinating if I have to fill out an envelope and a check. I wish they would start taking online orders and Pay Pal.
Also, with growing in AZ, I have to be starting seeds Dec 1. That means I would have to buy seeds from Sandhill a year ahead, since they don't seem to ship fall seeds.
I love Glecker's. I sure hope nothing is wrong.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

It may take little effort, but it does take time. And if one takes the time to read their home page, they will learn exactly what type of operation Sandhill runs.

We're having a similar issue at work where they decided a number of years ago to launch a website with the assumption that an existing employee with an already full schedule could assume responsibility for maintaining it. While it does take them little effort to do so, the time needed is often not available and as a result, the website is usually out of date. With no funds available to hire someone to take it over right now, we're living with the situation as is.

If I wanted my seeds fast and early, I would stick with the larger vendors whose primary business is selling. Personally I prefer to support smaller outfits who try to preserve varieties or who set out to make harder to find varieties available, all while trying to run their main business or keep the job that really pays their bills. I guess I'm willing to be a bit more patient.

As for SSE seeds, we have a local nursery that has one of their seed racks. The one time I bought a number of seed packs, I had little to no germination so I've never purchased any more from them.

I wonder if somebody would trade them? My husband has often bartered website work in exchange for product. He barbers with our hairstylist in exchange for haircuts/color for the two of us.
My husband doesn't have time to take on more computer work but there are probably lots of gardeners and chicken raisers with this skill now that website software is so user friendly.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

I feel the same way. Plus, there are times when they don't take orders. I'm terrible about procrastinating if I have to fill out an envelope and a check. I wish they would start taking online orders and Pay Pal.
Also, with growing in AZ, I have to be starting seeds Dec 1. That means I would have to buy seeds from Sandhill a year ahead, since they don't seem to ship fall seeds.
I love Glecker's. I sure hope nothing is wrong.

Tracy, I know many in warm weather areas who have to sow seeds early, but even Linda Sapp in Ft Myers doesn't start until late Dec into mid Jan , and same with my other tomato friends in Fl and TX , along the Gulf Coast and S CA.

And yes, quite a few do buy their seeds a year in advance.

But I can assure you that Sandhill will never allow for online orders and PayPal, for all the reasons that have already been mentioned in previous posts.

Glenn bought a camera and wanted to start taking pictures of many of what he offers, but he never found the time to do it/

Just with tomatoes since he sells no seeds over two years old, he has to grow out and process seeds from many hundreds of plants and varieties each season. And he still has all of his sweet potato slips to deal with and saving seeds from melons, cukes and whatever as well as tending to all the heirloom poultry orders whch Linda also has to deal with, sending e-mails as to when they are to be shipped, and when expected to arrive, as well as driving the birdies to the nearest PO for sending, as well as all the documentation that goes with that/

He's also a sharing type person. Jere Gettle at Baker Creek got his heirloom birds from Glenn, Glenn has sent Jere many many varieties of melons, cukes, and on and on, that are now listed at Baker Creek.

And all of that b'c he was, as I mentioned above, formerly the Curator of Cucurbits for SSE and thus still maintains a huge inventory.

In the end each person needs to find those places to buy seeds from that agrees with their personal needs and habits, as to ordering early, procrastinating, as was mentioned above, seed prices, shipping costs,number of seeds sent and seed purity.

Carolyn

[aclum]

Hi,

Just wanted to put in a good word for Sandhill. I mailed an order to them with a personal check around April 14th or 15th and I got my order today - April 26th! It was postmarked April 23rd. Considering the fact that my order was sent snail mail that would take an extra day or two, I think that's a pretty good turn around time, all things considered.

I guess now's a good time of year to order from them .

And they are MORE than generous with their seeds. All the packs were labeled minimum 15 seeds, but I counted the seeds from a randomly chosen packet (Ukranian Heart-TNMUJ Strain) and there were 150 seeds! All the packs seem to have about that many seeds. That's pretty darn good for $2.50 and free shipping (because my order was over $20).

There are other seed companies I really like, too, but I ordered from Sandhill this time as they were one of only two places I knew of that carried Bear Creek (which I HAD to have after Darrel raved about it ). And they had a bunch of other seeds I'd been wanting to buy that can be sort of hard to find all in one place (from one vendor).

So, in regards to Sandhill, I'm a happy camper .

Anne

[mdvpc]

Sandhill is the type of old school vendor I admire. They do their "own thing" and do it right. I have ordered from them many times and always gotten great varieties.