I think you mean "SSE", as in "Seed Saver's Exchange". I was considering joining, but I find their website really hard to browse. There are 212 pages of tomatoes, which you can browse one at a time. So if you know exactly what you want, it might be useful. Seeds are kinda pricey, but it isn't clear how many you get.

Im not sure what it looks like on your end Dan but on my computer it says "sse". Im not to worried about the seed prices really, I get all my seeds from trading but don't you get them cheaper if you are a member?

The title, in BIG FONT, says SEE. But I figured out what you meant.

Not sure about their pricing. I see a lot of packages listed for $4, and I think there is a 10% discount to members.

In the title, gotcha.

As a long-time SSE member (as in Seed Savers Exchange, not to be confused with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange), I can hopefully clarify their somewhat complicated setup.

The organization is divided into a retail side (the seed catalog) and the membership side (the print Yearbook, and the online Exchange). They sell quite a few seeds in the retail catalog (and on the retail portion of their website) which anyone can order, member or not.

The Exchange is restricted to current dues-paying SSE members. The Exchange and Yearbook are where members "list" the seeds that they are currently offering to others. This is the heart of the organization, and the reason most people join. The 2016 Yearbook has over 16,000 different varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers listed. There are some duplicates (such as the same variety name in different languages)... but regardless, it is still an overwhelming amount of diversity.

There are fees set by SSE to cover the postage & packaging of material offered through the Exchange. I don't like using the word "price" to describe those fees, because most members (self included) are not selling seeds for profit. The sample rate varies depending upon the type of stock being offered (small seed, large seed, biennials, and live stock such as bulbs and cuttings). There is also a discount from these rates for members who participate by offering seeds or other plant material. As an example, small seeds (such as peppers and tomatoes) are listed at $4.00, and large seeds (such as beans) are listed at $5.00. For all categories, those who offer seeds ("listed members") subtract $1.00.

It is worth mentioning that these SSE recommended rates are meant to be used as a default, where no other rate is listed; members are free to set their own rates, and often do (usually for less than the recommendations).

As to whether joining SSE is worth the cost of membership... it depends upon what you hope to get out of it, or what you hope to contribute to it. If you are a dedicated collector, membership gives you access not only to new varieties, but to other collectors. Some join just because they want to support the preservation of some of our endangered food plants, or because they want to share their collections with others who are likely to grow & preserve them. To be honest, the trading aspect is not as significant as it once was, because of the increase in online trading... but there are still huge numbers of varieties offered through SSE which are difficult or impossible to find elsewhere.

Yes, I would agree that the Exchange website is not as user-friendly as it could be, especially for large categories such as beans and tomatoes. It is still a work in progress, and I believe improvements will be made in the coming year.

For me, because I believe in preservation, joining SSE has been rewarding & changed the way I garden. I am fortunate to live within driving distance of their farm, and visit there every year to view their seed grow outs. No catalog description compares to seeing hundreds of varieties in the field, grown under identical conditions... it is probably the world's largest publicly-accessible test garden. ;-) The majority of my garden is composed of varieties I first observed there.

why go to elsewhere to some overpriced seed club.. $4-5 for some seeds, get real. are you one of those doomsday people who've been fearing the end of the world for the past century? then maybe you might find the seed saver useful.. no offense to anyone who buys there, but i get a lot of seeds here on gardenweb forum from generous people who like trading their seeds for other types of seeds. this year alone i probably sent out 50 packets of seeds and received probably close to that amount in return.. seed saver seems more about profits than about good folks just trading with other good folks..

you're better off going to your local nursery and buying seed packets which typically cost between $1 and $1.50. my local garden shop has about 40 different tomato varieties to choose from alone.

I do not grow garden store varieties steve and my tomato collection is at about 500 varieties and peppers over 2000 varieties. so I doubt I would find anything at the local nursery. It all depends on how you garden. All of my collections have been done from trades and 50 to 100 seed varieties per trade was not uncommon but GW is gone and it is not that easy to search members trade lists anymore so getting the unusual seed varieties of any cultivar is best done in one place that has many varieties.

I do not mind paying a little extra for something you can't find anywhere else.

My views as an SSE member are my own, and do not represent those of SSE management. That being said, my 2 c's on the value of membership...

"why go to elsewhere to some overpriced seed club.. $4-5 for some seeds,
get real."

To a serious collector, $4.00-$5.00 is not unreasonable when you really want something, and there are no other sources. People who want everything for free probably would not choose to join SSE, and they are free to make that choice... quite honestly, the cost of membership probably keeps some gardeners from joining who would otherwise support SSE's mission. Most who do join do so for more than monetary considerations... because they support SSE's mission of preservation, because they are exploring genetic diversity, because they want to share their family heirlooms with others who will preserve them, because they just enjoy heirlooms, etc.

"are you one of those doomsday people who've been fearing the
end of the world for the past century? then maybe you might find the
seed saver useful."

I fail to see the connection between seed saving and "doomsday people"... that sounds more like a personal attack, and such derogatory slurs are uncalled for in a civil discussion.

"...my local garden shop has about 40 different tomato varieties to choose from alone."

To put things in perspective, SSE & its members currently offer 10,581 different tomatoes. To be "real", there are quite a few alternatives to SSE available, especially for tomatoes and peppers. Personally, I'm really happy to see that, because that means that preservation has gone mainstream... those crops now have multiple custodians, and are safer than when all their eggs were in SSE's basket alone. Keep in mind, though, that some of the more prominent heirloom seed sellers originally obtained much of their seed from SSE (and many are still members). Essentially, SSE is promoting its own competition in that regard... which would seem to be a bad business model, if profit were their only consideration.

Not all crops have found such loyal supporters as tomatoes & peppers, and for those crops, SSE remains as the largest publicly-accessible source. My special interest is beans, and SSE offers over 2400 varieties of common beans alone. Other than the USDA (which offers seed on only a limited basis) and foreign seed banks, there is no comparable source of beans out there, as much as I may wish it to be otherwise.

".. seed saver seems more about profits than about good folks just trading with other good folks.."

There may be some truth to that, regarding the parent organization. I freely admit that SSE has issues to address, both with its members, and with its public outreach. As anyone knows who has followed my comments over the years, I disagree with some of SSE's policies, and have expressed my opinions to the organization. Some things may change (some already have) and some may not; at some point, one either has to "agree to disagree" and move on, or decide to part ways. For my part, I choose to focus on the positives, and push for change where I feel it is warranted.

Any perceived problems with how SSE is run (such as membership dues, or the sample rates for seeds), are management issues, and should not reflect negatively on the many members who offer seed through the organization. There are a lot of "good folks just trading with other good folks", who offer their seed both through SSE, and through garden forums, seed libraries, and community gardens. Quite a few SSE members trade seed freely here on Gardenweb... although, as Podpiper mentioned, this has become more difficult since the site changed hands.