Methodology

How I rate vendors: the Papa Score

The Papa Score is a 100-point rubric I use to rate research peptide vendors. It replaces gut-feel star ratings with something you can actually audit: five categories, each broken into specific things I either found or didn't. This page is the full rubric. If a vendor review links here, this is what "See how scoring works" means.

The policies

• Scores are based on publicly verifiable documentation and my own ordering experience, not on a vendor's marketing copy repeated back as fact.
• The Ordering and Shipping category is only scored once I have actually placed and received a real order. If I haven't, that entire category is excluded from the score rather than guessed at.
• Affiliate relationships never affect scores, and no vendor can pay to change a score. I only review vendors I have an affiliate relationship with, but the relationship doesn't buy a better number.
• Pricing is reported for information because it's useful to know, but it is never part of the score. A vendor doesn't score higher for being cheap or lower for being expensive.

The five categories

Testing Transparency, up to 30 points

This is the largest category on purpose. Third-party testing is the single most important thing separating a legitimate research vendor from one selling an unverified guess in a vial.

• COAs published (0 to 12). Whether certificates of analysis are actually posted where a buyer can see them before ordering, not just available on request after the fact.
• Independent lab (0 to 10). Whether the testing lab is named, and whether it's independent from the vendor itself, rather than an in-house or unnamed lab whose results can't be checked.
• Batch matched (0 to 8). Whether the batch or lot number on a COA actually matches what's printed on the physical vial, the check most buyers skip and the one that matters most.

Quality Signals, up to 25 points

Signals that a vendor treats its catalog as a research supplier, not a supplement storefront.

• Purity documented (0 to 10). Whether purity percentages are stated with a method (HPLC or mass spectrometry), not just a bare number.
• Research-use labeling (0 to 8). Whether products are clearly labeled and marketed for laboratory research use, without dosing instructions or human-use framing that would misrepresent what's legally being sold.
• Catalog consistency (0 to 7). Whether product listings, concentrations, and specs stay consistent over time rather than changing without explanation between visits.

Ordering and Shipping, up to 15 points

Scored only after a real purchase. A profile without a real order simply excludes this category and shows the score out of 85 instead of 100, with a label saying so.

• Checkout and payment (0 to 5). Whether checkout worked cleanly, with reasonable payment options and no surprise steps.
• Shipping speed (0 to 5). Whether the order arrived in the timeframe the vendor stated, based on my own order.
• Packaging and cold chain (0 to 5). Whether the product arrived properly insulated and intact for a temperature-sensitive lyophilized peptide.

Customer Service, up to 18 points

• Response time (0 to 6). How quickly and directly a real question got a real answer.
• Refund policy (0 to 6). Whether a clear, reasonable refund or reshipment policy exists and is stated in writing, not improvised case by case.
• Site transparency (0 to 6). Whether the site states who runs it, where it ships from, and how to actually contact a person, rather than hiding behind a contact form and nothing else.

Reputation, up to 12 points

• Years operating (0 to 4). How long the vendor has been selling under the same name, since longevity in this space is itself a signal.
• Community sentiment (0 to 4). What independent, non-affiliate sources (forums, review sites, Reddit) say about the vendor, weighed against how much of that sentiment is actually independent.
• No unresolved issues (0 to 4). Whether there's a pattern of unresolved complaints (orders never arriving, refunds never honored) versus isolated, resolved incidents that happen to any vendor at scale.

Bands

The total score is normalized to a percentage of whatever the vendor's maximum possible score is (100 with a real order on file, 85 without one), then mapped to a band:

• 90% and up: Papa's Pick. The vendors I'd point a friend to first.
• 80 to 89%: Recommended. Solid across the board, nothing that would stop me from ordering.
• 70 to 79%: Solid with Caveats. Good enough, but with specific gaps worth knowing before you order.
• 60 to 69%: Proceed with Caution. Real, documented concerns. Order only with eyes open.
• Below 60%: Not Recommended. Enough missing or wrong that I wouldn't order here myself.

A vendor that hasn't been scored under this rubric yet shows "Not Yet Scored" instead of a band. That's not a bad score, it's an honest gap: I haven't put in the verification work required to publish a number I'd stand behind.