Why you need an account to see our catalog

Short version first, since you’re probably mid-annoyance: our payment processor requires a verified account before we’re allowed to show a catalog. It’s a condition of accepting credit cards in this category. It isn’t a mailing list, and it isn’t a growth tactic.

Here’s the longer answer.

The trade

Most payment processors won’t touch this category at all. The ones that will attach conditions, and this is one of them. We also pay three to four times what an ordinary online retailer pays on every transaction.

The alternative is the one most of this market has taken: skip card processing, accept crypto or a peer-to-peer app, and put the whole catalog in the open. That’s a real choice, and it’s why those sites have no login screen.

It also means no chargeback and no dispute process. The openness and the absence of recourse are the same decision seen from two sides. If we got something wrong and stopped answering our email, you would have a way to get your money back. That’s what the account is paying for.

The part nobody mentions

An account also means we know who received what.

If a lot ever came back wrong after it had already shipped, we could contact every person who got it. A store with no accounts and irreversible payments cannot do that. Not won’t — can’t. There’s no list.

What it costs us

Most people who land on this site leave at that login screen without ever seeing a product. We know the number. It’s the most expensive thing on this website, and we would drop the requirement tomorrow if we could keep taking cards without it.

What the account doesn’t prove

It doesn’t prove we’re any good. Plenty of sites have a login wall and nothing behind it worth seeing, and we’d rather say that than let a login screen pass for a credential.

What’s checkable is the testing, and that’s public — no account, no email, nothing. Look up any lot number and read the report before you decide whether we’re worth signing up for. If you want to know what you’re looking at, start with how to read a certificate of analysis.

What we do with your email

Order confirmations and shipping updates — those come with buying anything from anyone.

You’ll also get our marketing email: new compounds, restocks and deals. That comes with the account and we’re not going to pretend it doesn’t. It’s one click to unsubscribe, it takes effect immediately, and it has no bearing on your account or your orders.

We don’t sell your information.

It takes about thirty seconds to sign up. Email and a password, nothing else.