Quality and marketability.

[draco]

living in a med state is interesting. so many peeps here have access to lots of strains, and it seems that good pot is everywhere. but the "elite" strains are still rare in my experience. the prices in the centers are sometimes graduated; if they have an elite among them, it's up to you to find it.

maybe most of the smokers would smoke an elite and not recognize it cause they are bombarded by all the "flavors" available. an elite with a 6 mo cure is beyond the experience of many; it's flavor is subtle and mysterious - NOT what they are used to.

i used to think that supreme quality would command big $.

now i'm not so sure.


your thoughts?

 

[genkisan]

Most people do not know the difference, and could not tell the diff if you whonked them upside the head with a 4 oz cola of God's own private strain.

Just like most folks can't tell the difference between a 10 year old single malt and a 30 year old one.

I learnt this in over 15 years as a chef.......it's the same with herb as it is with food.


Most folks want value and bang fer their buck, and many of them are the types who put ketchup on their quiche.....so dont bust yer balls fer those who are not able to appreciate it.
It's all about bag appeal, stink and price points, at least for 85-90% of the folks out there.


Cuz they be iggernant.

 

[MIway]

"Qaulity" is qualified by the particular circumstances we find ourselves... good to some, horrible to others... and this changes over time, depending upon experiences.

If you think about today's society... how many of us have experienced fine, fine quality... in anything??? A car, wine, foods, clothing, housing, water, air, jewelry, etc, etc, etc, etc. And if all we have ever had is the option between varying degrees of shit, could we even identify the qualities of "quality"? Would we even recognize it?

A gentleman in CO used to state... quality is what we tell them it is. So much truth to this.

I see many people that think they have the bomb, but in reality... its just a limitation of real options for them.

And if those that peddle don't have true 'quality', doesn't mean they won't condition their customers to the options they indeed have available... varying degrees of shit, but the top tier of shit is newly defined as "quality"... or at least in comparison to the other shit.

That's not everyone, but most of the weed community... wouldn't know quality if they were shown it by Shanti himself... they have no experience base with which to judge, just what they've been told.

 

[draco]

but is this because the market is immature, or just the human condition? most cardholders here are still like a kid in a candy store - they are just happy to have all those strains in the display case available. maybe in ten or fifteen years we will see this market emerge. hell, i thought was smoking pretty good pot until i grew out beans from Shanti and Rez... now, i'm a snob i guess cause i wont bother with 90% of the center offerings. they are flavorful and boring as hell...

if i had a place in town to buy truly high end weed for $60, i would walk by the $35 all day - and i am anything but a rich man...

 

[robbiedublu]

if i had a place in town to buy truly high end weed for $60, i would walk by the $35 all day - and i am anything but a rich man...

Unfortunately most wouldn't though. My personal experience as a grower is that people are just not willing to pay more for truly exceptional weed vs pretty good weed.
Casual smokers can't tell the difference so why would they pay more? Couple of hits of either and they're stoned. I think that's also why you don't see high end sativas available commercially in general. Casual smokers want the "obvious" stoned high, not a cerebral sativa high. ( I could be wrong about that particular point though, maybe they just smoke what commercial growers grow) Most everyone on this site is more than a casual smoker which is why this question comes up here every so often.
There's just not a high enough commercial volume demand for super high quality, but more expensive weed, for any shop to specialize in it. Gotta know a grower or grow it yourself.

 

[motaco]

Well the problem is that people still mainly judge the high of weed by its potency. Not its subtle more complex effects.

Lots of weed is so potent you can't take more than 3 bong rips. But it has a boring generic stone. Other stuff that might not be so potent can have a more interesting high.

Since the "good stuff" isn't necessarily more potent (or even less potent) than commercial weed its hard to demand a massive price increase for it.

If a sativa yields half as much and takes twice as long as a commercial crop then to make it worth growing it you'd have to charge four times what you would for commercial weed. So that would be like ten dollars a gram for kush or $40 for a gram of haze. Who would pay that difference?

In the 90's when the idea of "elites" came about many growers had gone indoor, and were growing for themselves. They just had more pot than they needed and small amounts of elites would be let out. People were not growing or selling at their maximum capacity.

Now in cali everyone is selling their crop and everyone wants to grow as much as they can safely, and sell it.

Its turned from a hobby based activity among a small circle of enthusiasts, to a much more business atmosphere. There used to be a division. Commercial guys growing commercial strains, and hobby growers with elite weed. Now it seems like everyone just buys the top recommended clone at the dispensary. It used to be diesel, now its blue dream.

 

[AGBeer]

For me its much more about just the 'stone'. Flavor and overall effect has a big impact on whether I like it or not. Some strains are just too cerebral for my tastes, and others are too velcro.

Hence why Sour D is one of my faves. It has a little bit of everything that I like

 

[jrockondamic]

In my opinion, this is why people who think their elite strains will continue to provide them a living in a "corporatized" cannabis market are delusional. This hustle only has a few years left.

8 or 9 years ago I went to the cannabis cup in Amsterdam. Smoked with people who's names you'd probably know. A day or so in town and I realized something amazing; they were completely and utterly full of shit. Pretending to note strain differences that didn't exist, and so on. Same shit happens today in clubs all over California, and smoke circles all over the world.

The same shit happens in every facet of life, too. Foodie culture, whiskey culture and tobacco culture are perhaps the most hilarious examples. Go type in the name of a random shitty macro beer with the word "review" after it on Youtube. Mother fuckers will talk about how they get robust piney notes amidst a strong mouth feel in a fucking Heineken; it makes people feel intelligent and cultured to wax poetic about imaginary bullshit under the guise of sophistication. The seed industry has been built around this psychological malfunction, and millions have been made.

It's all marketing. It's all a game. If you want to be honest, you can do that. If you want to play with freezing nutes, fruits in curing jars, and so on, you can get 20+ year smokers yapping their dopey heads off about how your new magic fruit strain cures their AIDS symptoms.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

marketing is definately an important part of most business...hence why a bottle of a 'rare specially barreled" limited edition wine sells for 200 while another bottle from the same vineyard and the same cab will sell for 50.


around my ways theres tons of weed, most of it mediocre. shit even some of my weed is mediocre like the random seeds i just popped....i have stuff in the same grow room selling for 150 an OZ as my OGs which are 250....

Even though supposedly everyone in my area is growing, most are growing commercial strains like Blue Dream or Purple and shipping it all east, so it sort of creates a "drought" of the high end elite strains that everybody wants. Elite strains change from year to year depending on demand and supply....GrandDaddy Purp used to be considered an elite strain, i was buying Lbs for 3600 a few years ago and selling them like hotcakes. Now two years later they are down in value by 1k per lb......now the elite strains in my area is Cookies (Cherry pie x OG) because only a few growers have it, it has lots of hype, so there will always be a new emerging "elite" rare strain that will fetch higher prices.

I dont think the "hustle only has a few years left"...thats what everyones been saying every year...and every year i see more and more commercial buds. For the hustle to truely be over, 90% of growers would need to be running elite cuts. And that just wont happen, because 90% of the stuff in seedbanks and clone centers is crap. Not every grower out there is a strain snob on ICmag....we are a minority in my opinion...

 

[turbolaser4528]

well said, I have seen an influx on the east coast. I wonder what that will do to medical/black-market prices over here?

 

[Weed-Luver]

sign of the times my brotha..if people don't have the cash it doesn't matter what it is, if it means no food, lights, gas or toys for the kiddies..down my way chronic is chronic to these people..sd,chem ogk mean nothing to them..porice means everything..if sd rocks them for 400.00 and ak47 rocks them to at 300.oo they flock to the ak..

 

[Epiphyte]

Good subject, I have a few opinions after having just moved to a med state.

First, so I think I know the best dispensaries in my area. One hooks up good production (10 to 20 lights probably) for 50 an eighth. Most of the time the eighths weight 4 grams. The bags are jilly bean, chem 91, fire og, SD, BBK, C99 among many others. Another place, has 60 dollar eighths that always weigh 3.5 on the dot. Nevertheless, they had the best bubba kush that I have ever seen...probably 2 to 6 lights which is more what I am use to seeing moving from a nonmed state...long story short, I go for the Chem 91, c99 and fire og more than anything...price is right, taste is there, high is strong

Second, everyone has elite strains...everyone buys elite strains, but not everybody grows elite buds. that is the problem...people buy shit without looking at it...however, if it is that good og, it is going to work...it is going to get them ripped without anxiety..its going to taste good...same with SD...

Lastly, the people that work for dispensaries and write for mags are good bullshiters...They are trying to sell you a product...if the product is decent, it will be sold easily especially to someone that knows less.

I always have enough meds..but I like going to the store and diversifying...I am the snobbiest person that I know...I seem to always find something wrong, either crystal production, taste, cure, smell, high. But, that previously mention bubba was almost perfect (could have cured longer but that cannot be expected from anyone, really) and I love to smoke it...but I just cannot afford it...especially when there is bomb ass chem 91 for 50 buck 4 gramers. Price is a huge factor...granted if this one dispensary didn't exist, I might be buying more of the bubba.

I have noticed people just buy where it is convenient. Most places are awful. That is another problem...

Marketability is all about having a good to above average product at a very competitive price...
Only when we are at liberty to experience a normal free but regulated economy, will we truly understand quality and marketability....I am really just focused on the quality at this point in my life..peace
Phyte