Writing this once so I can stop repeating it across threads. It is about vendor vetting, and it is deliberately narrow — everything I am not confident about is marked as such.
What is actually established
The pattern that distinguishes a bad batch from an exit is behaviour rather than product. A bad batch comes with communication, a reshipment offer and a batch number. An exit comes with slower replies, pressure toward less reversible payment methods, sudden discounting, and the same reassurance repeated without any new information. The product tells you less than the correspondence does.
The condition it depends on
A caveat about community reputation: it is a lagging indicator. Reports arrive weeks after orders, so a supplier can look excellent for a month after quality has already changed.
The practical version
Red flags, in rough order of how much they should worry you: no verifiable address, no batch numbers, prices far under market, vendor-commissioned tests only, pressure toward irreversible payment, and shipping with no temperature control.
What I am not sure about
What I am trying to establish is how people are distinguishing a supplier having a bad batch from a supplier on the way out. I would rather have one careful answer than five confident ones.
— WendyG_ATL · corrections welcome and will be edited into this post with credit