Author: G

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So why do so many sources go out of business?

This is a loaded question that has many contributing factors, but I want to touch on some personal experience and see if we can better understand this. 

Anyone who has been in this game since the 90’s or even early 2000’s knows how much things have changed in the last 20 years. I remember in the late 90’s early 2000’s seeing the classified type ads in the back of the muscle mags selling gear. They were a little disguised, but anyone who know what they were looking for could find them there. I remember mail ordering some gear way back then, you’d just send off your envelope with some cash in it to the address provided, and the gear would show up (if you were lucky) shortly after. Fast forward 20 years and you can do all of this online now. With the addition of online advertising on the forums etc, it has attracted a lot of sources. Some of them are as solid as a rock, running their business professionally and playing the long game. Others pop up with great prices and customer service for the first few months, then seem to fade away.

I think the competition from the many competing sources is great for the customer. They get more choices, and generally, a better ability to buy what they need. The sources are forced to provide better customer service, better pricing, better security, etc. to stay in business. When we first started operating I had a scarcity mentality, it scared me every time we saw a new source pop up as I thought it would take away our business. After a few years I realized there is plenty for everyone and it was best to play the long game and build up a good following and treat your customers right so they will keep coming back. So why do so many of these sources pop up one day and go bye-bye the next? 

Most of you know it is not hard to start brewing your own gear, slap some labels on it, and call it a new lab! Anyone who has done some home brewing knows it is pretty dang cheap to brew up a few grams of Test E into a bottle. I believe a lot of these sources get into this line of work thinking “Hey, I can make a bottle of Test E for $12 and sell it for $60!” This is true if you’re doing it all yourself, ordering the raw hormones and chemicals to your house, brewing in the basement, and selling it to a guy at the gym, or mailing it off. Any gym rat can get a few buddies together and do this, as it’s not hard. There are new forums that will let someone like this advertise on their board so long as they pony up the cash each month, and all the sudden they’re a ‘source’!

This is where most get dollar signs in their eyes and think they are going to be rich. They just order a bunch of raw hormone, glassware, and chemicals and open up shop! They read an article online and think they know how to ship anonymously and jump right in. Here is what begins to happen immediately: the new source thinks they will undercut the other sources by charging less. They get a bunch of orders from guys looking for bargain prices and realize they need to order a lot more raw hormone to keep this up. So for the first month things go smooth, but as soon they run into issues getting their raws, maybe a pack gets seized, or they spend their working capitol on BS and don’t have the funds to keep product coming in the door. At this point you start to see some turn around issues, guys are wondering why the order is taking longer, or any other excuse that the ‘source’ comes up with. The source has some excuse and they offer some extra gear to shut them up. This works for a little while then we start seeing guys online say they have PIP, abscess, or the product is not potent/effective. The source will stop taking orders for a short time trying to get things under control but soon things continue to go down hill. We see forum admin get involved, customers pissed they have not received orders for months, and the source will give excuses or just go MIA.. Soon enough we see the inevitable post “hey guys, we had a death in the family and are taking some time off” or “we have decided to retire” or sometimes you don’t hear anything at all and they just go MIA. 

If you’re interested to know what happened behind the scenes while this is going on I would venture to say its something along these lines. Once the orders came rolling in the source was swimming in cash, they buy some fun shit, and order some more raws…. But a raw pack gets seized, so they order to another address. They try to keep producing as they have some big orders to fill. Soon they run into issues collecting money- W/U or MG won’t let them collect payments anymore so they start doing some CIM (cash in mail) payments. Soon enough one of these things happens that lead to their demise. 

– They get a controlled delivery and LE busts them.

– They have internal issues and disagreements between the guys running the source, someone wants more money, someone is stealing, someone is lazy. Same shit that happens with every partnership. 

– Someone narks them out as they have been running their mouth to friends about their new found success.

At this point they either work with LE to lessen their punishment and set up others or they go down on their own; either way they are done for and on the public side on the forums people will see the list of excuses start to come up that make absolutely no sense like “we had a death in the family and are stepping away for a short time to deal with it” or “we have decided to retire” or a number of other BS excuses before their account goes dark. In the time I have been in this line of work I have seen over a dozen sources I know go down. The reasons for their demise are all different but the common denominator in them all was they were not running their business with any kind of strategy for the future. I will be the first to say its not easy to get out of this line of work once you are in it, but you have to have some idea of what you will do if and when there is an issue so you’re not scrambling to play catch up. 

We have been doing this for over 13 years and have learned a lot in that time frame. Here is a list of the common things I see in sources that go down. 

– Brewing, taking orders, and doing all your own shipping in one location. You can’t be brewing your own gear and selling it. You have to pick one or the other, you either specialize in brewing, or you specialize in the sales. If you do both, you’ll get busted eventually. We don’t brew any of our products in-house, I leave that up to professionals in their field who have the facilities and background to do this. 

– Lack of operational security. You need to do extensive research on privacy and security, and continue to check yourself often to make sure your methods are always up to par. This accounts for the majority of sources getting busted. I look on many of the forums and there’s so much ‘low hanging fruit’ for LE to go after because sources are not putting the security of their customers and business before profits or anything else; this is a recipe for disaster. 

-Recreational drugs being sold or used. This accounts for a large portion of why many of these sources get busted in the first place. If you’re selling recreational drugs, chances are you’re going to be a higher priority for LE. Many times the thread that unravels the sweater is recreational drugs being used. A few years ago we had someone emailing every week from the dark web reaching out to us tying to sell us Xanax, Percocet, and a host of other recreational drugs like this. It got out of hand as I told each of them we were not interested, but they just kept asking over and over. Then there was a series of huge busts on the dark web and I got a chance to see what was actually in those pills they were calling Xanax, etc, it was small amounts of fentanyl! Lord knows I am grateful we never entertained any of those offers as I would feel horrible if someone was hurt or God forbid killed because they took a product from us. Just another reason to not mess with the recreational drugs in this line of work. 

– Partnerships going south. Generally this is caused by greed as someone thinks they deserve more, or someone see’s an opportunity to push someone else out. This is a more common reason and generally leads to the person who’s getting pushed out to retaliate against others and potentially gets LE involved. 

– Under capitalized and/or not having enough reserve cash to withstand a downturn in the market or an unforeseen loss. Just like any business, shit happens. In this line of work, if you have packages seized or issues with inventory loss, it can spell the end if you have little or no cash on hand to inject t0 correct the problem. If any of you guys remember about 2 years ago we had to destroy the majority of our inventory on hand due to a supplier under-dosing it and pulling a fast one on us. It ended up costing us about $500k, but we destroyed the inventory and brought production to another facility/supplier, greatly improving the quality and consistency of our products. 

There are some great long time sources out there that have been in the game as long or longer than us, and I commend them for their efforts! It’s not easy to have over 10 years in this space. They sell great gear, they have good customer service and they take their business serious. Anymore, if you see a source on the forums for more than a few years they seem like veterans as so many come and go in less than a year. Then there are the guys who have been here over 10+ years and I can’t help but commend them for their efforts and I hope they keep up the good work going forward. They are the backbone that holds many of the forums together and provide a great trustworthy service for the guys who order from them. 

I wish I could share more detailed info in this article as I feel I could write a novel on this topic if I could speak freely, but I hope this provides a little insight into the inner workings of some of these programs and what goes wrong when they end up folding up shop. We take this business serious and live by a simple motto here that has never done is wrong, we simply treat the customers how we would want to be treated. I remember what it feels like being on the other side of the computer screen ordering from a source spending my last $500 on a cycle for an upcoming show only to not receive anything or receive garbage, it is extremely frustrating to say the least! Having that happen to me several times is what got me into this line of work in the first place and I vowed I would remember what it feels like to get screwed over. We run a very professional program here and we’re proud of the products we sell and extremely grateful for the customers that continue to come back to us year after year for their orders. Thanks guys! 

Thanks for reading, 

G and All of Team GearDepot

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A Beginners Guide to HGH

The introduction of HGH into bodybuilding and pretty much all competitive sports has been a game changer. The positive effects it has on athletic performance, anti-aging and all around better well-being is nothing short of amazing. I want to take a moment this month to review some of the basics with HGH as we’ve been asked by a lot of customers for guidance in this area.

Preparation / How to Mix / Storage
HGH comes in many different preparations. The majority of guys have found the generics coming out of China are potent and reasonably priced. Please note, there are literally 100’s of different China HGH generics being sold out there. Many of them are garbage, but there are definitely some that are potent and have a long established track record of being tested in the lab and in the cycles of athletes. The majority of HGH comes in 100iu kits. They include 10 small vials containing dry lyophilized powder of 10iu per vial totaling 100iu per box. HGH generally comes in these multi-vial preparations to ensure it stays stable after being constituted. To constitute the HGH you will add sterile (or bacteriostatic) water to the individual vial. If mixing the HGH in the 10iu vials, you will want to mix 1cc of water into the vial. You only want to mix one vial at a time. Once that vial is used, you can then mix another one. Store the entire kit in the frudge, even before each vial is mixed. Once the preparation is mixed together you still want to keep it in the fridge (do not put it in the fridge door where it will get agitated, its best to leave it on a shelf and not disturb it unless your drawing out your dose).

Dosage / Administration
The dosage will depend on each person and is highly individualized, but if you are new to HGH and this is your first time using it, I would recommend starting off with a 3iu dose 1x per day, 5-7 days per week. I often get asked what is the best time of day to take the HGH injection? I have tried administering my HGH shot about every way you can imagine, and have settled on doing it either post workout  (whatever time that may be) or simply doing it before you go to bed. I tend to prefer the bedtime routine as the HGH makes me a little tired. Starting with a 3iu injection daily and then moving it up or down from there depending on your effects/side effects is best. The injection is administered using an insulin syringe. I recommend getting a 29-32 gauge needle (the larger the gauge #, the smaller the diameter of the needle) that is 1/2″ long. I prefer the 1cc volume syringes but the 1/2 cc will work also. You will pull the correct dose into the needle from the sterile HGH vial, pull out of the vial and clear the air from the syringe, then pinch the skin of your belly, thigh or anywhere you can find some pliable skin and stick the needle into the skin, careful not to let the needle enter the muscle. This is a subcutaneous injection.

Benefits of Taking HGH
The benefits of taking HGH are numerous. Many people use HGH for general wellness / anti-aging and see benefits in their skins vibrancy/elasticity. Increased energy levels, decreased pain around joints and connective tissue, increased muscle mass and decreased fat are common benefits of HGH. When you stack HGH with other AAS these results are magnified. If you’re not able to use the HGH for at least 3 months I would not advise taking it. HGH seems to have a more cumulative effect, meaning the longer you use it the better it works and the more/better results you see. Most people will not see fat loss or increased muscle in the first few weeks, it takes a month or two to begin seeing these results.

Side Effects
The side effects of HGH are generally dose dependent, meaning the higher the dose you are taking the more of these side effects you will see. Reports of swelling in the hands and joints are common in the beginning, as your body gets used to the dose and acclimates itself. I have experienced achy joints/body aches with higher doses as well. If you experience side effects, you can mitigate them by decreasing the dose.

What to Stack with HGH?
I think men should stack HGH with some kind of testosterone. The dose will depend on your goals if you are just doing it for general wellness and anti-aging, or if you are using it for extreme performance enhancement and want to maximize the synergistic effect that HGH and AAS have together. Using HGH on its own will work great, but stacking it with some kind of AAS, preferably testosterone, seems to have a synergistic effect (think 1 + 1 = 3). I don’t know the science on how this synergistic effect works, but it is well documented in the bodybuilding world.

HGH has one of the safest track records of any drug you can use for performance enhancement or general well being. The price has come down significantly in the last 10-years so it is affordable for most people who can shop around for a good deal. HGH is unique in the fact men and women can both use it with minimal side effects. Another benefit of using HGH is you don’t really need to ‘cycle off’ of it, you can stay on year round if your finances allow for it.

I hope this article helps to give some more basic insight on HGH. If any of you want or need more information on this please feel free to reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help.

Thank you,

G and all of Team GearDepot!

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Cycling steroids vs. TRT dosing year round. What is best?

This is a loaded question and is dependent on many different things.

TRT = Testosterone replacement therapy.

TRT is a general term used to describe taking a low, regular dose (usually weekly) of testosterone to replace your body’s own declining levels.  I want to start off by going through some of the variables/questions one should ask themselves to help determine what is best..

How old are you? Once you hit your late 20’s, your natural test levels will start to decline. If you’re 30+ years old its going to be hard to get your natural levels back to ‘normal’ in just a few months. 

Are you getting your blood work done regularly? If you’re not able to test your blood to see exactly where your testosterone levels are while on cycle and off cycle, then it will be very hard determine if you’re recovering quickly or if your testosterone levels are low. 

Do you have any health issues? If you have high cholesterol, heart issues, etc. then you will want to monitor this carefully if you use steroids. I have seen guys do much better staying on a low dose TRT (200mg/week) throughout the year, rather than cycling steroids at higher doses for 3-months, then going off for a period of time. On the same token, I have seen others with health issues do better cycling on and off. 

What are your athletic/fitness/exercise goals? If you’re competing in bodybuilding, powerlifting, or some other sport  at an extremely high level, then the low dose TRT may not be for you, as those endeavors require different demands at such a high level. If you’re using steroids to help get into shape, slow down aging, or for general increased performance in your chosen discipline, then you’re probably a better candidate. 

The endocrine system is very sensitive; if it gets thrown out of whack it can take some real time to get it back to ‘normal.’ In the bodybuilding scene, we have been taught that we should cycle on steroids then cycle off them back and forth. The reasoning behind this is to give the body’s natural test levels a chance to recover. I have heard guys say that you need to go off at least as long as you were on. Doing this protocol would put you going on cycle for 3-months then off for 3-months, in this yo-yo fashion. In theory this is sound advice, you use exogenous testosterone for a few months, doing this will suppress your natural testosterone so you take the next 3-months to get your natural test levels back up before suppressing them again. I suppose the idea behind this is that if you don’t let your natural test levels get back to normal by cycling on and off, then you will permanently suppress your natural test levels. 

If you’re a 30+ year old healthy male who is using steroids to help with performance and recovery in the gym or with any athletic performance, I would seriously consider using a TRT dose and staying on year round. This may sound scary at first, the idea of never coming off steroids can make you feel like an addict or feel like you’re putting your health in jeopardy. Let me make a few arguments about why it may be a good idea to do this. First off, if you’re going to be on all year, you don’t need to be using normal cycle doses. I think most guys doing a 3-month cycle would say 800-1,000mg/week would be considered normal. If you’re staying on year round, then a dose of 200mg/week is the max that would be needed/advised. Doing this lower dose can really mitigate the negative health effects of steroids. I know for myself, if I use 800mg/week my blood pressure raises, my cholesterol will get out of whack (especially if I am using orals), and I tend to have a much higher hematocrit/red blood cell level that can lead to the heart working even harder to pump the thicker blood through the body. Even 200mg/week is multiple times higher than what our bodies are producing naturally, so your definitely going to see benefits at this dose; especially if you’re using year round. 

This brings me to my next point: what is the sense in spending all of the time to get your test levels back to ‘normal’ via PCT and being off cycle, just to throw them into suppression again a few months later? This yo-yo effect is what causes the majority of negative side effects that guys experience when cycling their gear. If you go from having 1500+ ng/dL testosterone levels to having 0, you’re going to lose the majority of the muscle you have built while on cycle, as your body does not have the hormones running through it that can sustain that muscle mass. Chances are you will only keep a small % of it in the end. I believe many guys would do much better using the TRT dose year round as its easier to keep your blood work on track on the lower dose; additionally, you will experience far less negative health effects. Yes your gains will be slower but they will be permanent and much easier to sustain. The slower you build the muscle the easier it is to sustain. When your muscles grow quickly over a short period of time the whole body has to ‘grow’ or adapt to support the muscle- meaning tendons, ligaments, your circulatory system, etc etc.. Many guys experience this first hand after they have put on 20lbs in a short time and they try to go out hiking (or even walking, climbing stairs, etc) and they can’t seem to catch their breath. It is because their heart and lungs are trying to pump blood and oxygen to 20% more muscle tissue and simply can’t keep up. 

I remember the first time I came off cycle when I was just getting into bodybuilding. I felt like complete garbage, I was young, inexperienced and saw any hard fought muscle gains slipping away and no matter how hard I trained or how much I tried to eat, I lost the majority of what I had gained. Generally, depression can set in from having low or no testosterone, and this just complicates matters more. I found myself counting down the days until my ‘3-months off’ was over and I could start back up again. It felt like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. I often wonder how I would have done lowering my doses and simply staying on for longer periods of time with the TRT type of dose. 

I will conclude with a few last points to keep in mind. Get familiar with your blood work. At a minimum, you should have it tested twice a year. Doing steroids and not getting your blood work done is like trying to navigate using a map without knowing what way is north? You won’t know what direction to go because you don’t know exactly where you’re at. Once you know what your testosterone levels, cholesterol, red blood cell, etc is at, you have the necessary tools to know how long it takes your body to recover from a cycle, deal with any health issues, and make an informed decision if a year round TRT dose is good for you. I don’t believe one way of using steroids is better than the other, so it is best to experiment a little and see how you react. Try doing the TRT dose for 6-9 months and see how you feel, how your blood work looks, and what kind of progress you have made. Compare this to your normal regimen and see what makes more sense to you. 

Getting your blood work done is very easy these days. There’s a lot of online testing companies that will have you get blood drawn at a Lab Corp or Quest Diagnostic type of facility and then email you the results for a $100-200. You don’t have to explain anything to your doctor, it is private, and you can see exactly what’s going on in your body. 

Thanks for reading. As always, we appreciate any feedback we can get, be it good or bad. Feel free to comment and add any info you think is beneficial to this conversation.

Thanks!

G and All of Team Gear Depot

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Kaballero Arimidex package typo.

It has come to our attention there is a printing error on the Kaballero Arimidex label. The Kaballero Arimidex has always come in 1mg tabs, and still does. We noticed on the most recent batch of Kaballero Arimidex the fine print reads “actual potency of 57mg.”, this is obviously incorrect. It should read “actual potency of 1mg”. We’re extremely sorry & embarrassed  for this error as we pride ourselves on selling top shelf products. To confirm, the Arimidex is 1mg per tab. We have addressed this issue with Kaballero guys and they’re reprinting labels for the next batch they send out to correct the typo. We apologize again for the error. If you have any concerns over the potency of the product please refer to the lab analysis we recently posted for this product here. If you have any questions regarding this issue please feel free to contact us, we’re always here to answer any questions or be of service to our customers, thank you.

 

 

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Kaballero Test 400mg / full disclosure

We wanted to take a moment and fill you guys in on this product and the feedback and results we’ve had from our customers and the testing analysis coming back from the lab. This product most recently tested at 423mg/mL. We’re extremely happy with the test results and the feedback we’ve received from our product testers and our customers. That being said I want to offer full disclosure so everyone is aware of what goes into getting 400+ mg/ into a mL of oil. Back in the late 90’s and even early 2000’s you rarely saw a 400mg testosterone product. The reason for this were many, but the main reason was its extremely hard to get anything in that concentration to hold stable and not crash. If you notice, most Test esters are dosed at 200mg or 250mg/mL max as that amount can be suspended in oil fairly easily and consistently. In the early 200’s we started to see the old Mexican brand ‘Denkall T-400’ on the market. This was a revolutionary product at the time as nothing was dosed that high. If you ever used it you know it was a pain in the ass literally! It felt like getting kicked by a mule when you injected it. The reason for this was the high amount of solvents used to suspend that amount of hormone in the oil. I recall seeing test results on this product many years ago and it was actually dosed closer to 330mg/mL if I remember correctly? In the last 10 years you’ve seen more and more of these high dose products on the market as the chemistry  has improved and the demand for the higher dosed gear is greater now. This is great for most of us as we want to get as much bang for our buck! The Kaballero Test En. 400mg product we sell has been formulated through a lot of trial and error to actually hold 400+ mg’s and NOT cause this extreme pain. We have the test results to prove this product really does have 400mg of Test En. In the research we did we tested  dozens of other brands on the market and found that the majority of the ones claiming 400+ mg’s very few actually had that amount, most were closet to 300-330mg/mL. 

That being said I want to give full disclosure so everyone can be informed on the feedback we are getting. The majority of our product testers and customers have reported no or very minimal pain from this product. We have had roughly 10% of customers feedback telling us they had some pain associated with this product after injection. The pain was described as some minor swelling and a small knot for a few days after injection. Now this was only from 10% of the feedback, but I feel we should let everyone know this before hand so they are aware it is a possibility. It’s a very delicate balance to get over 400mg into each mL and have it not cause pain. The pain some are seeing from these higher dosed products generally comes from the increased solvents used in them to get the higher concentration of hormone to suspend. If you don’t use enough solvent the product will ‘crash’ and fall out of solution. If you have ever had injectables that look thicker then they should and seem to have some crystals in them, this is a sign your product has crashed. If you use too much solvent in the mix it will cause extreme pain. So you can see its a bit of a tight rope walk to get it to hold at a higher concentration and not cause the pain. Some of the pain associated with these higher concentration formulas is caused simply from having 400mg’s releasing from such a small area of volume and has nothing to do with the solvents used. 

If you do experience pain with this product please let us know and we can give a few pointers to help alleviate the PIP (post injection pain). If you feel the pain is too great then I would recommend buying another testosterone product that is dosed lower like the Kaballero Test cyp. 200mg, or the Kaballero Test Mix 325mg. Some guys are more susceptible to PIP from the higher dosed products, and others can take as much as they want and they have no issues at all. If your a novice and have not used a higher mg/mL product I would recommend only buying one vial to test and see how you handle it? As mentioned before, the majority of guys have no issues with this product and this article will be a moot point, but a small percentage have some PIP and it will cause some discomfort. If you do experecince any issues please let us know and we’ll do whatever we can to help you out.

Thanks! G