More eBay Concerns

[Maggi Young]

Ant-k - there must be thousands of ebay sellers around the world selling plants and seeds - compiling such a list as you suggest would be well-nigh impossible.  The SRGC forum is at least somewhere where problems with sellers can be aired and also where good reviews of excellent suppliers can be shared too.

Forumists can always post a question in the forum to see if anyone has experience of a seller or ask if a particular offer sounds too good to be true. If it does sound too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.
With the google picture search facility, mentioned elsewhere - I'll find the link in a minute - it is possible to enter a photo into that and find out where else it may appear on the internet. If you find the picture on another website other than one clearly belonging to the seller,  and there is no note of authorisation or credit given to the original source -that is a good guide that things are not as they could be and so caution is advised. 

Openness of ID of the seller, as with Michael's  story, is another good sign, too.

[Maggi Young]

Here is the link to help with using a photo to search in google-  a very useful tool:
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

 Quote from the site :

Search Google using images

Instead of typing words, you can use a picture as your search to find related images from around the web. For example, if you search using a picture of your favorite band, you can find similar images, websites about the band, and even sites that include the same picture.

Search by image works best when the image is likely to show up in other places on the web. So you’ll get more results for famous landmarks than you will for personal images like your latest family photo.
How to search
What results look like

When you search by image, your results may include:

    Image results for images that are similar to yours
    Web results for pages that include matching images
    Other sizes of the image you searched for

Availability

You can search by image on the following browsers:

    Chrome 5+
    Internet Explorer 9+
    Safari 5+
    Firefox 4+

[Ant-k]

Thanks for the reply Maggi, I have downloaded the app..thanks.
I would still like to see a list of reputable galanthus growers
recommended by forum members as a source of information
to newbies trying to find hard to get galanthus at reasonable
prices.
As for eBay,a list of sellers that forum members have used before
and are trusted I think would be very useful too

[Alan_b]

would it not be possible to post a list of reputable sellers on eBay or on the Internet?

I cannot do a list but two ebay vendors that spring to mind are:
Matt Bishop http://stores.ebay.co.uk/mattbishopsnowdrops
Mr O (Ollie) Howes ('mrohowes') who sells snowdrops for/from Monksilver Nursery (Joe Sharman) http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/mrohowes
There are lots of other small vendors who are perfectly reputable and a few who are not!  But if you want to get galanthus at reasonable prices, don't buy on eBay.  Buy from lists or at the sales tables at snowdrop events.  I myself have bid for a few snowdrops on eBay but never actually won an auction.

Edited to correct the spelling of Ollie

[emma T]

I have bought from eBay and I sold one snowdrop this year , just a 'warei' .

[Maggi Young]

Thanks for the reply Maggi, I have downloaded the app..thanks.
I would still like to see a list of reputable galanthus growers
recommended by forum members as a source of information
to newbies trying to find hard to get galanthus at reasonable
prices.
As for eBay,a list of sellers that forum members have used before
and are trusted I think would be very useful too

There is no guarantee that forumists have tried and tested all the good or bad sellers, Ant-k
If anyone has any question about any particular seller it is a simple matter to use the forum search facility  - seen in this screengrab in orange, 4th  from the left  at the top of any forum page, to enter the name and see what has been mentioned about that person, or plant, whatever,  in the forum

[emma T]

Thanks to the lurker too , you know who you are . I think you should join in !

[Ant-k]

I have bought a few off eBay this year.. All in flower just to make
sure I get the right one!
Also a couple from avon bulbs and one from
Foxgrove plants,all of which I'm delighted with.
I have been following your job thread Emma T and so glad you have
found another job so quickly

[johnralphcarpenter]

Please be aware that this ebay seller has changed their ID  from ember_danny,   they are now  sheridan2014

(Attachment Link)

Those who have been in contact with several  forumists over this matter of mis-selling are confident that these are connected to Rob Emberson and a Danny Boulter who have been involved in a previous scam selling bulbs.

Be aware !

192.com lists a Daniel Perryman Boulter in Basildon, Essex, age 22-25. Not an OAP then!

[johnralphcarpenter]

And Robert A Emberson in Laindon, Basildon age 25-29.

[Richard Williams]

I've bought several off e-bay this year including a superb and enormous E A Bowles at a reasonable price from Dowling Munro. Ollie Howes has great stuff but the prices do become eye-watering especially the aforementioned variety x5 @ £666. I agree with Maggie that if something seems to good to be true it invariably is. Unless I have dealt with a seller I'd be very reluctant to part with my hard earned cash for drops not in flower. I notice that the groom has been delisted as I'd saved it as a watched item to see what was going to occur. Is this the power of the forum.... excellent.

[Alan_b]

Yes, I think this is the power of the forum, acting as a good influence over the plant world.  Well done to all concerned.

[hwscot]

Here is the link to help with using a photo to search in google-  a very useful tool:
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

 Quote from the site :

tineye can be handy too ... http://tineye.com/

it has the advantage that it will pick up resized versions of an image .. and sometimes it can also find re-crops .. a bit hit and miss though

There's a firefox add-on that lets you right-click on the image to search for it,  or you can upload an image from your own pc.

[hwscot]

I cannot do a list but two ebay vendors that spring to mind are:
Matt Bishop http://stores.ebay.co.uk/mattbishopsnowdrops
Mr O (Olly) Howes ('mrohowes') who sells snowdrops for/from Monksilver Nursery (Joe Sharman) http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/mrohowes
There are lots of other small vendors who are perfectly reputable and a few who are not!  But if you want to get galanthus at reasonable prices, don't buy on eBay.  Buy from lists or at the sales tables at snowdrop events.  I myself have bid for a few snowdrops on eBay but never actually won an auction.

It is possible to get good value on ebay, but it takes a bit of preparation. If there's something I'm after I get an idea of nursery prices so I know what's a sensible upper bid. I also 'watch' a lot of snowdrop auctions and leave the ended auctions in my watch list. As the season goes on I remove the higher prices from the watch list (i.e. if the same drop has sold for £17 on one occasion and £12 on another, I delete the £17 from the list) so I build up a listing of best prices. So I know what's a sensible limit and I also have an idea of what's possible.

When I started buying snowdrops on ebay, I now realise, I overpaid badly for a few. But I've also had bulbs well under average nursery prices. Now and again you get lucky.

I've several times had two bulbs for the price of one; flowering size offsets which would have been very easy to tease apart, and which I think the vast majority of nurseries would have had two sales from.

[pontus]

I do also agree that maybe we should have a dedicated page somewhere here on the forum where we can all gradually add fraudulous Ebay vendors, or Ebay members to be weary of, Of course, it is not possible to have all of them, but just to have even a few of the main ones selling bulbs which have proven to be dishonest in any way or providing poor bulbs would be helpfull.

It is encouraging to see that the snowdrop vendors you talk about seem to have for some of them deleted listings, and it is also encouraging to see that for the first time in a long while, the seller that I had problems with does for now no longer have any bids at all on any of their plants...Coincidence or maybe also helped by the forum? I dont know....

Pontus