Love the skepticism! I live somewhere on the map where only a few vendors accept to ship to and vape shops are non existing. And shipping cost starts at 10$ so I usually sample in big quantities and just wish I have put my bet on the right horse until the juice arrives at my post box. If that is your definition of risk let me tell you about the things I go through before placing my bet on a new vendor, I first look for some reviews good and bad try to understand what made them give the juice a good review or a bad one, go on instagram find out if the vendor has an instagram account, clicking on diffrent related hashtags to access other people posts about the product. What I look for in the reviews and instagram post is the vape gear that is commonly affiliated with the vendor's ejuice if it is close to the vape gear you have at the moment or maybe even a style of vaping you feel like you might go into in the near future I would say you are more likely to get a satisfying experience from your purchase than just reading the reviews without that aspect in mind, as no vendor can simply cator to all vapers without being bias and favoring one of the many different styles.

I wouldn't want to try out a vendor whose instagram fan base are leaning towards being kanger subtank users and other tanks that work best with under 40w of power as I like to drip on RDA's on 75w with a restricted direct lung inhale, and that specific vendor'sj uice is most likely formulated to work best with 12mg - 6mg nicotine and to be vaped on less than 40 watts which is making all those subtank owners to go crazy over the taste as it is bias towards that specific catagory of vape gear and for me to vape it at 75w would make the flavor concentation I get per puff unbearably strong for me to like it. And sometimes the stars align and you also find a negative review which was done on something similar to your setup and agreeing on exactly what you need to hear to confirm that the observations you pointed out earlier are actually true and base your decision.

Never fails