Re: [Aroid-l] Mini rant right back at ya.

**&* S* <m*@charter.net>**

I know what Susan is talking about.  A couple of years ago I bought certain
terrestrial Chinese orchids at my local Home Depot for about $1.00 each,
three to a bag from Holland.  Now this is a very pretty, incredibly easy to
grow orchid but not many people grow it, although I've been growing it for
over thirty years.  Well, I placed several eBay auctions with these and used
pics of my much older plants in bloom in the auction.  I couldn't believe
what people were willing to pay for these inexpensive plants.  I actually
sold one for $42.00 to one person and several for over $20.00 each.  I never
twisted their arms with these and had a very low reserve on each one.  I'm
glad eBay is out there as I've been able to find many things that I wouldn't
have been able to locate otherwise and at reasonable prices.

David Sizemore

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Cooper" <coops@execpc.com>
To: "Discussion of aroids" <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 6:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Mini rant right back at ya.

> Let me throw my hat in with the boys.  Marketing is everything in ebay,
> which is why people pay extra to get gallery listing and add photos.
> You may have noticed that listings with no photos do not get as high of
> a price; or that photos of tubers do not sell as well as photos of
> plants and tubers, or photos of a mature plant. Would titans be as
> interesting if a photo of a mature leaf or inflorescence had never been
> published?  I think not!
> I devour almost every plant catalogue out there, both hardcopy and
> online.  We market our plants the same as everyone else, to get noticed
> and to generate interest.
> While our main audience might be Aroiders, marketing also attracts
> people that are new to the Aroid world, or people looking for new and
> interesting plants.  People using ebay use the search engine, and not
> all may be able to even spell Amorphophallus.  Some may just be looking
> for interesting plants.  I myself have looked through the listings for
> bizarre plants, or rare plants.  It is interesting!  And this may shock
> some of you, but I think all Aroids for sale on ebay can be classified
> as rare, unusual, and bizarre, yes, even konjac.  You cannot buy
> Amorphos at your local garden center,you don't see them in the Gurney,
> Parks, Wayside Gardens, etc catalogues.  It wasn't so many years ago
> that I paid $25 for my first konjac, it was about the size of a nickle
> and I thought I was lucky to get it.
> Yes, I sell on eBay.  Am I going to get rich on it?  No way.  Am I
> going to recoup the thousands of dollars I have spent on tubers?  No
> way!  But when I have excess tubers, or get an unexpectedly high
> germination rate, it is a way to make a little bit of money, and I
> don't think you have a problem with that, do you?
> OK, this is turning into a rant of my own, let me just close with a
> story about my first ebay sale- $9 for 20 seeds of a purple hibiscus
> (rose of sharon, mallow, whatever you want to call it).  Wow, I was
> seeing dollar signs! LOL  Obviously it was worth it to the person that
> had bid on the seeds, although many others would not have spent that
> much.
> Susan
>

_______________________________________________
Aroid-l mailing list
Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l