what's the key to buying plants on ebay?

what are some important facts to know before buying on ebay? it's been hard to figure out who's a trustworthy seller or not, what am i specifically looking for, help please!

I've bought on ebay - I don't spend a ton on anything just to be on the safe side. But have ordered crinum bulbs, bamboo & other things.

Always look at the comments left by others in their feedback (just click on the seller's name) alot of people have a 100% positive - and make sure they've sold more than a dozen times - I always feel better buying from someone who has sold hundreds of items.

Hope that helps !

The other thing I would say is make sure you look carefully at their pictures--there are some Photoshop artists out there who will "enhance" their plant pictures...if you see something that looks unusual or unnatural in any way, google the plant first and see if the pics you find match with theirs or not. If not, then run away! I've seen this with hibiscus and plumeria seed sellers--in addition to photoshopping the pics, even if the plants did exist they wouldn't come true from seed, so it's false advertising. And somehow they sometimes manage to have decent ratings, I'm not quite sure how they do it, but I know it's not always obvious from their ratings that it's a scam. I also prefer to buy from people who use the Latin names of plants instead of or in addition to common names--with people who use common names only, they may send you a good quality plant/seeds, but there's a much greater chance it won't be the plant you thought you were getting.

There are also quite a few nurseries that sell on Ebay. I bought quite a few small perennials from several nurseries them last year. They are small plants at a great price. I nursed them along inside a couple of months since it was too cold to plant them when they arrived. All of my plants performed well.

As the warmer weather arrives, you will have a larger selection from all of the venders. Check the rating, and actually read the negative comments that they have received. Sometimes people complain about really dumb things that are beyond the vendors control, but sometimes they have valid points.

When you go to the feedback page, don't just check the feedback score that is in bold print. If you go down three lines you will see the all positive feedback number. All positive feedback includes everytime that someone purchased and left feedback. If all positive feedback is significantly higher than the feedback score then you have a lot of repeat buyers. Your feedback is only counted the first time under the bold printed feedback score. For a nursery that I bought from them at least three different times last year, only the first purchase's feedback was included in the feedback score, but the all positive feedback would show a higher number because it would include all three times that I made a purchase.

I hope that this is helpful. I got the red monarda on the left of the picture from Ebay last year. I also bought lavender, lantana, stella d'oros, coleus, salvia, and coneflowers.

thanks you guys, all your comments on ebay gave me a good feeling about trying a purchase or two, so far i haven't recieved anything i bought yet, but i'm hoping i made some good calls my first time around

I've bought thousands of bulbs and hundreds of plants on Ebay. The largest daf bulbs taht I have ever seen came from the ebay seller that I mention below.

You get your favorite sellers, and then stick with them. You may get a couple of sad plants in that process, but I've gotten very few, and when I do, I don't go back to that seller. My garden is rapidly filling up, but I could never have gotten this far without ebay.

I LOVE Arizona Bulbs, Toma's Garden (This guy loves root systems!), and Perfect Plant.

One of my favorite finds are folks that just have a bunch of extras in thier gardens and can't stand the thought of throwing them in the compost pile. I have a few hundred amazing bearded iris that a lady just had to clear out. They were mixed, mixed, mixed, but very movable after the first year. I paid about twenty eight dollars for about two hundred beautiful starters, that I could never buy at any store around here. Thye were big and fat and ready to bloom.

Also: check out the nurseries in Tennessee. Tennessee supplies plants to nursery and garden centers all over the country. Some of them have huge ebay businesses. Their ebay customers get top stock. They can't afford bad feedback. That works in our favor. If a plant arrives damaged in any way-- they will replace it immediately. Lots of them will have 1-3 year guarantees, too.

Happy shopping!
Elf

Lastelf, if I wasn't already buying from Ebay, I would try it now!

I have bought quite a lot of plants on ebay and have some favourite sellers. Several are in FL and one in particular in TX. They ship fast, pack well, combine shipping and often add freebies, plants have been really good and healthy .

When I started buying plants I would at first just try one or two plants from a seller, see what the quality and service was like and if it was good buy again.

If you want the names redzone Dmail me .

I've ebayed a lot, but never for plants. I've been tempted but scared. I guess I just need to apply the same standards as I do when buying anything else on ebay. Feather hit the nail on the head regarding feedback. A good rating means a lot more when you can see that there's been plenty of repeat customers. :-) Thanks for the reccommendations Lastelf! I'll be sure to check them out.

fleurone,

I would like their names. Can I d-mail you, too?

Karen

I also have bought a lot of plants from eBay, from quite a few different sellers, and overall I've been very, very happy.

Hi Karen no problem :0)