Free resource
Research Peptide Supplier Evaluation Checklist
For sourcing laboratory research materials. Every item is verifiable with a document, a database, or a test message. Nothing here concerns what any material does — only whether the seller is who they claim to be.
No commercial interest. Nothing on this site is sponsored or affiliated. This checklist names no vendor, endorses none, and I earn nothing whether you buy from anyone or not. Run it against every seller, including any that someone with a commission recommends to you.
01 Testing & Documentation
A purity figure with no traceable document behind it is marketing, not a result.
- COA is lot-specific and available before payment — not an undated "typical results" sheet reused across listings.
- Testing lab is named and is a separate legal entity from the seller. In-house testing is not third-party testing.
- If accreditation is claimed, the number resolves in that body's public directory and its scope covers the method used.
- Identity and purity are reported by separately named methods, not a bare "99% pure."
- Actual chromatograms or spectra are provided, not only a summary table.
02 Lot Traceability
A document that can't be tied to the vial in hand proves nothing about that vial.
- Lot number printed on the vial matches the lot number on the COA.
- Manufacture date and test date both appear, and the test date is not years removed from the sale date.
- A different lot produces a different COA. One COA for all lots means no per-lot testing.
- Vendor will state in writing where synthesis occurred — country and facility.
03 Business Legitimacy
You cannot pursue a claim against an entity that does not exist on paper.
- A legal entity name appears in the Terms or Privacy Policy and returns an active registration in the applicable Secretary of State or foreign registry.
- The listed address is a street address — check the map for a mailbox store or virtual office.
- The phone number connects to a person who identifies the company.
- Support answers a narrow technical question ("which method produced the purity figure on lot X?") with a specific answer, inside its stated window.
- Domain creation date via WHOIS/RDAP lookup exceeds 12 months. Registrant contact is often redacted; creation date and registrar are not.
- No pattern of prior brands or domains abandoned after complaints — archived snapshots show it.
- The company name does not appear in FDA's public Warning Letter database.
04 Payment & Consumer Risk
Payment method determines whether you have a remedy or only a complaint.
- A credit card is accepted, billed under the vendor's own merchant name.
- You understand the asymmetry. Card purchases carry Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error rights — dispute in writing within 60 days of the first bill showing the charge; the issuer must acknowledge within 30 days and resolve within 90. The FTC states crypto payments "typically are not reversible" and "do not come with legal protections." Wire and P2P transfers behave the same.
- If only irreversible methods are accepted, the vendor has shifted 100% of counterparty risk to you. Price the order as unsecured; weigh any crypto discount against the loss of all recourse.
- Refund, replacement, and reshipment terms are published standing terms, not asserted in DMs, and state a claim window and who bears loss for non-delivery or breakage.
- Checkout runs on the vendor's domain through a named processor — not a wallet address emailed to you.
05 Shipping & Handling
Handling claims are testable on arrival — check them the day the box lands.
- Stated transport conditions match how the package actually arrives — insulation and coolant present or absent as claimed.
- Tracking is issued and the first carrier scan's origin matches the advertised ship-from location.
- A written policy covers customs seizure and non-delivery: who bears the loss, whether a reship is offered, any cap.
- Stated handling time is met, and labels identify contents and lot number.
06 Transparency & Claims
A site that markets to humans while labeling "research use only" has a documented intended-use problem.
- No human-outcome, condition, or benefit language anywhere — product pages, blog, FAQs, meta descriptions, social.
- No before/after imagery and no testimonials describing personal use.
- No dosing tables, protocol pages, reconstitution instructions, or calculators.
- Support does not answer personal-use or medical questions. Ask one; the reply is a finding either way.
- No "FDA approved," "FDA certified," or "FDA registered" claims. FDA's position is that a registration entry "does not denote approval, clearance, or authorization."
- Know the enforcement pattern. FDA has issued warning letters citing unapproved new drug (FD&C Act §§ 505(a), 301(d)) and misbranding (§ 502(f)(1)) violations built on website product descriptions and social posts, expressly rejecting the disclaimer: "[d]espite statements on your product labeling marketing your products as 'RESEARCH USE ONLY' … evidence obtained from your websites establish that your products are intended to be drugs for human use."
07 Reviews & Reputation
Read reviews as a sample with a selection process behind it, not as data.
- Reviews exist on a platform the vendor does not control.
- 1- and 2-star reviews are present and visible. An unbroken 4.9 with zero negatives is a filtered set.
- Review dates are distributed rather than clustered in spikes.
- Praise is checked for affiliate codes or discount links in the same post or thread.
- The reviewed domain is the exact domain you are buying from — near-identical names are common.
- Context: the FTC's Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 C.F.R. pt. 465, effective Oct. 21, 2024) bars incentives conditioned on a particular sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews, and passing a controlled site off as independent.
08 Hard Stops
Any one of these ends the evaluation. Do not weigh it against positives.
- No COA before payment, no lot number on the COA, or a lot number that does not match the vial.
- Named testing lab cannot be found or contacted, or its accreditation number does not resolve.
- Irreversible payment only and no published refund or reship terms.
- No legal entity named anywhere, or it is registered nowhere.
- Dosing guidance, human testimonials, or medical advice from support on a site labeled research use only.
- Any "FDA approved" or "FDA certified" representation.
Where to verify
- ICANN Registration Data Lookup — domain creation date and registrar
- FDA Warning Letters database — searchable by company name
- A2LA Directory of Accredited Organizations — one accreditation body of several; ask which body issued any claimed accreditation, then check that body's directory
- FTC — Disputing Credit Card Charges — the FCBA timeline
- Your state's Secretary of State business search — entity registration status
What this checklist does not do
It evaluates a seller, not a substance. A vendor can pass every item here and the material can still be unsuitable for whatever you intend. Nothing on this page is medical, legal, or purchasing advice, and passing this checklist is not a recommendation to buy anything from anyone.