Doc vs. Gypsy head-to-head test

I posted on another thread that I ordered from the Doc and Gypsy the exact same way on the same day. Either could have filled my whole order, but I wanted to order from both because it is more likely this way that I will get at least one through Customs, but also what the heck it will be an interesting head-to-head test. I am first to admit this is a very unscientific showdown but could be informative.

Decided to start a new thread to track the progress for you guys.

• Both orders were submitted online on 4/20 (good day for that huh?) within 10 minutes of each other.
• Both were printed out and mailed in on 4/20 via regular air mail (the 84¢ stamp)
• Western Union money order in both cases (I don't use credit cards for seeds)
• Same misspelling of my name
• Same safe address used

Update so far: received e-mail verification on Tues 4/25 from the Doc that my order was received and processed.

I will continue to update.

Update: received e-mail verification on Tues 4/25 from Gypsy as well.

What do you mean by safe address?

What do you mean by safe address?

= a different address than where the grow will be.

There is (almost) no such thing as too paranoid or too careful when growing MJ, so even though having read here and other forums the experiences of many, many people and there has never once been a report of someone getting busted just because of beans coming through the mail, some still feel they are adding another layer of protection by not having the beans delivered to the grow address. The reasoning is that *IF* LEO ever did use a bean shipment as the basis for getting a search warrant it would not be for the place where the grow is taking place. If there was a warrant being issued could they just get it for the other address in your name as well? Maybe, probably, but the thinking goes that it is an extra step for them so an extra layer of protection for the gardener.

No idea if this is being too paranoid, but I have a p.o. box anyway so no harm in using it for my delivery.

Me too I dont I never have anthing sent to my operations a P.O Box with fake name and adress works good for me I dont even have my Hydro equipment sent to my house or my bong shit they aint catching me for real also I just recently recieved from Gypsy he finally stopped giving out those damn Durban PoisonxSkunk as freebies got me some mist of destruction this time(Arjans HazexNL#5xHaze) cant wait

awesome about the freebies. my two orders should be getting here today or tomorrow those freebies seem nicer than the durbans. i'll use them for my separate outdoor grow

Update: received my shipment from Gypsy today 5/1. Ordered more than one strain, including WWxBB feminized. They said this was out of stock and substituted NLxIce femmed in it's place. Rest of the shipment as I ordered.

And, true to form, Gypsy sent freebies (I got the Mist of Destruction as well).

They did have a typo on my po box number in the delivery address (yikes!), that's why I like to use a misspelling of my name rather than a totally fake name, it still found its way into my po box.

Stealth was fine, nondescript as it should be.

I'll let everyone know what happens with the Doc's shipment.

hmmm. Interesting. Please let me know how it works out with Doc Chronic. I tired Gypsy Nirvana, but unfortunately I never received my product and apparently they are neither refunding my money or shipping a replecement.

I heard that Doc Chronic may be an alternative. But I'll wait before ordering on the Internet again.

To be clear, I have heard enough good stuff from enough people about both Doc and Gypsy to consider them, in my feeble mind, "the best" two. I'm sure there are other very reliable seedbanks out there.

My intention in testing them head-to-head was, maybe more than anything, just something to satisfy a mild curiousity. The results of this could be interesting and informative, or not. But, I was not trying to see if one or the other or both suck (though that certainly was within the realm of possibility). More of a tie-breaker at best.

the doc has always been good to me. orders are at my door in no more than a week.

if you join his forum, he gives you 10% off or a free set of beans.

last order i got NL x g13/widow from one of the members of the forum.

haven't grown them, but can't fucking wait. they are going to be BOMB!

Thanks ... that's a good enough endorsement for me. I just sent the Doc my order. I appreciate the input.

Update: Did not check the po box yesterday and got my shipment from the Doc when I checked it today. So, Doc shipment arrived on either 5/2 or 5/3.

let me know if those mist of destruction freebies are more lively than the durban poisons.

OK folks, now that I have everything in hand it's time to evaluate, as promised...

Result:
Success from both -- ordered beans and received them. No Customs intercepts, no lost mail.

Speed:
Both were excellent, under two weeks from when I sent in my order to when I received beans in hand -- and that is using regular mail both ways. I received my shipment from Gypsy 1-2 days before Doc, but I can't give credit to one over the other for a day or two difference when so much of the timeframe is in the hands of the mail service and Customs.

Communication:
Acceptable from both. Each sent an e-mail or two confirming that the order/payment had been received and shipment processed. Doc's e-mail made reference to "growing", I could have done without that. On the other hand, Gypsy's e-mail was a little too vague.

Packaging / stealth:
I am not going to get into detail about packaging and stealth, for all we know Customs is reading this thread and might learn what to look for. I won't even say if either was in a flat envelope, a padded envelope, a package, a box, or whatever.

However, the shipments were a little different from each other. The problem in evaluating is that I don't know what Customs is looking for, so no way to tell which is "better" or "stealthier." But, they were both nondescript and to my eye would blend it unnoticed in a big pile of mail, and that's the idea.

Accuracy:
Gypsy got my po box number wrong. My po box number has six digits, and I know that's pretty unusual. The first three digits are all the same number and are the same first three digits for many boxes at this post office (for example box 555xxx). Gypsy truncated the first three digits to only two. That is one reason I use a misspelling of my own name, rather than a totally fake name, so that someone at my post office can figure out who the item belongs to. In any event, it got to me successfully.

Gypsy also substituted one item in my order because it is out of stock -- I ordered White Widow x Big Bud feminized and instead got Northern Light x Ice feminized, from the same breeder. The latter is brand new from the breeder, and there have been some pretty wide reports that the WWxBB femmed tends to hermie, so I am speculating that the breeder might be halting stock on WWxBB and came up with NLxIce as a close substitute. NLxIce will be a more indica hybrid than WWxBB but generally an acceptable replacement (Ice is a cousin to WW). This appears to be driven by the breeder not Gypsy.

Bonus points:
Freebies from Gypsy (Mist of Destruction), no freebies from the Doc. Gotta love that. I am particularly looking forward to growing out that Mist because it is almost pure sativa and a cross of two very interesting flavors. I would never want to pay for sativa to try to grow in my limited space, but a free experiment is no biggie. I'll be tieing it way down.

Bottom line:
I see very little reason to say one is "better" than the other. On the points that really matter these two seed banks proved reliable and comparable to me.

* * * * *

Just want to reiterate that this is very unscientific, one person's experience with one transaction from each company. I cannot vouch for either one and have no vested interest in either. It was just an interesting idea and a little fun diversion for me, hope you enjoyed reading up.

let me know if those mist of destruction freebies are more lively than the durban poisons.

no shit. out of 10 durban poison x skunk1, I had ONE germinate. ONE out of TEN. 1/10. 10% success rate. that's pretty shitty.

let me know if those mist of destruction freebies are more lively than the durban poisons.

Will do, but I don't grow over the summer because I go out of town for two stretches of 8-9 days each. So, I probably will plant again around Sept, which means a harvest in Jan-Feb.

aw, how come you ordered them so early then?

Good question, just the reassurance of having them in hand. I just like planning a little bit ahead.

thanks for the seedbank report, nice info, what did you know notice price wise, sorry if i missed it.

Thanks.

I didn't bring price into this because that info anyone can check out for themselves at the seedbanks. I really was interested in evaluating the ordering and shipment itself, based on the parameters I mentioned in my re-cap: speed, communication, packaging/stealth, accuracy, and bonus points.

To your question, I found Gypsy a tiny bit lower priced than Doc on most items, but sometimes Doc was comparable or better. Those prices are before the 10% discount from Doc that emag mentioned earlier up in this thread.