Re: Buyer Beware

Narda:

>... what makes a person buy a lottery ticket.

If I buy a lottery ticket I know I am gambling, and I also know that 
for a one dollar ticket I might win a million or even 300 million.  If 
you bid on a hosta on an auction you are probably paying just as much 
as you would if you just purchased it anyway, if not more.  I once 
donated a daylily plant to a daylily auction that I sell for $15 and 
the winning bid was $40.  They could have just bought the plant from 
me for $15!  I have done some bidding on the old surplusauction.com 
site for computer parts and software when they were basically 
liquidators for surplus computer parts and software.  If you bid at 
the right time you could get some fantastic deals.  Once I managed to 
get Word Perfect 7 Professional for $1 right after WP 8 came out.  
Basically, I was looking for bargins.  With all the plant auctions 
I've looked at I don't see any bargins available.  And as I told my 
neighbor nurseryman, he can set the price he wants to pay and I'll 
provide him with a size and quality that meets that price.  If I buy 
something from a reputable and established hosta nursery I have a 
pretty good feeling that I am going to get a decent plant, and if the 
price is low and they say it's a small plant or a single fan or a 
small liner, then I know what I am buying.  If I put a hosta up for 
auction and someone bids $5 on a hosta that normally sells for $15, I 
might just go out and send them a small plant whereas if they bid $15 
they would get a larger plant.  Also, if I have a problem with the 
plant or its shipment I know who to deal with and if the problem is 
serious enough I can contact the Ag people in their state.  This isn't 
to say that you can't get a good deal on a hosta from an auction.  If 
Bob or Dan were offering something I would know I'm going to get a 
decent plant, but what might I get from someone who's screen name is 
"lazeboy."  I just made up "lazeboy", so hope there really isn't 
someone using that screen name!  The few times I've checked out some 
hosta auctions I didn't see anything available that I couldn't order 
from a nursery.  When I look at daylilies on various auctions I see 
mostly older stuff with limited value and some of the stuff is way 
over priced.  Fortunately, most of this stuff doesn't get any bids, so 
I don't know why people keep listing these older, junky daylilies.  
Maybe I'm biased because I'm a licensed nursery and I play by the 
rules and I rather see people buy from a licensed nursery then bid on 
an auction. 

Joe Halinar
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