Reeds Shops to buy V21 reeds from

[Ne0Wolf7]

Hi everyone,

I bout a couple sample packs of reeds and found that the Vandoren V21 reeds are pretty good. I want to get a box of them for alto, but my previous experience with a box for tenor about two and a half years ago (I guess I can hold a grudge) was that they are incredibly inconsistent. A box of V21 goes for 35-39 USD online from where I looked, which includes:

• Woodwind and Brasswind
• Amazon
• Musician's Friend Thomann USA
• Guitar Center
• Even Ebay

Some sites are even selling a box of ten for 50 USD! A box of Vandoren Traditional, which I have been using, costs only 25-30 USD on the same sites. Vandoren describes it as a premium cut, and to be fair the shape is different than all their other reeds, but does anyone know of a site selling them at a cost more similar to the other cuts? I'm not confident spending extra for reeds I had a bad time with previously. I'll also be making my rounds to the local shops. I'm in the USA, but if you see them at a reasonable price from any other region, do tell, maybe it'll be equivalent here.
One last thing: If that's the selling price, maybe I can be consoled with good stories about them, or convinced to just stick to Traditionals with bad ones!

 

[Ne0Wolf7]

Here's how it turned out if you're curious:

Went to a few shops and they either didn't carry them or charged more than I could find online, which I honestly expected since my local shops are just brick and mortar fronts for the online retailers. I found an online store I hadn't heard of before, Pro Winds, which sold them for 33 USD, which ended up being the lowest I could find them.
When I got them, I put three into rotation. The cuts looked okay and not any better or worse than the traditionals I'm used to. They all played great, two of them practically the same strength and the other slightly harder. So in case I scared anyone talking about my bad time with them on tenor a while back, I'm now confident to say that they sorted it out.