See the differences? Normally, range would tell you if it's a concinnus or a fitchi but since we don't know where they were found, those differences I just illustrated are how you tell the two apart (fitchi vs. concinnus). It's pretty common for people who don't know about the range of concinnus, to go find a fitchi in Oregon, and assume because it's from Oregon, and has red spots, it must be an oregon red spotted. Well, concinnus doesn't occur in the same areas as fitchi. Generally concinnus is confined to the Willamette Valley and SW WA. Fitchi is found in the rest of Oregon and eastern WA where concinnus does not occur.

Like I said, looking at the laterals and underside, I'm thinking they are both Valley garters. Laterally striped concinnus' do not have light undersides, (with the exception of the throat area) and the lateral stripes are usually a different color. Sort of bluish, and the edge isn't well defined.

With all that said, I think that Stefan was right all along. Those are fitchi laterals on both snakes. Unfortunately, I would say that there are also many fitchi/concinnus mixed breeds out there being sold as concinnus. I've seen plenty of "concinnus" for sale that sure do look like concinnus' but they aren't like any pure concinnus you can find in the wild.
like i said in the original post, the vendor i purchased them from said they were indeed wild caught from oregon. he had another female, but i decided not to get her because she had some scarring and the last inch or so of her tail was missing. and since you said that concinnus and fitchi aren't in the same area, i don't think either would be mixed.

are you talking about people unintentionally breeding fitchi/concinnus' in captivity and selling them as "concinnus"? or do they share a range somewhere and may naturally intergrade?