As my dear friend Tommy Boy asked "Why do they put a guarantee on a box? Hmm, very
interesting.... Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time." Same thing goes for latex. Someone can coat a piece of shit with latex, but all you're going to have is a latex covered piece of shit.
Do I have a vendetta against latex? Not one bit. If history has shown us anything it's that our canuck neighbors could make one heck of a latex gasket don't ya know, eh! But those were the good ol' days. Most manufacturers these days use EPDM which is apparently safer to produce, has a higher wear resistance, and a higher tear resistance over latex. So EPDM is better? Nope. but it can be, just as a good quality latex weatherstrip can be better than EPDM.
My point is this. Buyers get too hung up on putting weatherstrips into a categories like
latex or EPDM when they should be more concerned with durometer (measure of softness), along with who is selling it, their motives (Profit or quality) and how educated they are with the product.
Ask your salesman "Are these weatherstrips the same durometer as factory, or close to it?" Most likely you will get silence on the other the other end as they Google it, but if they can confidently say yes, that is a good starting point. Next, ask them if they have ever installed the ones they are trying to sell you. Again, probably not, but another bonus point if they say yes. Another thing we can do as buyers is look for items with a brand name attached. Will they always be the best? No, but more often than not they have a reputation to uphold, and will try their best to maintain it. STAY AWAY from Ebay! I know eBay is fast and easy, but it is also a known dumping ground for unwanted inventory without the risk of blowback on the seller’s actual business name.
As with most things, you get what you pay for, if you want to be able to close your doors and roll up your windows, buy nice or buy twice.