I remember when this forum was lighting up over the prices of the weed, some people singing songs about they get the best of the best for R50/60 and no one should pay more than that I stood firm that most people still paying the old prices of R120-R150, still got retaliated cause people got butthurt about the truth. I hope those 'some' people have taken this time to come to realisation, it seems that way cause instead of giving you the what what on how much you paying you just got a straight answer, has happened so many times on this forum
@Sticks
I would say it's a mix of all those things.
The secret is definitly genetics, though. No two ways about it. I've had genetics push buds that look like black market stuff without me trying, just growing amongst my other plants. It's just genetics. I can link you to one of my very very first grows, I grew a Elvis cut I got from a black market connection, came out like black market looking weed. The photos are on here. One of my earliest threads. Infact, here you go
Curing and drying could be a little bit of a factor, only when the genetics are what they should be. Obviously as clear as day if you got airy dark green buds on harvest day the absolute best dry and cure in the world will not make your buds dense and light green. that's just not a thing at all. not in a million years.
Genetics - next time you go to the blackmarket dude, try go as high up as you possibly can and talk directly to the bulk buyer, ask for a clone of the stuff you buying you gona get a big fat resounding no. Well, that's if he's worth his weight as a blackmarket business man.
Most black market suppliers will be part of a circle or "collective" of friends that share a couple of clones between them. I know a black market supplier, chat with him on a weekly basis, he lives here in my town couple streets away, got a whole house as a grow op, I'm talking 100's of plants on a perpetual cycle, full power all the way no hickups. He's pumping a cheese cut since 2012 that's been kept between the bunch of them and with my close connection he just simply sais No when I ask for a cut. That's what the black market does. Someone gets their hands on a keeper pheno and they see it sells well so they keep it away from the public in order to keep the value and price of that weed higher than the generic stuff. Setting the value margins for the black market. Like, who set that price of R120? What is it based on? If you work out what it cost to grow indoor it comes down to around R30/g. So the mark up could be because of the risk factor, but there's just a big a risk to growing outy. Probably even higher risk, cause it's harder to hide and all that. Indoor is the price it is on the street, cause they protect genetics.
Now that's just talking about one cheese pheno, there are literally billions of cheese phenos out there if you account for all pheno variations and all... if you buy a 20 or even a 50 pack of cheese seeds you still wouldn't get the same winner of a unicorn cheese pheno as the one you get by the black market? Cause you're not a black market supplier so you not "in the clique" you not "part of the gang". Don't know it you aware of the "Elvis" and the "Hitler" strains, there's a couple of them, "clone only" strains, cause they don't wana take to STS to be reversed for seeds, cause they been hybridized into oblivion. it's basically just a production plant then, can't reproduce or anything. Elvis you can get the clone of these days, but there's about 10 to 15 different ones out here and literally only 1 winner. to find that 1 is like finding a unicorn. for real. and a couple years back of you asked for a Elvis cut people would just laugh at you, cause they protected it to keep the price high. The same way it is with the Hitler cut today.
Saying "black market" is still quite vague, cause the black market produces 90% poopweed and then there's a 10% that will rival any home grower.
I don't think any black market supplier would take the time to cure the stuff they sell, they hang to dry, trim and moer in a bag and there you go. Most of the time you get dry weed, but there's a good 30 to 40% of the time you buy weed from the black market you get it still moist as fuck. They're just sloppy. They know it's not all going to sell on the street on day one, still has to trickle down to the singles, so it gives the middle man time to bag the stuff and sit with it for up to a month before selling out, in that time the buds spent in a bag, and we all know a weed in a bag dries out. even in a ziplock. That's basically the burping/curing process. Just unlucky if you get it fresh and still moist, then again like you said, people just don't know better cause I am thinking about 2 different guys I know that refuses to smoke weed that's dried properly they prefer the moist stuff.... I've smoked with them and I give my properly dried and cured weed that smokes like a terp loaded breath of fresh air and they don't like it at all I'm sure I also wanted the "harder hitting" stuff when I first started smoking.