In the beginning I bought seeds from the auction because I didn't have much to work with as far as plants. It was a way for me to get some of the genes from parents that I couldn't afford otherwise. I was still buying daylilies in the $25 range back then so anything more than that I would buy some seed crosses with it as a parent. Of course I was hoping to get lots of beauties but you just never know what you may get.
If I was going to buy seed I would only do so on the lily auction as I do not trust buying seed or daylilies on ebay. There are some reputable sellers on ebay that are well known on the lily auction and elsewhere in the daylily world that I would maybe buy from but as a general rule I just don't buy daylily stuff from there. The reason is that I have heard wayyyyyy too many tales of buying newer daylilies and then 2-3 years later (these were more northern gardens) when they bloomed the daylilies were all ditchlilies. Of course the seller was no where to be found by then. Shoot there is someone who sells daylily "roots" and swears they will grow into a plant (whole other discussion there)
Anyway, some people expect 100% or close to germination rate from these seeds and as James said some just don't produce viable seeds at all and there is no way the seller can know this unless they have had the plant for awhile and planted lots of seeds from them and never got any germination from them. Some seed sellers do guarantee their seeds will germinate or your money back but I would never ask for my money back for seeds unless they arrived mushy or moldy.
Seeds come in all shapes and sizes and some dry up and shrivel up to almost nothing and others stay plump and round. Some buyers don't realize this and assume the really shriveled up ones are no good and they all should be plump and round; it just doesn't happen this way.
Some sellers will not guarantee the seeds to germinate because of all the different things people do to the seeds to get them to germinate like scratching the surface with sandpaper, soaking in peroxide water, germinating them in paper towel or such, the rock method, soaking in growth promoting products, etc. There was an experiment done by someone and it was published in one of the AHS journals on some of the various ways (sand, coffee filter, vermiculite and other stuff)and the different germination rates each produced.
Of course we would love to all get drop dead gorgeous introduction worthy blooms from these seeds but it does not always work this way. You can get as many keepers from 100 seeds as you can 1000, it just depends on what you are looking for. And you can get as many dogs from 1000 seeds as you can 100 seeds. I have gotten more plain non-eyed blooms (usually cream or yellow) than I want to count from 2 eyed parents or more solid pinks and purples from 2 eyed orange parents or more non-toothy blooms from toothy parents. With so much genetics in the background it is going to happen.
Here is a photo of a plain yellow bloom from 2 eyed parents. If I would have bought seeds and been new to buying seeds and got this I would swear there was no way this was the correct cross
Parents are DRAGONFLY DAWN x CASPER'S REVENGE
seedling from those 2
