Laughing at some of the auctions on the Internet

I wonder just how stupid some of those who auction plants off on various internet auctions are? Or just how stupid they think WE are?

I did some searching on Standard Dward Bearded irises yesterday. They are fairly easy to find, and I have thirty of them that need to be divided this year. I thought maybe I would sell some of them on auction, and I wanted to see what price other people were starting their SDB iris auctions out at. In various iris catalogs they generally sell for between $2.00-$5.00, more if it is a recently introduced variety. SDB varieties that are newly released rarely sell for more than $15.00 from the hybridizer who grew it.

I went to E-bay where some idiot apparently thinks these things are SOOOO hard to find (VHTF! RARE!) that someone would pay $20.00 for an SDB that has been introduced for over ten years.

I also found an auction for a VHTF! RARE! daylily being started at a price of $25.00. This daylily is considered to be a $6-8 daylily by those in the know.

Another lady routinely tries to sell her SDB iris at a starting price of $6.00-$7.00. I am sure she probably wonders why her auctions always go off the board with absolutely no bids, but to date she still apparently does not GET IT.

Sorry to vent, but nothing pushes my buttons more than someone who thinks that by putting "RARE" or VHTF!" in the description that they will be able to sell (gouge is more like it)their item at a rediculously inflated price, or that someone will actually BELIEVE that it's rare just because they say it is. Please be an informed consumer if you bid on plant auctions. Research the plant you plan to bid on, and know what is an acceptable price to pay.

Your advice is very good, its not worth buying a plant that you haven't done any research on (although I have to admit to doing it myself, I'm sure I'm not the only one). Rarity is reletive though, it may be easy for you or others in your area to find a particular plant but for some it may well be truely difficult to locate. I'm unsure about American catalogues but sometimes here in England we can pay up to $15 shipping and handling charges regardless of the size of order.

This is one of the reasons forums like this are a good thing we can share our 'rare' plants and seeds or inform people of where to find the said plant.

I'm going to be selling dandelions and crabgrass on ebay, shortly. Do you think $25/seedling is too steep??LOL!

Are they VHTF? :-D

Another problem that I find with online plant auctions is that some folks want to rip you for shipping. Last year I won a daylily at what I thought was a fair price on an auction from a well-known daylily seller. She repeatedly made a big deal about the fact that the shipping was $8.00. I thought that was a litle steep, but I DID agree to it by bidding, and sometimes they send very large, heavy fans and bonuses and it can end up costing you more to ship than you expected, so I paid it.

When the daylily came in the spring, it was one medium sized, dried out fan stuck in a box without newspaper, or anything, and no insurance/delivery confirmation. No bonus either. Actual cost to ship? $3.50. Needless to say, this person will not be getting my business again.

I try to treat people fairly when I trade/sell on auction. I sort of expect to be treated the same way.

LOL! All these "RARE" plants on Ebay, its truly amazing, especially when 50 other people are selling the same "RARE" or "VHTF" item.....DUH!!!

Hey Frank, I have some really great danelions! They are almost 2 feet tall. Maybe I should sell mine. I can put up a recipe for dandelion soup and advertise these as 'special'. What do you think?

Seriously though, I can't believe the price on the plants and seeds too. I did just pay $10 ($9 plus $1 s&h) for a pack of about 20,000 poppy seeds. I know that is pretty steep but they are the colors I've been wanting and I will forever have seeds to share with anyone and everyone. Heck, I can even sell my poppy seeds on ebay. Funny thing is the person who sells them advertises an unlimited supply on there and on a dutch auction that has 69 packets available and 11 bidders for $9 each... there are people bidding up to $15 when they only need to bid the $9! Now that is truely comical. The price is relative to how bad you want something, but seriously I respect the person who put a hosta plant up for .01 plus $5 s&h. They know it will sell for more than .01 but will remain as reasonable as those who are bidding and yet they are making their money from the excess s&h charge.

I am thinking of doing this with some of my plants that I have extras of as soon as I see how well they ship. I have 2 packages of plants going out tomorrow. This is my first time to ship plants so I want to make sure they make it ok.

Years ago my great-grandmother got really upset when she ordered some yellow raspberry plants from a catalog, and discovered when they fruited that they were nothing but salmonberries, which grow wild all up the Pacific Northwest Coast (and which we already had scads of). We found several other plants in catalogs after that that were wild weeds locally, and thought it was pretty funny that anyone would pay good money for them -- but it does depend on whether they are available locally or not, I guess!

An aquantance of my Mothers regularly sells plants on Ebay, she is not very careful in her shipping practices, and charges tooo much to ship her junk. This woman laughs at me for "giving" my stuff away in trades, at least I have my self-respect. I have been trading for 3 years and have only been burned 2 times out of 130 or so trades, I only wish that the commercial nurserys were as fair in thier dealings as most of the traders are.

as a person new to gardening i am grateful for forums like dave's where most people are genuinely interested in being a good neighbor. sure our neighborhood happens to be quite large :-) but doesn't that make it even more wonderful. to think, that a part of me and my garden, will be flourishing in missouri, california, texas etc...

i was brought up to be a "good neighbor" and i'm grateful that there are still others like me who value friendship, goodwill and the good feeling i get from making someone else happy by adding to there garden/life.

i see too much in our society of "looking out for #1" and taking advangtage of others, it truely is sad. as for me... i will be a good neighbor. i have been rewarded in life, more times than i can count by living by the motto, "do unto others as you would have others do unto you".

thank you for being a good neighbor and letting me know about these auctions.

a question...what does SDB and VHTF mean?

your neighbor.........debi z

VHTF means Very Hard To Find. You may also see HTF- Hard to Find. Sometimes auctioners use it to make an item seem more rare than it really is, so bidders will panic and want to have it at any price. Rule of thumb-- You can usually find ANY plant offered on ANY auction somewhere else cheaper on the internet. It just takes patience and a little research.

SDB is Standard Dwarf Bearded iris. These little guys stand between 8-16". Most of them are about a foot tall, and are blooming in my cold zone 5 right now.

I was just looking over the iris at E-bay and some were fairly priced and some were high. Trouble is, I can't begin to identify them all, so I would just buy what I like the looks of. But I wait for a good price. I am not about to pay retail for iris there, about $2-3 a fan is all I will go.

I just got 6 Stiped beauty Canna...aka "Christ's Light" from Neoma Nursuries on Ebay for $7.60, shipping $3.95 Priority and the bulbs are magnificent! If I had ordered these on the net I would have given in excess of $90.00...just have to learn the dealers and try to look up their history..

"eyes"

It's not just Ebay. Oxblood Lillies ~ I've seen them offered in lots of catalogs and AT LEAST three of them say "Rare heirloom." ??? My grandma planted some in her flowerbeds 30 or 40 years ago and they've naturalized all over the place in the lawn with no help from me. Bet they've done that in other places, too. I've met quite a few people who have them around here ~ they're fairly common.

Dishonest marketing ~ UGH!

Ther are good deals to be found on e-bay. I scout out the books a lot. I don't purchase much for seeds or plants anymore - unless it's something I won't find elsewhere. I know with books if you don't do a little checking around you can pay more than if you went to the store and bought new. I just won an auction for a new paper back addition of the Hortus Third for $11.99. Good deal - it goes for $45 or so.

In most cases the dealers are there to make a living. It's the little guys that are just spring cleaning where you get some super bargains.

This isn't particularly plant auctions, but the site is a hoot: DisturbingAuctions.com at http://www.disturbingauctions.com Enjoy! :)

I agree there are some bargains on ebay and there are some that go sky high you have to know what you want to spend and what the product you are bidding on is worth if you got it elsewhere and not get into the auction frenzy.You also have to make sure you consider the shipping into to the total amout you bid sometimes you would be better off getting it someplace else but most of the the things I bid on are things I can't find anyplace else.

My gosh, who drug up this old thread! LOL

I think sometimes E-bay has outgrown itself. You have to be so careful now not to get ripped off, that I rarely bid there anymore. It used to be fun to buy and sell on there when it was a smaller dot com.

I frequently go to Mike Longo's Daylily Auction now. They have other catagories besides daylilies, and it has really caught on. But you have to watch your prices here too.

Gardenwife, this is my favorite "disturbing auction." I laughed until I cried!
http://www.disturbingauctions.com/view.pl?item=15




This message was edited Saturday, Feb 16th 10:10 PM

I guess I view internet shopping and ebay as an option but I treat it just like I would any REAL store.
If I don't like the prices or the terms, I just walk away.

I feel kinda guilty.I sell some of my plants on e-bay.And I feel really guilty when the bids get up as high as they do.I have pink lily of the valley,and they do go for mega prices in catalogs.Way back when I first bought my house ,I had no clue they were rare.They were growing EVERYWHERE!I was pulling them out and throwing them in the compost heap(where they continued to grow)So as others have said,what might be easy for you to find,others might have a tough time finding them.Those oxblood lilies sound exotic to ME!There is no way I can walk into a store around here and buy any......

I was looking to see what brugmansias were being offered on Ebay and found "poor man's brugmansia" it was POKEWEED!! It doesn't even have a "trumpet" bloom!! I couldn't believe it. I have these everywhere, maybe I should sell them instead of composting them?? I've put a fortune in the compost heap.
CC, your pink lily of the valley sounds rare and exotic to me. I liked the look of the Oxblood lilies and traded with Wingnut for some. I had never seen them :-)

Crestedchik
I don't think you should feel guilty. People are choosing to bid so must feel they want what you have. Pink lily of the valley sounds lovely! I agree with you that "exotic" to some can be plain jane to someone else. I'm always seeing things in craft shops for high prices and I think to myself..."Gee...I could make that from scraps..." but I guess some people don't have the time or inclination so they choose to pay the price the shop asks.

I think people just decide how valuable things are to them and sometimes what we see as ordinary, might be really exceptional and amazing to someone else. I hope you do well with your plant sales crestedchik as you are not ripping anyone off, in my opinion. I totally dislike the idea of anyone lying or cheating someone on ebay (or anywhere) but what you are doing is OFFERING what you have AND YOU ARE BEING UPFRONT about what it is. People are getting what they have bid on. I think that's fair enough.

I am sure some people are out to swindle others but other people are just trying to make a living. As long as everyone understands the deal, I think that’s fine. I don’t buy much on ebay but I sure love looking just to see what things go for.


Anyway Inda thanks for the cute little rant n' rave...lol!!!!!

This message was edited Wednesday, Feb 27th 11:52 PM

Yes, Crestedchick, you are being honest and they are the ones paying that much for them ~ nothing wrong there! I guess what I was trying to say with my post was many places offer the Oxbloods, so if that many offer them, how can they be rare? Then again, at $5 and $10 a bulb that they're asking, maybe I should hope that my assumption is way off and they ARE rare! LOL! Ebay, here I come! *grins as she's only kidding*

BTW, Amanda ~ I LOVED your story! What a great MIL and Mom you have!

I sell stuff on ebay all the time. With the money I make, I buy things we might not otherwise be able to afford. Yes, people do pay ridiculously high prices for some things, but that's up to them. No one makes these people bid. I list things honestly and fairly and I allow the buyer to choose how they would like something shipped (in most cases). I never add on "hidden fees". My most recent "plant" type sale was a delight for me. I paid a whopping $0.90 for a 15 pack of Allium (drumstick) bulbs and they sold for nearly $7.00. I also have hostas and other bulbs for sale.

We can whine all day long about "high prices" and "gouging" but it won't make a difference since people are willing to pay those preposterous prices. Basic supply and demand. I can charge whatever I want BUT the market will bear out if it is a good price or not. As long as people get buyers, they'll keep selling as they are.

I sold seeds for quite a while on e-bay. When I started there were just a few sellers in the gardening catagory. Now there's pages & pages. I felt guilty a lot too. Poppy seeds would go from 5-15 dollars all the time. I had a pack of columbine seeds get bid up to $26.00 once. Yup - That's twenty-six dollars. I felt so bad I wrote the guy and said I didn't feel comfortable excepting such a ridiculous bid and I'd let him off the hook. He was glad but told me I was fool to do so! He said he was sweating bullets thinking he was gonna have to pay that for a pack of seeds... he never thought the lady bidding against him would drive the price up like that. He said he wanted the columbine to plant in memory of the kids that died in the high school shooting. He just put in a ridiculous bid like $30 ... never thought he'd have to pay it. I'm such a sucker I gave him the address to a catalog where he could get the seeds for $2. Most people on there are good ... there are some wackos too tho. Poppy seeds attract them!