Most valuable CP in the industry?

[Listserv.org]

My guess is that this distinction would go out to the Cephalotus. Are there any fellow CP enthusiasts here that would agree? We see fine A-grade, mature specimens often fetching thousands of dollars, of not more.

My second guess would be certain species of Nephenthes.

 

[Brokken]

Nepenthes edwardsiana claims that distinction, I think. No matter how expensive the ceph (Eden Black), it's only a fraction of what an Nepenthes edwardsiana will command WHEN they become available.

 

[Listserv.org]

Wait, what? What is the reason for this? What's so special about this plant?

 

[lizasaur]

No reason, it just is!
Brokken's absolutely right though.

 

[mass]

I've never heard of a ceph going for thousands of dollars.. but I've seen Nepenthes edwardsiana go for just that.
The reason these plants are so expensive is because of their rareness, and viscous beauty.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/N.edwardsiana_IP.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc89/asrobinson/Nepenthes_edwardsiana_ASR_052007_ta.jpg

 

[Wolfn]

Nepenthes edwardsiana claims that distinction, I think. No matter how expensive the ceph (Eden Black), it's only a fraction of what an Nepenthes edwardsiana will command WHEN they become available.

I agree. If you can find these for sale, baby Nepenthes edwardsiana will sell for hundreds of dollars. Wistuba offered babies for sale earlier this year for a large amount of money and they were sold within a day.

 

[Listserv.org]

Hmm.. interesting. Thanks, guys. I guess Cephs are #2.

 

[amphirion]

@list: Utricularia campbelliana is a high roller as well. a small 1x1 plug is currently in the market for 150 euro = ~$200. a 1x1 plug! can you imagine how much a pot full would be worth? S. 'Reptilian Rose', S. 'Leah Wilkerson', and S. 'Adrian Slack' also are high costly plants, while they might not cross the grand mark, $900 is still a large chunk of change for the middle class american to splurge.

however, fwiw: you shouldnt buy a plant based upon value; buy a plant because you desire it for what it simply is. you'll end up much happier that way.

 

[Dexenthes]

Wow. I did not know about U.campbelliana. That is a beautiful beautiful plant. ALMOST worth 150 Euros.

But still... it seems that N. edwardsiana is still more expensive. Could you imagine how much, say.... a six inch across plant would go for? Crazy.

Yeah, Cephalotus are spendy, but not edwardsiana status. I would say that Cephalotus is the on average more expensive genus than Nepenthes.

Then there are the "not in market" plants. I'm sure Triphyophyllum, N. klossii, or N. pitopangii would command mind-staggering figures.

 

[sarracenia21]

Nepenthes Hamata, villosa, macrophlla could eat your money.

 

[Listserv.org]

Adult mature specimens of Cephalotus are certainly worth their weight in gold.

 

[elgecko]

Not really.
They have become more common and prices do not bring as much as they did a few years ago.

A plant is only also worth what someone is willing to pay.

A common plant can be worth more to a grower if it has sentimental value and no $$ value.

 

[Not a Number]

Thinking in terms of monetary value just cheapens the worth in my humble opinion. All life is precious. One of the LACPS members said there was discussion at the ICPS conference on how new forms or even species of Nepenthes will get collected to extinction from the wild to exist thereafter only in the collections of a few wealthy and privileged collectors.

 

[rattler]

im going out on a limb and saying Nepenthes jacquelineae x izumae

reasoning, you can get ahold of eddy but since the first plants of this cross were released when they turned up in collected jac seed they have been unavailable, and going back to the "what someone is willing to pay" line of thought ive offered more or less a blank check and have been unable to replace the plant i lost...i could have picked up a eddy at several times in the last year.....

---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 AM ----------

Thinking in terms of monetary value just cheapens the worth in my humble opinion. All life is precious. One of the LACPS members said there was discussion at the ICPS conference on how new forms or even species of Nepenthes will get collected to extinction from the wild to exist thereafter only in the collections of a few wealthy and privileged collectors.

the other line of thought is if a plants worth nothing and becomes disposable they arent as likely to be taken seriously and preserved....the more these plants are worth the more likely they are to be protected.....make a tourist industry out of visiting them on remote places makes it more likely that their habitat is preserved......same sort of thing has happened with wildlife in Africa, the only three places wild animals are doing well in Africa are those in areas to remote for many ppl to live and these places are getting very rare, national parks where tourist dollars for photo safaris pay for anti poaching patrols and hunting concessions where there is a dollar figure on animals heads and hunters pay for anti poaching.....like it or not hunting dollars paid for saving the elephant and rhino and is currently saving the giant sable.....

you want to save wild nepenthes and nepenthes habitat? make them worth something so that protecting the land they are on is worth more than clearing it and erecting buildings....encourage a photo safari type industry....

 

[SirKristoff]

Nepenthes Hamata, villosa, macrophlla could eat your money.

macropyhlla is a bit spendy, but villosa is incredibly cheap now...and hamata is getting rather cheap in comparison to what it was a few years ago....

Now, definitely a mature edwardsiana would hold a hefty price tag, as a near mature one was just sold on another forum for a few grand IIRC...

any other neps that are "rare" would roll in bucks, mainly things you dont see in cultivation, TC or in large quantities....
I.E edwardsiana, klossii, pitopangii, attenboroughii, hurrelliana, the TRUE thorelii, etc....
sure, cephs are "valuable" but not as much so as they used to be...the only ceph that would fetch insane cash now, is Eden Black, or specimens that fill a very LARGE pot...

but as others have stated, dont collect plants because of their value, collect them because you like them...

 

[Listserv.org]

but as others have stated, dont collect plants because of their value, collect them because you like them...

What if you like them because they're valuable? lol

 

[amphirion]

@SK: villosa may be incredibly cheap, but it's still hard as hax to find....especially in the states.

@Listserv: then you'll be in a rude awakening once they become commonplace.

does anybody still remember the N. campanulata fiasco years ago? XD

 

[SirKristoff]

amph, its only been hard to fine villosa here recently.....
last year it was readily available...
but i really need to fine another one.

 

[Dexenthes]

Thinking in terms of monetary value just cheapens the worth in my humble opinion. All life is precious. One of the LACPS members said there was discussion at the ICPS conference on how new forms or even species of Nepenthes will get collected to extinction from the wild to exist thereafter only in the collections of a few wealthy and privileged collectors.

I totally agree with this.

However, I don't see it changing any time soon. We are so far out of a egalitarian subsistence-based society that it has been bred into us to be capitalistic and greedy. Unfortunately there might be no happy medium.

You make the plants not worth anything and like rattler said, they can be plowed over by poor tropical folk who could care less and are hungry. You make them valuable and then you have rich white people who just can't help but take a seed pod or two or three or five with them when they leave.

The spirit of monetary obsession has reached all levels of society almost everywhere. It's sad but true.

There is a difference between a plant being rare and a plant being valuable though. Some plants are completely priceless, like jacq x izum. People wont sell those because no amount of money represents their worth.

Sort of like how edwardsiana used to be. But now that they are "more available", they are still commanding hefty prices.

 

[RL7836]

I've never heard of a ceph going for thousands of dollars...

Uncompleted eBay auctions have reached these prices a few times but the buyers have disappeared before paying for the plants. Iirc, Cephalotus prices peaked around $6-700 a few years ago for HG Cephs - no? Although I wouldn't be shocked to see a mature 'Eden Black' get in that range ....

The highest N. edwardsiana price visible to the public was over here (I believe)

@Listserv: then you'll be in a rude awakening once they become commonplace.

Supply & demand typically dictate prices. When something first becomes available (or some s/d imbalance jolts the mkt), there is frequently a mania of sorts which causes a rapid, short-lived rise in price (D. falconeri was a good example a few years ago as are several of the plants previously mentioned). Since most plants can be mass-produced using t/c, once established in vitro, supply can usually overwhelm demand for most plants desired by the fairly small CP community. Plants that have barriers to t/c (ie: 'Adrian Slack') tend to remain at a higher price for a longer period because conventional propagation only slowly catches up to demand, but even in these cases, they tend to come to equilibrium at lower prices after some time. For example, 'Adrian Slack' is in many more collections now then just a few years ago...

Adult mature specimens of Cephalotus are certainly worth their weight in gold.

As Steve already commented - not really. They are nice plants and are grown & appreciated by a significant number of CP growers, but as an investment, their 'mania-phase' peaked a few years ago and their prices continue to plummet.