Buying kefir on eBay

You would think that people selling kefir and or kombucha on eBay would be nice people who are there to help people get into the cultures; but, many are not… some are nice; sorry to say, others can be real rip off artists… really … Lots of people coming to buy the cultures are new to them and won’t know for a while that they have been taken advantage of.

It is a good idea to check the detailed feedback ratings of the seller but lots of people who come to ebay to buy the cultures are very gentle people and don’t leave negative feedback, so you can’t always go by that but take a look anyway and see what people have said about the seller… don’t buy from someone who doesn’t have many sales.

Here is one scam… Watch out when a seller ships via the “Standard Shipping Method” This means the seller is sending the grains via first class mail but he may be charging Priority Mail prices… first class mail takes 2 to 5 days and priority mail takes 2/3 days for delivery. One buyer bought 4 portions of kefir for something like 3.88 each but he paid 35 dollars for shipping… I can show you the transaction if you don’t believe me… the buyer gave the seller a neutral rating… see… you can’t always go by ratings… watch out for sellers who play games with the shipping… they have low prices for the grains but high prices for the shipping and that shipping is not fast…

Here is another scam… The seller must know that kefir is fermented with a ratio of grains to milk by volume… they sell a tablespoon of kefir and tell the buyer that that tablespoon will ferment 2 to 3 cups of milk… one guy even says that his table spoon will ferment 4 to 6 cups of milk… Well; first of all the smallest grain of kefir will ferment a million gallons of milk … eventually …. But ideally and optimally kefir is fermented at a ratio of  7 to 16 parts milk to 1 part kefir grains by volume… you might be able to get away with a 20 to 1 ratio but be aware that a tablespoon is a half an ounce and a cup is 8 ounces so a table spoon will ferment up to 16 tablespoons or a cup which is the same measurement but a tablespoon of kefir grains will not ferment 2 cups or 4 cups or 6 cups in a proper optimal manner

One seller ships his kefir grains via media mail … that is the slowest possible way to ship… yet he charges priority mail prices….

One seller brags that he uses Horizons Organic milk .. .let me tell you that Horizon Organic milk is ultra pasteurized and ultra pasteurized milk is the worst kind of milk you can use …. Organic or not… check it out … ultra pasteurized milk doesn’t even need to be refrigerated … check it out.

If you have any questions please contact me