| #5 |
Consumers pay a premium for brand name goods. A variety receiving an RHS AGM also seems to drive its price up. It can be hard to find newer varieties for a decent price unless T&M etc. are having a sale...perhaps they pay for exclusivity rights?
The seed is likely from the same big seed producer/wholesaler, just in a different packet under a different brand. Most of the well known seed companies do not produce the majority of the seed they sell. An eBay company like Premier Seed Direct are just taking that same seed and putting it in cheaper packaging and keeping their costs low by being online only.
Take Sungold F1 tomato for example. It was originally bred by a Japanese company called Tokita, but Tozer Seeds (a big seed producer & breeder) have exclusive rights to this variety in the UK, so presumably all of the UK seed companies selling it have to get it from them. Here are the prices for a packet of 10 seeds of Sungold F1 tomato (apart from T&M who only put 8 in the pack
):
Suttons - £3.99
T&M - £3.99
Marshalls - £3.29
DT Brown - £3.29
Kings Seeds - £2.70
SimplySeed - £1.79
Premier Seed Direct - £1.29
The more well known the company is, the more they seem to charge
The seed is likely from the same big seed producer/wholesaler, just in a different packet under a different brand. Most of the well known seed companies do not produce the majority of the seed they sell. An eBay company like Premier Seed Direct are just taking that same seed and putting it in cheaper packaging and keeping their costs low by being online only.
Take Sungold F1 tomato for example. It was originally bred by a Japanese company called Tokita, but Tozer Seeds (a big seed producer & breeder) have exclusive rights to this variety in the UK, so presumably all of the UK seed companies selling it have to get it from them. Here are the prices for a packet of 10 seeds of Sungold F1 tomato (apart from T&M who only put 8 in the pack
):Suttons - £3.99
T&M - £3.99
Marshalls - £3.29
DT Brown - £3.29
Kings Seeds - £2.70
SimplySeed - £1.79
Premier Seed Direct - £1.29
The more well known the company is, the more they seem to charge
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