Is it technique, the mail, both or neither?

[OmahaJB]

Interesting to read the responses to this question.
Speculation from a 'less' experienced gardener than most of you are:
Mail - In all my trades I've never seen any visible damage to tomato or pepper seeds during the mailing process. Outside of seeds possibly going through those fairly new machines that neutralize substances like Anthrax, it's hard to believe seeds would be harmed in the mail. Unless they were mailed during the hottest months of summer.

Seed storage and seed starting techniques would seem the most likely causes of germination variation from one grower to another. I read an interesting post by Carolyn just days ago that made me realize I was probably doing something very wrong by not propping up the plastic tops occassionally to my two little greenhouses to get air circulation. I've always removed the seedlings from the greenhouses to put them under the lights once they popped through the soil, but didn't realize I needed to prop the plastic lids of the greenhouses up once in awhile. Who knows how many seeds I've suffocated to death! I have suspected for a few months that using my heated Jiffy greenhouse during warmer months, has probably cooked many of my seeds that were started during those times. Which explains why I've only had great success with seed-starting during winter months. For experienced gardeners those probably seem like obvious rules of thumb (propping up the lid once in awhile and not using bottom heat during warmer months), but for people just starting out they are very helpful tips. I expect to have much greater success in the future with seed-starting.

Another thought, and maybe this is totally off-the-wall stuff, but could it be possible that seed of some varieties are 'tougher' than other varieties, making them less likely to be affected by several temp changes during shipping, poor seed storage climate (i.e. too hot), bad seed starting techniques (i.e. mine in warmer months!), and other variants such as fermentation temps? How probable is this theory I wonder?

Jeff