plants & seeds on ebay

20 years ago

Hi all

Have any of you bought plants and seeds on ebay? I have bought some cacti and pigface and other plants and they seem okay but I haven't had a lot of luck with seeds. I am sure someone asked before but can't find their post.

jan

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Comments (3)

corymbosa
20 years ago
Could be a problem with how fresh the seed is. Can the vendors supply either use by or collection dates? Unless you're buying from a grower or a distributor who gets supplied directly from growers, it's difficult to guarantee viability. A lot of ebay vendors on sell seed that has been bought in bulk. I guess you've got to take into account how long the supplier has had it, how long the vendor has had it and whether the vendor has stored the seed properly.

I know with seed banks (esp those dealing in rare seed), seed gets traded like cash. Seed can be circulated between banks for years and often loses viabilty during that time. If the seed gets passed through international borders the regular fumigations and irradiations carried out by various customs bodies will probably have a cummulative detrimental affect.

If you're having problems with the seed coming from EBay, it might be worth sourcing what you want from those collecting the seed (or at least their direct distributors). It might cost more than EBay but saving money on unviable Ebay seed is false economy so you'll get more value for your dollar.
Liatris
20 years ago
Yes, Jan, that's the risk you run, unless you know the source of the seed, and know it to be reliable. Even commercial packaged seed has variable viability at times, and I KNOW there are Ebay sellers who source some of their seed from the exchange here at Gardenweb, so whether it has been properly collected and stored prior to being sent to the seller, you wouldn't know.

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I am a frequent ebay buyer. I have a few bad experiences, but far more good ones than bad...but if you use paypal you can get a refund when a buyer is bad...the best thing to do is read a persons feedback, not JUST look at the percent...read WHAT people write and also beware that you can have a decent percent feedback as long as your selling thousands a month, so read and decide in that manner. I bought many of my hostas that way and got lovely large plants and my brunnera also. I have also bought many garden decor that way too...I love one stop shopping from my living room in my jammies. I buy only what I am looking for, not impluse buys as I am passing aisles by in the store. I just bought a hot tub this week. Three years old only with a small leak (which my husband fixed in a couple hours) for just four hundred dollars. The seller even delivered it for a small fee. As long as you do your research and pay with paypal, you will most likely have a good experience. Depending tho on the sellers zone and your zone. Heat at this time of the year can bake a plant during shipping and turn it to slime. I would take that into consideration before buying in July and Aug.
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Have only had one really nasty experience with E-bay but probably my own fault. I attempted to point out that Japanese iris were most unlikely to be protected by PBR. Really none of the iris breeders in aus do that! Also that no law in aus prevented a person from giving the registered name of an iris. My suspicion was that they were seedlings as the actual photo of the sale item was not being given. The irises were priced rediculously high, and the postage was also way high. She was extremely nasty back to me, and put my comments up on e-bay which of course was the last thing she should have done because it would have lost her sales, if any one was even interested at those prices. As far as the exchange here being better than e-bay - I beg to differ. I have had some fabulous stuff from e-bay (seeds that is). Some nice stuff here, but generally not of much interest to me anyway. I think the best place to go for seeds is specialist groups, such as SIGNA and the alpine plant groups, if you are looking for special little bits and pieces. Common plants are best bought in Aus rather than from O/S sources. There are plenty of catalogues (Diggers, New Gippsland, etc) who will probably have seeds for prices as good as those offered on e-bay. Watch closely for people who advertise a plant (say siberian iris at present on e-bay) and in the small print it tells you that you will get 1 seed, or 10 seeds, or whatever, rather than the plant that is advertised. Also if something is advertised as rare check out that it is not infact a weed. There are a couple of these on e-bay right now at crazy prices.
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paradisi
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my only problem with seeds has been theobroma cacao - cocoa plant - the seeds came from reunion and were inspected by customs - and held up for ten days. The extra ten days is probably what killed the seed. I have had a dozen or so lots of seed from the same supplier and didn't have a problem (and didn't have an inspection)

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plants & seeds on ebay

Comments (3)

corymbosa

Liatris

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paradisi

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