...and by clever I do hope you mean retarded....

Openly revealing the manner in which your seeds were mailed to you is a big no-no...that is unless you want LEO to know all methods used.

The freebies are not old stock...on the contraire.

The Durban Skunk is from Sam the Skunkman (originator of Skunk #1)
The 007 Freebie Mix is the newest mix put together from Gypsy.
The Black Domina were given away quite some time ago, but when I germed mine they all popped above ground.

Perhaps it is the method?...not sure just a possability.

Here is a quick method to try for seed germination.

Soak in water until they sink. Take seeds and place inbetween dampened sheets of paper towel. Place towel inside a ziplock baggie, place baggie inside of a magazine and place in a warm area.

After being in the paper towel for 12 hours open it and give the seeds some fresh air. 12 hours later you should start to see your seeds crack open. Within another 12 hours most all of your seeds should be cracked and showing signs of their taproot.

If a seed has not germenated by this point, just put it back in and continue to check on it every 12 hours. Using this method, and keeping the towel damp (not wet) will give you a very high percentage of "workable" seed.

I have germed seeds that were saved from 83' using this method.

Peace