DNA Sales February 8, 2017

Update: February 8, 2017 – FTDNA’s Family Finder (their autosomal test) is now on sale for $59 through February 14, 2018 and they are offering discounts if you add Y-37, Y-67, or mtDNA when ordering Family Finder. Also, MyHeritage DNA is down to $59 on their website if you order 2 or more kits (and $69 if you only want one kit) and $65 on Amazon.

Note: Always check prices before placing or completing the order since many of the sales are time limited. When possible, I included the known end dates.  The sale prices are for those ordering in the U.S.A and don’t include any shipping costs or sales tax where applicable.

In addition to checking Amazon.com for those companies that have kits available through Amazon, you may also check EBay since sometimes you can get a better deal through EBay.

Starting with National Geographic’ Geno 2.0 Next DNA, it’s on sale for $69.99/kit if you buy two or more kits at the same time (regular price $199.99). If you already have a Helix kit for an individual, you can get Geno 2.0 for $69.99 at Helix (doesn’t appear to be a 2 kit minimum on the Helix link; however, it is $30.00 more if you don’t already have a Helix kit for an individual and order through the Helix link – best to order through the National Geographic link in those cases if you are ordering 2 or more kits at a time). Did not see too many Geno 2.0 kits on EBay and those I saw were more expensive than what you can find elsewhere.

Next, 23andMe, is on sale for 20% off through February 14, 2018 with free gift wrapping. Sale price is  $79 (regular price $99) for Ancestry (ethnicity) only and $159 (regular price $199) for Ancestry (ethnicity) and Health. Same sales prices with free shipping if you order through Amazon.com. On EBay, ignore most of the Buy It Now kits that are selling for less than regular price, especially those selling for less than $60. Examine the photo closely since most of the cheaper Buy It Now kits don’t include the testing fee ($70 or $170) and appear to be kits purchased at a local chain – Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target, CVS.

Ancestry DNA (Ancestry.com) is on sale for $79 (regular price $99)  – Note: this can vary between individual users as somebody reported $69, but didn’t say if it was on Ancestry’s site or Amazon. For Amazon users (Prime and non-Prime), it’s showing as $69 on Amazon right now. I checked GroupOn and it looks like AncestryDNA kits are no longer available there at the moment. On EBay, there are several auctions for AncestryDNA kits in addition to a number of Buy It Now sellers (prices start at roughly $40 and up for the Buy It Now kits; auction prices vary widely and change as more bidders get involved).

FamilyTree DNA (FTDNA) is showing $79 for Family Finder (FTDNA’s autosomal test), but looks like they are treating it like regular price since it isn’t showing with a regular price of $99 which was the old regular price. It’s showing as $79.99 on Amazon, but you get free shipping so the extra 99 cents is more than offset by the saving on shipping. If you use GroupOn, it’s $65, but you do pay shipping which would put it around $78. Didn’t see any kits on EBay, but that can change rapidly.

MyHeritage DNA is on sale for $59 (regular price $99) at MyHeritage and $65 on Amazon. No word on how long the sale lasts. Slightly cheaper on EBay, but those can sell out fast.

LivingDNA is on sale for $99 (regular price $159); no matching currently, but matching is expected to start in August. Also, you can do a free transfer from most of the major DNA companies. You won’t get ethnicity or haplogroups with the free transfer. Don’t see it on Amazon. Did not see any kits for LivingDNA on EBay.

AtlasBiomed is running a sale 14% off (they offer several kits and are U.K. based; you will need to contact them before ordering from the U.S.) Promo Code LOVE (which can be found on the main page and once it’s applied, you can use the arrow keys to figure out which test you want to use it on).

Dante Labs is running a sale on its full DNA and whole exome kits. Whole Genome Sequencing (full DNA test) $652.84 (regular price $989.14) and Whole Exome Sequencing (20,000 genes) $465.48 (regular price $700.11) . It is a spit kit (or saliva collection kit if you prefer). For Whole Genome Sequencing (full DNA although some companies use WGS for what is really Whole Exome Sequencing or WES), you get the following file formats for your full DNA:

• Receive raw data in gVCF, BAM and FASTQ formats

Helix up to 50% off select products according to its main page, but it doesn’t make it clear which select products the discount applies to. If you are so inclined, you can look at my list from an earlier blog post https://upsdownsfamilyhistory.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/helix-dna-test-offerings-and-why-you-shouldnt-buy-most-of-them/ and compare prices between it and the current price for a specific test on Helix. In the case of Geno 2.0 Next, it is regularly priced at about twice the price listed on Helix right now. Some of the kits are available on Amazon, but you are also paying for a Helix kit as part of the purchase price so if you have previously ordered a Helix kit, you may be better off using the Helix website. EBay prices vary widely and cover any number of the various tests offered by Helix so you are probably better off ignoring Helix on EBay unless you know which test you are getting and it’s cheaper than other places.