wow!!
sue

Note that the beggining bid was only $49 which would seem high for a catt with multiple trimmed leaves. But this is no ordinary catt, and don't be surprised if the final bid tops $2000. A rare and very sought after division, to a serious collector-breeder, pollen is like precious gems.

It must be nice...that's all I have to say! Haha.

I thought spending $70 last week at Orchidfest was quiet a bit!

Sarah

I was bidding on Dend speciosum Yondi 'Moonlight', also started at $30 or so, in the last 1/2 minute it raced up to $350 and left me standing there with my tongue hanging out! I'm glad I lost it, its too much, but on the other hand-----------

This is worse than crack!

Nick

The division might be pretty, but this is not even an awarded clone. While awards aren't the end all and be all in determining an orchid's aesthetic worth, awards certainly contribute greatly to setting an orchid division's cash value. Not even a measley HCC? Ebay bidders can certainly push the envelope.

I must have the "steal" of the night! An eBay purchase for a mere $35 netted me an FCC/AOS--in flower!!

Lc Sheila Lauterbach 'Equilab'

--Stitz--

At least its not virused (or maybe the seller is just not disclosing it or does not know).

If the sale does go through, the seller should have a heart to throw in free shipping :)

Hey CJW

I know its not awarded but to me it had the potential of earning an award in the US. It was going to be split it 3 ways to ease the financial pain but then, maybe not. One used to be able to see who the bidders are on Ebay, would not mind contacting the winner and try to buy a couple of canes from him, but the whole thing is shrouded in secrecy now.

Nick

On the other hand, our friend Kevin is worried about ever increasing electricity rates. Hope this ebay Steven has his GH under lock and key!

Steven had this plant tested recently and is virus free. It is gorgeous and historic. Likely not awarded because it wasn't ever submitted. Steven is a great grower and collector. EBay and private listings are the only way to get his plants.

It is at $1500 with 14+ hours to go, so $2000 is certainly possible.

Should think about this as an investment.... instead of stocks and bonds. Think about 4-5 divisions that you can make in a few years....

Nick, contact the seller of the Den (I assume you are talking about the Dendrobium auction using the term 'canes')and ask if he will contact the buyer for you and give him/her your e-mail address. Can't hurt.

Many breeders do not put their stud plants up for judging for different reasons: some are afraid the plant will be passed over and not get an award, some aren't interested in judging at all, or the stud plant itself is being used for traits other than just beauty. I have seen some pretty ugly stud plants, and they produced award-winning progeny.

I can't find anything on Google about the hybridizer, and OrchidWiz only shows about six or seven registered hybrids that lists his last name as the breeder -- which may be another person entirely. Two have been registered by someone else. There are a couple Phals, and a few Catts, none awarded. Yet I am hearing wonderful things about this mystery man and would like to know more about him and his breeding program. Did he operate under another name?

Good idea.

Nick

This is why i have been having serious doubts about the upper echelon of the Orchid world.

More and more I wonder if I were to list an orchid of mine and just tag a renowned name to it could I get the same results. I'm really beginning to doubt the sanity here.

But I guess that would be underhanded and dishonest so I'll just leave it as a thought in the hypothetical realm.

also looking at it, it's nice, but not remarkable in any sense of the word. Nice, yes but aside from that I fail to see the worth of the plant. maybe my eyes are blind in my youth.

Gaston

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. When I joined my orchid society 12 years ago, its was lorded over by a couple of Cattelleya types. I went heavy into species and won all kinds of ribbons and awards with unopposed species. These things need to be treated with 'Round Up' was the comment of one of the old overlords.

Beauty is where you find it.

Nick

This was taken by a friend who lives in Hawaii

{{gwi:191999}}

Sue, I will worried even look at that plant... leave alone touching it.

Strange, the winning and the losing bidder have the same $$$$ bid amount. Now, why am I so concerned about this..

It looks that way, but it appears to have gone by the order the $1500 bids actually came in. The winner already had put in a maximum proxy bid for $1500 almost an hour before the end of the auction. Then in those last few seconds, the second bidder bid $1500, and the Ebay computer then entered the $1500 that the winner had posted up by proxy earlier. The winner was the first person to bid $1500, technically. Confusing, ain't it?

For a commercial grower then I can see it, for the rest of us no. Once I was bidding on a paph and noticed I was bidding against a well known commercial breeder,needless to say it went well over my limit.

With the data bases as they are now, you can check to see if the award exists. If you are spending this kind of $ you better know the seller, and obviously some did. As for awards I agree, a lot of growers will not enter their stud plants least they not get awarded, but I can also think of several stud plants that were not awardable in any sense but great parents.

Ok this is the part I don't get about Ebay policy, not just with this particular auction. Why are automatic bids not shown? From the transcript we have no clue if g****g was simply bidding up the final price or actually increasing against legitimate bids against other bidders. I am missing something I think.

H

Can we run a social experiment?

Possibly see how far up we can get a plant?

I like the idea of automatic bidding, it gives a little freedom from timing issues. When my limit is well above the initial bid but don't want to bid that amount yet, the automatic bid will keep me the high bidder without me watching all day and solves the action / refresh problem during the last minute. I don't really need to see all the steps and I think they are not shown to keep the list shorter.

If $1500 is too rich for your blood, I have a Laelia in everybody's price range, $7.

Here is a link that might be useful: My plants

Tepals? This cattleya does not have tepals. It has sepals, petals and a labellum. The write-up strikes me as expert hype. But I could be wrong.

John

Hey Richard

speaking of chids in a nice Range don't you have a nice C.loddigesii, if you have a piece of that one i'd put down a bid for it.

Gaston

>>Tepals? This cattleya does not have tepals. It has sepals, petals and a labellum. The write-up strikes me as expert hype. But I could be wrong.

Well, petals and sepals are technically tepals.
Analogous to saying "limbs" instead of saying "arms and legs".

Here is a link that might be useful: Tepals

Wow!!!! I can't believe people spend that much on orchids.... I've just recently checked out the Catts on Ebay and most are fairly Cheap! I think the Hawaiian Orchid Nurseries have the Best prices... They have 5" catts starting at $7.99. Some of the Hawaii nurseries on EBAY are pretty reputable. Kawamoto Orchids & Carmela....etc. But when people are spending $1500 from a collector...It kind of blows my mind! I would rather by from a source that has a Nursery, that can give you a guarantee customer satisfaction....At a much cheaper price! Just my thoughts....

Quality doesn't come cheap. Depends, i suppose where you are in the orchid growing hobby. Just say you are past the beginner stage and want to win Champion Orchid at a major show. You cannot hope to do that without expending $$$$$ on your orchid growing conditions and more $$$$$ on quality orchids.
How good is that orchid? Perhaps someone familiar with that species will venture an opinion.
Looks pretty good to me!

Like most other things in this country, to some extent this has to be a 'supply and demand' issue. If true bidders are bidding against each other for this plant it is hard to determine whether it is worth $100-$200 (which would have been reasonable in my mind)as opposed to 1.5 K. I am also not sure the guy/gal who bought it for 1.5 K, would be able to turn around and sell it for the same amt.

Here is a picture of another species. This one awarded FCC/AOS and grown by a grower here to i think the standard of perfection that would merit an FCC.
This is a mericlone so it does not command the price of the original plant or a division from the plant awarded in the USA. Hard to put a price on perfection and rarity. If you have deep pockets the price may not matter that much.

{{gwi:192001}}

Cattleya perciviliana 'Summit' FCC/AOS

>> Cattleya perciviliana 'Summit' FCC/AOS

I have that mericlone too. It should be blooming size by next year.
I got it for $15.00 in a 2" pot a few years ago.
I sure hope it lives up to its reputation :)

Maybe in the future I can put up divisions for sale and get my $15.00 back :)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
People are paying$100 for 1 " seedlings of Kovachii, is that worth it, not IMHO.

But then again the genetics of this auction plant maybe what someone is after.

I have heritage peonies going back to the 1920's, you just can not get them anymore and the availabiltiy of plants is limited not to mention the genetics, has this therefore increased the value.You bet, rareity makes anything worth more.

You can get orchids from the wild, yet grown miles apart and the genetics may just not be the same - slight differences in DNA, one maybe larger or more heat resistant etc, so this may also make them worth more to breeders.

Who knows what drives up the price it may just be auction fever, or two rival bidders.

It is not an amount I would pay, but who am I to judge.

John

I completely agree with Richard about Steven!
I would kill to have free reign of his GH!!
I've bought several of his offerings in the past and wish that I could have more.
Some new bidders over the last year, or so, have had a price is no object attitude and I can't even say how much I hate them! :~(
I used to be able to follow their bidding, when you could see names, and they did this with all the great stuff.
They may be good for the sellers, but they drove the rest of us out of the bidding.

He almost always starts out low and the price is driven up by three or four people.
The same bidders drove up prices on many of my favorite sellers.
(Have I mentioned how much I hate them, yet?)
Before eBay started to hide the bidders ID, you could check out the bidding styles and prices limits of the competition.
I'm sure that it's the same group and they seem to have unlimited funds, but do know what to bid on.
They have excellent taste, but far deeper pockets that I do. :~(

Steven does sell a few known virused orchids, with FULL disclosure!!!
Some historic divisions are that way period and there are none known to be virus free. They're always kept isolated and used for their genetics. I'm pretty sure that he checks out all of his plants, as his collection is likely far too valuable not to.
To a serious collector or just the obsessed and deranged, like me, an orchid that hasn't been mericloned a bazillion times is is a stronger plant in the long run. My small group of original divisions are my pride and joy. I have clones of most of them, but I get all tingly about the originals!

Just my two...er...15 cents! ;~)

Scott

Hey Scott, good to see you after a long time. Agree it is a matter of taste, full size deep pockets, +/- a crazy head.

Thanks! :~)

I'm not sure that I'll be around as much as I used to be, but I'll try.

I got really busy, we had more family health issues and my external 500GB hard drive crashed.
I lost at least a decade plus worth of saved photos, movies, info, etc!
Things that I'd tranfered through several different computors and finally saved where I thought that they'd be safe.
Completely gone!
Over a 100GB's of my photos and every single thing from this year that hadn't been already processed.
All I have left are things that had been uploaded or burned to a CD-ROM.
Really knocked a lot of my enthusiasm into a death spiral.
I've had quite a few really great blooms and couldn't be bothered to take any photos.
Some of my best-ever blooms for some orchids.
Oh well, I guess that I'll live and I have started to take some photos again.

My new external hard drive was heavily researched for quality!
A little late, but...

Scott

Sad to hear about it Scott. Were you using a special application to manage your files in your external 500Gb drive? Other than mechanical failures, sometimes the back-up programs itself are the cause of data corruption on large drives. One thing I can think of is to bring your external drive to a data recovery specialist (sometimes the hard drive OEM have this kind of service). Most likely they can recover most of the stuff from your drive. If only I live close by, I can take a look at your drive since I deal with hardware/software stuff in my day job.... anyways, don't throw it yet nor try to attempt to save to it (to prevent any overwrites or further corruption). Maybe in the near future, there might be some off-the-shelf DIY data recovery utility out there that you can try to retrieve your files.

Just my 2 cents,
Harvey

Yeah, thanks!
No special applications, I just kept all my large files, etc saved there to free up my computer.
(Although, it has 145GB's and now has 117 of them free.)
I just had them all in in folders and grouped by theme and content, etc.

It was a 500GB Medea FireFly, which I thought were supposed to be very good.
I opened up one of the casings and the actual drive was a Maxtor MaXLine II.
In researching a new one, I ended up with a Maxtor OneTouch 4 plus.
I can use my same FireWire cable with it, which was a must.
I love the speed of a FireWire and won't go back to something slower.
I understood that the actual Maxtor drive sucks, but this has a Seagate drive and they came highly recomemded.
I read too many spooky things about some of the other popular ones, but...
I really wanted to get up into the Terra-byte area, but I figure that 465GB's should do for now! ;~)

I'm keepin' the dead one, just in case. I managed to not throw it across the room, but it wasn't easy!
(I think I hurt myself by not doing it.)

Apparently...
Ahem...They're not supposed to fall off the top of your desk much more than a coupla' times!

Scott