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Not to call any one person out in particular..as I don't know his/her real username but l***o ( blue star) on ebay is going absolutely berserk.

I have a few problems with this:

1. You're bidding on EVERYTHING in Nepenthes! I just randomly viewed 10 nepenthes and surprise surprise, l***o is at the top! Jacking every single price up to a ridiculous amount as to where no one else wants to buy anything on eBay is rude.

2. Anyone can earn money. The fact that someone with an unknown grower reputation can just go in and immediately buy plants like these is ludicrous… Thats why forums like this exist, so you can get the plant you want to sell to a known grower for a reasonable price.

3. A few examples: credit to the seller as these are some of their gorgeous plants available:

rajah for $338.00 atm!!!

trusmadiensis $338.00atm!

ovata $224.50atm!

Now, I'm sure a few of you are going to comment something of the following:
"its a free country, the person can do as they please"
"if they have the money and want it, they should buy it"
"you're personally attacking the person"

I will address the latter first: I don't know their name, their actual ebay username, or their forum username. I do not know who they are and I am not personally calling them out, but rather using them as an example.

With a combined total of all the eBay listings up (yes I did the math) this person will have to spend around $6340 if they win all auctions at the current price. But what does this say?...

Well: if you're restocking a nursery with many extremely rare plants in the course of 3 weeks, then this is the way to go.

However, in the long run, why wouldn't you buy seedlings of the same plants (which would cost less) that will grow into beautiful adult plants with the time and money you seem to have unlimited amounts of?

My theory is that this person is either a troll looking to win this mass amount of plants, and the delete their entire account, causing some pretty serious damage, or they are just being a complete, for lack of a better term, "hog".

This could also be a set up computer system of some sort that bids on items and then deactivates or something? My only clue to this would be the similarity in prices: 224.50, 224.50, 288.50, 280.50, ect…

Anyway take this how you will, just would like to get my thoughts out there.
 
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Supply and demand. I can see things from both perspectives...If I was in the market for one of those plants, sure, I'd be a little bit ticked off by somebody with deep pockets bidding on ALL of them. However...Hypothetically speaking if I had that much disposable income and I needed those plants in particular to complete a specific collection I had in mind; I wouldn't feel guilty bidding/winning them all haha. It is all relative; the way you feel depends on which side of the fence you are on.
 
^good points. Im only interested in a singular plant out of all the beauties on ebay right now. I'm just trying to look at this from the perspective of someone interested in more than one of these plants. (its easy to win a singular auction but hard to win them all)
 
Yeah I tend to stay far away from ebay. I've never really had great experiences using it, either buying or selling. Although I've never done any carnivorous plant related transactions. Perhaps the individual bidding on all those plants expects to be outbid on most of them and is hoping & praying that they do not win them all haha.
 
Three years ago, when I was loading my greenhouse, I wouldn't have hesitated to pay that kind of money for some of those plants. I could/can afford it. I did pay upwards of $400 for certain plants which, I might add, are now virtually extinct from commerce and which would fetch way more than $400if it was even possible to buy one now.

lets not forget that in order to get to the current bids, someone else had to be bidding as well. Case in point: Trusmadiensis. The bid BEFORE the $338 was $333, so there are at least TWO people willing to pay big bucks for it. It's not accurate to point a finger at one person and attribute blame.

Not to call any one person out in particular..as I don't know his/her real username but l***o ( blue star) on ebay is going absolutely berserk. !

Now, I'm sure a few of you are going to comment something of the following:
"its a free country, the person can do as they please"
"if they have the money and want it, they should buy it"
"you're personally attacking the person"

You left out "I need to whine because I can't afford to compete with those who have more $$$". I suspect if you were able to freely outbid any of the other buyers, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
 
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Yeah I tend to stay far away from ebay. I've never really had great experiences using it, either buying or selling. Although I've never done any carnivorous plant related transactions. Perhaps the individual bidding on all those plants expects to be outbid on most of them and is hoping & praying that they do not win them all haha.

I bought a few of my early Nepenthes off fleabay, with mixed results. Some were excellent (my N. truncata X spectabilis came from fleabay) and in some instances, people were just trying to dump inferior/unhealthy plants for a quick buck. It's too much work trying to figure out who you can trust and who you cannot, so I no longer deal with "the bay".
 
I personally love ebay, but you must always remember.. ebay is a chaotic wasteland and anything is fair game.

There are many lemons, bad buys, and general tom foolerys on ebay, but that is the same with any garage sale,
auction, or market. You just have to watch your step. I have wasted hundreds of dollars on bad buys, but Ive also
found treasures that everybody seemed to overlook.

Now, about the price jacking. Thats the name of the game. Either you play this game and buy into it,
or you dont. Simple as that. Ebay itself has fluctuations of good/bad, and there will ALWAYS be the occasional
wacko doing SOMETHING weird (whether it be price jacking, or sellling cardboard for a fortune).

If you ask me though, for the past 6 months the bay has been absolutely riddled with unreasonable prices,
however its also that time of the season when many indoor growers want plants to overwinter, or something along
those lines. If I were you, I would wait till summer because I dont see any of the prices changing or becoming reasonable any time soon.
 
Just for fun I researched the buyer as much as I could and in the last 30 days he has had no bid retractions. So if he has been biding prior to these plants in the last 30 days he was either outbid or paid for them. Price jacking is fine, IMHO, as long as you actually pay and not retract or cancel.
 
Just for fun I researched the buyer as much as I could and in the last 30 days he has had no bid retractions. So if he has been biding prior to these plants in the last 30 days he was either outbid or paid for them. Price jacking is fine, IMHO, as long as you actually pay and not retract or cancel.

If you pay for what you win it isn't price jacking, it's out competing the competition.
 
  • #10
I get where your comming from ive been in a few bids where someone who knows the seller jacks up the price hoping the nieve or plant crazy will keep out bidding their planted bidder.. But its not always the case.. Ive seen ppl who just have the money and dont want it getting away so they rather put up a crazy amount of money for the said item to show that they want the item and they have money to burn on it.. And it either scares ppl away OR hightens the competivness in ppl to get something they really really want for an absurd amount of money. I personally don't like to bid i ask the seller (if their isnt any intrest in the item) if they'd be willing to sell the item as a 'buy now' for the price theyd want for it, some are more then happy to help :) others think its cheating but ive noticed if no one bids after its ended they sometimes are more likely to post it as a 'buy now' and skip the bidding war drama's.

Plus some of these plants arent very common but ive seen bigger plants of those types being sold by trustworthy sellers on other sites (not like ebay) for a more reasonable price and of a larger size and in good health :)

Goodluck
 
  • #11
Yeah, how dare they buy stuff with their own money. The audacity of some people these days, its like they think they can just go buy things because they want them. ???
 
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  • #12
Someone is salty..
 
  • #13
LOL. Now, now children. :p I can understand the OP's frustration. When you're looking for an item or one of a set of items and the same individual beats out because they have far deeper pockets, it can be frustrating. However, as most commenters have pointed out, if one has those deep pockets, it is completely within their purview to make use of their largess. If I was flush with $, I too would buy what I wanted without worrying that someone else might want those same items.
 
  • #14
The Bottom Line: if you can't stomach the way auctions work when it comes to buying hard-to-find plants, then don't even look at fleabay, because a genuinely rare plant can sell for an absurd sum. Im not defending the fleabay paradigm, nor do I care to stick up for those who can afford to pay piracy prices for things - I'm just making observations about the nature of online auctions.
 
  • #15
Now all you have to do is wait four days and watch this guy break the bank.

Anyways, i find it just plain dumb to bid on things days before their end time.
It just fosters more price jacking.
 
  • #16
1. Jacking every single price up to a ridiculous amount as to where no one else wants to buy anything on eBay is rude.

2. Anyone can earn money. The fact that someone with an unknown grower reputation can just go in and immediately buy plants like these is ludicrous… Thats why forums like this exist, so you can get the plant you want to sell to a known grower for a reasonable price.

Regarding point #1: As Judy pointed out - if you are willing to bid that high, you're not "price jacking" - you're just sending the message that you can afford to pay an absurd amount for a few grams of plant tissue. How is that "rude"??

Regarding Point #2: "someone with an unknown grower reputation"?! Precisely what do you know about the bidder's "reputation"? You're making a judgement based on what, exactly? And what do we know about your "reputation" as a grower?! That's absurd. All I'm hearing is sour grapes left and right.
 
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  • #17
To address point #2, you're dead wrong. If anyone can earn the kind of money to be able to pay outrageous prices, you'd have nothing to complain about, provided that you're somebody.
 
  • #18
How do you say: I don't know their name, their actual ebay username, or their forum username. I do not know who they are.

And say: The fact that someone with an unknown grower reputation can just go in and immediately buy plants like these is ludicrous…

Just wondering because if you don't know who they are or anything about them how would you kno their reputation for being able to care for the plants their buying. Cause this person could be a highly knowledgeable grower on this forum we all talk to and know and get along with and praise for their growing skills..which would be really crazy to jump to the conclusion that the person buying/bidding on these plants arent able to care for them and is just getting them cause they are rare.

Im not trying to be rude I'm just wondering how u got the idea that they have no growing/grower reputation to grow these plants...but you don't know who this actual person is?
 
  • #20
How do you say: I don't know their name, their actual ebay username, or their forum username. I do not know who they are.

And say: The fact that someone with an unknown grower reputation can just go in and immediately buy plants like these is ludicrous…

Just wondering because if you don't know who they are or anything about them how would you kno their reputation for being able to care for the plants their buying. Cause this person could be a highly knowledgeable grower on this forum we all talk to and know and get along with and praise for their growing skills..which would be really crazy to jump to the conclusion that the person buying/bidding on these plants arent able to care for them and is just getting them cause they are rare.

Im not trying to be rude I'm just wondering how u got the idea that they have no growing/grower reputation to grow these plants...but you don't know who this actual person is?

I would ask why does one's rep as a grower matter more than one's shoe size in this particular situation?
 
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