Snowdrop prices 2010

[GoodGrief]

>Beth Chatto Gardens on Ebay have always supplied me with superb snowdrops & often when you are bidding on only one bulb they will send >two bulbs or one bulb that could easily have been divided & made into two before dispatch.

Ditto, but then Beth Chatto Gardens is an established business with a reputation to lose

[loes]

and my response...

I have bought a few times in the past snowdrops on ebay.from forum members,or now-forummembers or known nurseries.always got the real thing and for a good price.and the reason?
some specialist nurseries do not sell to Holland,some nurseries have ridiculous sending costs,some nurseries want a large order which I dont always want and some snowdrops are not sold at the online nurseries.
My purchases were to my satisfaction but I did not bid on very expensive/rare drops.
This year however I only bought one drop and when it came I had my doubts for the correct name.I told the seller and got ,all,my money back.(I suggested to share the costs but got it all).

so,I had one misnamed drop but that also happened with a very well known and respectable nursery.

ebay can be fun and you can buy a nice drop but you have to be carefull and wise.

[Eric Locke]

and my response...

I have bought a few times in the past snowdrops on ebay.from forum members,or now-forummembers or known nurseries.always got the real thing and for a good price.and the reason?
some specialist nurseries do not sell to Holland,some nurseries have ridiculous sending costs,some nurseries want a large order which I dont always want and some snowdrops are not sold at the online nurseries.
My purchases were to my satisfaction but I did not bid on very expensive/rare drops.
This year however I only bought one drop and when it came I had my doubts for the correct name.I told the seller and got ,all,my money back.(I suggested to share the costs but got it all).

so,I had one misnamed drop but that also happened with a very well known and respectable nursery.

ebay can be fun and you can buy a nice drop but you have to be carefull and wise.

Hi Loes

I am sure you have been satisfied with purchases from me in past years.
It is a shame that I have had to stop posting outside of the UK this year due to very long postal delays causing plants to arrive in poor condition.

Eric

[loes]

Hi Eric,

yes I was!

[Eric Locke]

Hi Eric,

yes I was!

That"s good.

If you are honest and supply good quality ,correct named plants customers always return.
Beth Chatto gardens are not the only ones who send out extra plants.
I do not sell many snowdrops these days and consentrate mainly on orchid sales which self finances my heavy spending on plants during the year . Everyone gains from my Ebay sales - the nurseries and other suppliers to forum members who look at my photos.
Good job for Ebay in my opinion.
Although it is a pity some sellers can give the rest of us a bad name that is not deserved.

Eric

[David Nicholson]

Proves that honesty is the best policy Eric.

 I have never used EBay for buying or selling and I doubt if I ever will. Really it's the anonimity of the process that puts me off. I like to know who I'm dealing with and I like who I am dealing with to know me.

[Eric Locke]

Proves that honesty is the best policy Eric.

 I have never used EBay for buying or selling and I doubt if I ever will. Really it's the anonimity of the process that puts me off. I like to know who I'm dealing with and I like who I am dealing with to know me.

David many customers from ebay have become good friends and I have made many contacts also.

Eric

[Gerard Oud]

I do sell to the Netherlands/Holland

[GoodGrief]

> and even worse on the bay is that now bidders are hidden you can not tell if
> the seller is actually bidding the price up of there own item.

I have to confess to buying the odd item off ebay, but DO prefer seeing the whites of the eyes of the person selling.

Once or twice, I have had a 'You have a second chance to buy this item'. ebay indicates that this might be because the buyer has failed to cough up.

I've always thought why can't I buy at the price before this mystery buyer started pushing the price up?

As said before, buyer beware.

Malcolm.

[Alan_b]

Once or twice, I have had a 'You have a second chance to buy this item'. ebay indicates that this might be because the buyer has failed to cough up.

I always thought it indicated that the seller had at least a few, if not a few hundred of the item, but wanted to push up the price by making it appear that there was only the one available.

"When to use a Second Chance Offer

You can make a Second Chance Offer to someone when:
Your item didn’t sell because the reserve price wasn’t met
You have duplicate items for sale
The winning bidder didn’t pay you"

Of course, it can also be a total scam http://www.safefromscams.co.uk/EbaySecondChanceScam.html

[Diane Clement]

Once or twice, I have had a 'You have a second chance to buy this item'. ebay indicates that this might be because the buyer has failed to cough up.  

I've been offered a "second chance" several times when I haven't won an item.  On the whole, it's seems like a dodgy practice, it could be due to someone pushing the price up, or just that the seller has more than one and is trying to get the best price rather than relisting and risking it not going so high.  On the whole I don't go along with this as I wouldn't want to encourage the practice.  However, I did succumb to a second chance recently, and actually ended up with 5 bulbs when I thought I was getting one.  I do judge the seller from the feedback and also from the quality of the photograph and text in the listing (don't trust people who can't get a picture in focus and certainly not if they can't spell!!)  

I've noticed an increasing trend (or maybe it's the same person several times) putting a link in to a picture on Mark's site which I think is dodgy as this is not the plant for sale, just what they think it might be.  Are you OK with this practice Mark?  

[art600]

Not all EBay sellers are as bad as might be inferred from this thread.

I established a good relationship with one seller who always sent more bulbs that stated in the lot description.  They were excellent quality, packed very well and arrived in good time.  I was offered two 'second chances', at my bid, both at a considerable discount to the winning bids.

As Diane said, read the feedback, scrutinise the information and photo(s) and then make a bid.  Of course, know your snowdrops and their availability from recognised sources, and do not bid up to silly prices.

[mark smyth]

Anne I only allow the link to stay if I know the person who is selling but I have to trust them to sell the actual plant. I have asked for the link to be removed many times.

My photos appear very often. If the person hasnt asked I give them two options 1. remove it or 2. I report them to Ebay. I get requests to use photos but only allow people I trust/know

[Eric Locke]

I do sell to the Netherlands/Holland

Hi Gerald.

I found post between the Netherlands and UK to be the worst  with regards postal delays in either direction. Often mail would take two weeks or more which is OK with dormant orchid bulbs, but certainly not worth risking with snowdrops .Final straw came last year when a package of around twenty snowdrops of mixed ebay and private sales took well over two weeks and arrived in a mush .I decided this was the last time I was prepared to replace like this.
This year postage to the EU seems even worse with two weeks + deliveries to all countries quite normal.

Eric

[Eric Locke]

Once or twice, I have had a 'You have a second chance to buy this item'. ebay indicates that this might be because the buyer has failed to cough up.   

I've been offered a "second chance" several times when I haven't won an item.  On the whole, it's seems like a dodgy practice, it could be due to someone pushing the price up, or just that the seller has more than one and is trying to get the best price rather than relisting and risking it not going so high.  On the whole I don't go along with this as I wouldn't want to encourage the practice.  However, I did succumb to a second chance recently, and actually ended up with 5 bulbs when I thought I was getting one.  I do judge the seller from the feedback and also from the quality of the photograph and text in the listing (don't trust people who can't get a picture in focus and certainly not if they can't spell!!) 

I've noticed an increasing trend (or maybe it's the same person several times) putting a link in to a picture on Mark's site which I think is dodgy as this is not the plant for sale, just what they think it might be.  Are you OK with this practice Mark? 

As a sellers point of view - Second Chance offers are a good way of increasing sales of items that you may have many off and can easily double ones evening sales without paying any listing fees. I find only about 50% take up on these even though the price offered can be much lower than the original selling price.

Eric