Your first sentence is so right on. I am shocked how many vendors do not have supply or ways to get product IRL and actually make purchases off SR and then resell. Nothing wrong with that in theory..but there is a lot wring with not having what you have listed. I think the problem with going in stealth ..like full stealth .... is the exact problem you are talking about with vendors.. Let me explain. So you start off and you get going and you build up your favorite buyers and enough buyers for your monthly supply...so you go stealth. Well by doing that you no longer get "new" customers. And what happens is that the customers you do have fall of. They just do not all stick around. Of course some will but the % is small...I would say 20% at best. And when you go off stealth and go public you are essentially a new vendor as the vendors that came out after you get the business. And the people that are around are new and do not know who you are and they have their trusted vendors. Now of course their are exceptions and some vendors have pulled it off. But very few. And your original post is not taking into the account of what we do. We sell drugs. And it is hard to stay consistent and sell drugs. It is just something that has a high turn around. I think that is the main problem. People start out and stay around for 3-4 months and in Silk Road time...that is a long time. For those who know USA football (NFL) we are like running backs. And the simple fact is it is rare for drug dealers to last a long time. And on Silk road what has happened in the past is vendors get going and in truth they are not really drug dealers. For those that sell pills...they get their own scripts and sell their own supply. And after a couple months they fizzle out. It is not easy to be a vendor on SR. it takes a lot of work. And doing it at a high level takes a lot of work. And most people can not handle it. Also they run into supply and demand. And they try to sell what they do not have. And on other fields what they have done (coke,heroin,weed,E, ect) is they have a certain supply, they sell it.. They then re up and they sell again..though this time not as good as the first batch...and they get worse and worse in vending and they end up pulling a scam or selective scam before quitting SR all together. When last year the vendor form Canada(I hate Canada) Tony76 pulled his big scam..everyone talked about at the time what a trusted vendor he was...he was here 3 months!!!! And he used the timing of SR's 1 year anniversary sale to make everyone FE and he took off with a 6 figure score. And after that (and before) vendors went out that way...they figured why not? So in general it is just hard for a vendor to keep supply and stay on top of their game for more then a few months. When they started they knew they were not going to last. They start making a good score(if smart) and they realize it is a lot of work being a vendor when you have to ship more then 10 packages a day. So I totally agree with your observations I just think the reasoning is wrong. It is just what happens and it was going to happen no matter what. And with a lot of vendors they do not have the supply chain or in fact their supply chain is flaky too. I in fact think the buyers have it good on SR as it is like being on a street corner with 100's of vendors and you can not get that IRL. If any of you have been to a major league game in any of the big 3 sports you have seen the scalper area of a venue. And the beauty of it is in a 30x30 foot area there is 20+ guys all competing with each other..yet all get along for the most part and it is great as a buyer because all their scalpers are in one area.And although it is illegal it is basically not targeted by the local police. And that is how SR is. As a buyer you will have your favorite vendor...but you should always have a few. As you never know when that vendor is going to go out of business. Because there are a lot of factors that come into play. And some drugs the vendors stick around...example Rx...and others (coke) they barely last a month. In fact that is the one drug where no vendor has quality shit and is around for a while. I know this from what I read and I am always asked if I know a good coke guy on SR. And it is the only drug( other then Opium) that after being here 10 months I can not recommend a vendor. And the same is to be said for the buyers. They cycle through....Some have been around for a long time..but very few last 6+months. Not to many people can handle buying the same amount of drugs over a long period of time. Others are great at it.