Cheapskate SSE Seed Listers

[oxbowfarm]

Steps up on the Soapbox.

In previous threads I've expressed how I felt the suggested prices for SSE requests are too high. They more than cover the postage costs for sending anything within the US barring a few types of plant material. That is why I am pointlessly ranting at cheapskate SSE listed members who fail to pack seed properly.

• Put some kind of padding in the envelope, you cheapskate! Bubble wrap weighs NOTHING! It also isn't thick enough to change the postage cost on a normal envelope. Just a 2"x3" scrap of bubble wrap is enough to get most small seeds anywhere with no problems. You can also get an unlimited supply of it for free with basically one phone call to anyone you've ever met. That you didn't put it in tells me you are lazy or stupid.
  
  
• Writing "SEEDS! Please Hand Cancel!" on the envelope is quaint and tells me that you are lazy or still think we live in the 1950s when actual human beings look at the mail and will pay attention to your little directions. This is 2013 genius! The only thing that read your little note was an optical scanner!
  
  
• Bigger seeds need more protection! Especially beans and peas that are big and brittle. Even more so peanuts. I had one guy mail me a little bag of peanuts in a regular envelope with zero padding! It cost him $1.86 in postage. If he'd put it in a #000 bubble mailer it wouldn't have got to me in the form of peanut butter and it would have cost him $2.07!
  
  
• I hope these folks are living it large on all the money they are saving by not mailing the seed properly. You know, you save a quarter or so in postage on every request and pretty soon you can afford yourself a whole candy bar!
  
  
  

In contrast I've gotten enough seed given to me by folks on this board to choke a horse. And it almost always arrives in bubble mailers. I was joking with Drahkk one time that we'd sent each other the same bubble mailer two or three times!

Off the soapbox.

[templeton]

(...drops pen, scatters mailing and seed envelopes, visits bin in desperate search for bubble wrap...)
T

[petitvilaincanard]

Gosh,I just send some seed without bubble wrap.I feel so ashamed.
Hope they won't get hurt.

[12540dumont]

Get's on soapbox...

YEAH! and for crying out loud, if you are sending seed, have the decency to send the proper amount.

25 is not 22. And it won't kill you to put in 30. Really (5 extra peas or beans will not break the seed bank) I promise.

Since no one from SSE EVER sends 200 corn seeds, on my next order I'm going to remind them that they MUST send 200 seeds (not 75, not 100, not 50, not 125, not 175, I mean ALL 200.

Steps off soapbox.

Wait, get's back on soapbox. CHEAPSKATE if this is you, go send free seeds to everyone you know. You ought to be ashamed. Okay get's down off soapbox.

I had to write to the person I ordered corn from 3x before I received all 200 seeds. By then, it was too late to plant.

[Leenstar]

*Gulp*- just plain enveloped mailed lettuce seeds overseas. In my defense I stapled the seed packet closed so those seeds are tight.

I used a bubble mailer for Circumspice. It is care of someone else on this board, probably Holly.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Ha! I send tomato and potato seeds in plain old paper envelopes... Other things get a bubble mailer or a box. That labels on top of labels on top of labels thing has caught me off-guard once in a while... I peel off the easy to peel layers, but don't take off everything if it's well stuck. Then I find an envelope laying around that's addressed to one of you and think that I really flubbed up.

I'm working diligently to get all your seed requests shipped this week. If any of you wanted something and it hasn't shown up yet please send me a personal message. I'm currently working on boxes for Holly, Mickey, Gray, Cortona, Pierre, Tim, Bram, and a couple others I don't recognize as being from the forum. Also have some more garlic for the garlic collaborators.

[steev]

Gee! I hope those thoughtless dolts you're ranting about read this forum, but I'd not bet on it. I've gotten good deals from some SSE members, but it's certainly a mixed bag, to be sure. I think the general tone here of "pay it forward" sets a higher standard of behavior, more of reciprocation. Money, in and of itself, leads to termination of obligation; that is, when cash changes hands, the transaction is ended.

Digressing: in Scotland, there was a custom called "thiggery" in which if you could establish relationship, you could ask whatever you needed; there was no shame in need; if the person asked had it to give, there was shame in refusing. That went to hell when the English brought in money, and Scottish society became less interknitted by relationship and mutual obligation.

[steev]

Speaking of garlic, Joseph, the six varieties you sent me are sprouting happily, despite having been molested grievously by acorn-stashing squirrels. They're caged now, the garlic, not the squirrels.

[oxbowfarm]

Just to clarify, I'm complaining about seed listers on the SSE. People whom I have sent more than enough money to pay for adequate safe packaging and postage, who then fail to provide same.

When someone here on the board sends me unpadded seed I'm fine with it cause its a gift they are paying forward. I've used Joseph's cardboard trick several times recently too. There are lots of creative ways to get seed through the mail safe and sound without resorting to a bubble mailer. But if you take my money and do nothing to protect the seed I call you a cheapskate.

[bunkie]

dayum...guilty of not using bubble wrap in the past...so sorry holly who several perennial wheat seeds got ate up by the postal service. i do use cardboard and bubble wrap now. always something new to learn!

and, as joseph is, i'll be getting those last seeds out to Holly, Paulo, etc... this week for sure...even tho there's a blizzard going on outside right this moment!!!

[12540dumont]

If anyone else sends me seeds, I'll be thrown out of my house.

Leo will make me pack my seeds and go.

I'm a seed-aholic and I'm being forced to undergo a 12 step plan.

1. Buy no seeds.
2. Hide the mail (I mean don't let anyone send me seeds).
3. Refrain from attending seed swaps.
4. Seed Library visits are strictly forbidden.
5. No midnight reading of the SSE Yearbook
6. No cruising internet seed sites....
7. Every time I think I need seeds, I need to go outside and stare in the seed fridge for 5 minutes.
8. My log-in privileges at GRIN have been suspended.
9. While on E-bay, I'm not allowed to look at Joseph's corn porn.
10. I'm not allowed within the city limits of Petaluma (Home of the Seed Bank...just in case I'm tempted to make a withdrawal).
11. Banned from the gardening section of Home Depo...just in case the seed racks bring me unto temptation.
12. I must put myself on the unsubscribe list for all known and unknown seed companies.

Really, I will quit...just as soon as my packages from Joseph, Bunkie, Templeton, Oxbow, Raymundo, have arrived.

So many seeds, so little time.

Hope I gave all of you a good laugh.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Holly: You almost had me in tears... Because I spent the day yesterday, and today packing a box of seeds for you, and I had a few minutes before I needed to go to the post office, so I opened up the forum, and there was your pledge that you would become homeless if you received any more seeds... So I was torn: The classic dilemma of whether or not it's proper to give a gift of alcohol to an alcoholic. But then you gave me the slightest bit of an opening and I'm going to send the seed anyway. If my brother's back pain is eased by a case of beer, who am I to deny it to him.

I know that you don't want to plant too much corn this year, but I was naughty and am sending you a pack of sugary enhanced corn seeds that will whisper and wail at you until they get planted. I sent you some other corn as well, but only because I am aware that you have been known to re-gift seeds.

[12540dumont]

There you go, this is how it happened. I was minding my own business and then Dar sent me tomatoes. Not to be outdone, Oxbow sent a box of tomatoes and BEANS, so Ray and Templeton had to send peas, and then there was Joseph's corn.

.....and today, when the post came, there was an awesome package from Tom & Atash.

Now, if I just had that six pack of beer...

Thank you each and every one of you.

[paquebot]

They're not always cheapskates but just ignorant. I've had people put a handful of loose beans in a #10 envelope and expect them to get here intact from the East Coast. Sometimes they arrive in a plastic bag after being picked up a postal worker. I buy #000 bubble envelopes by 250 or 500 count cases. I affix my own postage and have had a permit to postmark it since 1986. Anyone here who has received any seeds from me knows that they've never seen anything like it. With small seeds, used to use coin envelopes until they got too expensive. They were generally sufficient to protect any seed without extra padding. With Ziplock bags now, I sandwich them between pieces of heavy paper cut to fit inside the #6¾ or #10 envelope. Never a problem in many years.

Martin

[mnjrutherford]

I try to be creative with my packaging. I want my seeds to be as "unshakable" as possible, particularly when they travel long distances. I like edible packaging. ;o)