Accepted answer
Answer first: vet the documentation before you vet the supplier, because documentation is the only thing you can assess before spending anything.
The pre-order sequence: request a lot-specific certificate for the exact line, check that it names a lot code rather than a batch family, check that it carries the column, gradient and detection wavelength, and check the analysis date is recent relative to the lot.
Set your accept threshold before you see the result. Deciding after the number arrives is how thresholds become negotiable, and everybody does it unless they wrote it down first.
Published inter-laboratory comparisons of peptide purity routinely find spreads of half a per cent to a per cent on identical material, which sets a realistic expectation for agreement.
The caveat is that a good result on one lot is a fact about that lot. It is a prior for the next one, not a guarantee.
Ask for the lot-specific certificate before ordering. It is free and it is decisive.
edited 14 Feb 2026 by nkem_obiora — removed a claim I could not source