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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The adventures of a DNA newbie - part one - buying the kit

Yesterday I was considering whether or not I should take up the 23andMe $99 (+ $60 subscription + $67 postage) offer on DNA testing.

I had concerns about the "personal genome subscription", but I was tempted. With a bit of egging on from Carole (both in comments and on twitter), I decided that the best way to stop the temptation was to give in to it. I bought the kit! The purchase process was simple enough. So far so good.

Don't get me wrong. I still don't like 23andMe's pricing model. Not at all. Thank you to Bobby for the link to a discussion forum on the topic. It seems I'm not the only one. If they maintain this new pricing model, I think 23andMe will seriously lose value to genealogy users - starting one year from now when this first batch of people on the new pricing structure decides whether to keep or drop their subscription.

So, I'm going into this with my eyes open at least as far as pricing is concerned and taking the view that this is a one year experiment, and I can live with that. (Note to self: remember to cancel after a year!!)

The rest is a great adventure which I'm very excited about!

More when the kit arrives...

2 comments:

  1. I agree with the expectation of trouble when the 1 year is up. You are not the only one. I'm taking the same view, unless they can demonstrate overwhelmingly that it is worth an extra year. Interesting times ahead!

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  2. Good for you, Shelley! I will include your posts on this experiment in the blog roll of the DNA Testing Buddies!

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