Lbforever, I have no idea why you keep refering to me as direct567 in your reply. I do once in a while buy hard to find items on e bay however do not sell items due to issues such as high commission for e bay, hastle of shipping items only to have buyer complain and perfer to sell items I may have at the annual neighborhood rummage sale. I noticed in your reply your demeanor comes across best described as, angry, paranoid, and defensive. With you be a seller of items as you indicated that would be a extreme concern for any customer raising red flags from here to the moon. Another concern reguarding your reply is your feeling about e bay members trying to compete to sell items, however if your a seller of older lawn boy mowers just as omcjunkie wouldn't that make you 2 compete with eachother and not act like your brothers or best friends the way you stand up for him, especially considering the 2 members apears to live hundreds of miles apart???? As for myself I worked in the field of insurance fraud investigation for years and far prior to use of gps devices or hidden cameras and honestly quite disapointing what i have come across incuding people making false claims of cars damaged by a huricane until I found out their credit card was used out of state durring the time proving they were on vacation with the vehicle in question and claim is canceled in no time. My point is people who try to come across as defensive for no reason, or paranoid or despratly trying to change the focus of the subject often indicate the inside of the book does not match the cover. I also have looked at the profile for direct567 and his feedback seems typical for the time hes has the account and apears honest dispite not seeing alot of items for sale recently. The profile for omcjunkie does raise a red flag being within the past few months hes feedbacks gone up like wildfire and nearly all private. As I mentioned before private on e bay creates a honesty concern for all since buyers feel the seller has issues to hide. Also I noticed omcjunkie has another lawn boy for sale however this one he mentioned has a green shroud repainted yellow with painted decals. I give him credit for cleaning up his act a little in the honesty department however I wonder how he could paint the inside of the tank and make is resistant to fuel? My overall intent of starting this message was concern of bidding prices and procedures. If someone wants to pay $500 for a lawn boy with repainted cover and not recomended to be used for intended purpose thats fine. I have absolutly no problem with direct567 or many other e bay members who do a general clean up, paint touch up and mechanicly service of a mower then sell also which seems to be more typcial on ebay or local ads. Honestly id rather spend $250 with shipping for a mower thats fully functional and serviced then spend $500 with shipping for one that looks great but paint bubbles and flakes when put into service. Again i understand everyone has their own point of views on everything in life and respect that. I personaly only drive american cars all my life going back to the AMC days, my son in law eat lives and breaths toyotas, while my neighbor uses his motorcycle as much as possible. 3 differnt point of views but none of us argue or insult who is better then who. As lbforever indicated there is competion in any item or service you may be intrested in so pays to shop around and if the seller comes across as less then friendly then look elsewhere. Best example is when I had the roof on my rental property replaced last year I had 4 estimates and timed them all the same evening half hour apart for each apointment that way when one contractor was finishing the estimate the next guy was pulling in my driveway. It crated alot of evil stares but trust me I got a steal of a deal for being informed and aggressive consumer.

I am a commercial nursery and have a comment on both issues. USPS is sending their packages FedEx so that is the reason for the volumne pricing. Air freight has always been priced by volumne or weight whichever is higher. Shipping cost is high for a single plant but usually you can ship 5-6 for the same price. I recently had a dozen 4 foot tall grammatophyllum in bud shipped FedEx second day air from Hawaii (actually a day and a half with time changes)that weighed 8 pounds a piece. Shipping $7 each and 1.50 of that was box and packing charge. FedEX got $5.50 for each 8 pound plant. I have to compete with other growers and most including myself cap their shipping cost at $25 a shipment. As to specimum plants, it is just not profitable to grow them. A rough rule of thumb for a grower is that your cost of the plant doubles every year. So a $15 4 inch cattleya goes to an 8 inch pot in 3-4 years so the retail value would be 15-30-60-120. No one will pay $120 so most Florida (and Hawaiian) growers are not raising anything past 4 inch pots. Anything larger just was difficult to sell - not truely grown as a specimum. Also 2 eight inch pots take the same space as 15 4 inch pots or 40 2 inch pots. It is not hard to get $15 each for the 4 inch pots or $7 for 2 inch pots. Even with acreage, table space is expensive. As to rare, you all see mericlones offered. Any orchid (with the current exception of paphs and phrags) can be cloned. If it is 'rare' I can get you 2000 clones (minimumm order for cloning). Rare is usually the term used for "scare because so few people what to buy it". If it was popular it would be available.

I have both bought and sold native plants on ebay. My experience has been pretty good. One I bought from sells volunters from her yard, but others including the "construction site" I have been leary of.That "construction site" has been going on a few years now. One states that they are a licensed nursery but says the plants are "dug from the mountains of Tenn", which doesnt give me a good feeling, Additonally they are dirt cheap, no pun intended, another red flag. Further they have exotics listed as native like orange daylily and vinca vine claiming they are native ..anyone licensed should know better. Also beware plants for sale listed as "rare." My advice, and I am not here to advertise, but in my own listings I clearly state that I grow my own on the premises and I tell people to be aware and ask questions about where they get their plants from. If you are not comfortable with the response or dont receive one, move on.

In your settings you can choose to have your buying history private. If you do & you win an auction it will come up User ID kept private. Otherwise it will come up w/ the asterisk's. Ebay started using the asterisk's to protect members from scam 2nd chance offers, other against the rules contact & general privacy.