Purchased "bad" Royal Queen Seeds in Amsterdam? Popped seeds won't sprout

So all of my grows to date have been clones of an original set of bag seeds I collected over the years...I've been too sketched out to order seeds online, but a trip to Amsterdam this summer motivated me to expand my collection. I bought White Widow, Skunk XL and Pineapple Kush Royal Queen Seeds. The situation was a little sketchy--they were sold at one of the gift shops and the guy working there pulled me aside and told me he could give me a "great deal" while his manager was away from the store.

Fast forward two months....seeds popped fine, but when planted, they just seemed to rot away. Out of the 7 I tried, only one ever sprouted, and it withered and died after two days. The rest of the seeds seem to have cracked open and there's just a lump of brown gook where the root used to be.

I've grown plants from maybe 10 or so seeds over the last two years, and never had a single problem going from popped seed to sprouted plant. Is it possible that this guy sold me old, or "bad" seeds? Has anyone else heard of this kind of thing happening??

Generally, if they pop tails they are what you are looking for. In the past, when I have had something like that happen it has been either soil too hot and burned up my seedling, or too wet and rotted the root.

Hmmmm I did switch to smaller pots so definitely could be too wet. Thanks for the tip!