Check legality and shipping origin first
Start with two questions: where does the bank ship from, and where do you live. A bank with a US warehouse delivers in 3 to 7 days by domestic mail. A bank shipping from Spain, the UK, or the Netherlands takes 2 to 5 weeks and moves through US Customs.
cannabis seed bank price comparison
Federal law treats viable cannabis seeds as Schedule I controlled substances. Hemp seed is exempt when it comes from a compliant program and the plant stays at or below 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis, the limit set by the 2018 Farm Bill. State rules run from fully legal to felony. Germination is a separate act from possession in most state codes. Read your state statute, not the seed bank's FAQ page.
Cannabis Seed Bank Germination Guarantee: What It Covers and How to Claim It
Payment is the first filter
Many US card processors block cannabis merchants. Check the checkout page before you build a cart. Common options:
- Debit and credit cards, often routed through an offshore processor with a 3% to 8% surcharge
- ACH bank transfer, 1 to 3 business days to clear
- Cash App, Zelle, or money order
- Bitcoin and other crypto, no chargeback rights
Crypto and money orders leave you with no refund path. Card payments give you a chargeback option if the order never ships.
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Seed types and price ranges
Prices are per pack, and pack sizes run from 1 to 12 seeds.
- Feminized photoperiod: $8 to $30 per seed. Seed produces female plants at a rate of about 99%.
- Regular photoperiod: $3 to $12 per seed. Roughly half the plants are male.
- Autoflower: $10 to $35 per seed. Flowers on a fixed clock, 8 to 11 weeks from sprout.
Faster flowering and higher price do not track together. A $6 regular seed from a breeder with documented lineage can beat a $30 seed sold under a house brand.
Parameters that matter in the listing
- Breeder name and the breeder's own product page, if one exists
- Generation: F1, F2, S1, BX, or IBL
- Lineage with named parents
- Flowering time in days, not weeks, if the bank lists it
- Published lab data for THC, CBD, and terpenes
- Pack date or harvest year
Skip any listing that names the strain but not the breeder.
Storage
Seed viability drops with heat, moisture, and light. A sealed vial with desiccant in a refrigerator at 4 to 8 C holds viability for 1 to 5 years. A kitchen drawer at 25 C holds it for 6 to 18 months. Freezing works only if the seed is dry to below 8% moisture. Wet seed in a freezer dies.
Where buyers get burned
- Reseller markup. The same breeder pack sells for less on the breeder's own store.
- No reship policy. Customs seizures happen. A bank that reships once at no cost is worth the extra $5.
- Germination guarantees with method clauses. Some require paper towel, some require direct sow. Follow the stated method or the guarantee is void.
- Free seed promos with a 30-day expiry and no strain label.
- Clone-only cuts sold as seeds. If a cut has never been released as seed, the listing is false.
Has convenience become the deciding factor
For many US buyers, yes. One cart, one checkout, a domestic warehouse, and a 3-day delivery window now outweigh a wider catalog from overseas. That shift favors banks that hold US inventory and publish lab data. It also hides weak genetics behind fast shipping. Pay for the seed, not the speed.