Ebay vendors
 

Are their preferred ebay vendors that are head and shoulders above the rest? I tend to look at the feedback system on ebay before purchase but have bought a few orchids from ebay ranging from 'disappointing' to 'very impressed' from sellers with 100% positive feedback.

If you use the search bar or the vendor feedback forum, you will find the information you're' looking for.

Definitely, but a lot of the information regarding specific Ebay vendors that you find on this website is going to be heavily geared towards sellers in the USA / North America. Since most of these sellers are smaller hobbyist growers, they don't ship out of the country, so the feedback you see may be of limited use for you.

You probably won't find a lot of people here with information about Ebay vendors that sell to/from Sri Lanka. I could be wrong, but just in case, here's some general guidance:


Ebay is hit or miss. There are some really good sellers, lots of really bad sellers, and quite a few in between. Unfortunately, Ebay ratings aren't entirely reliable. So, if you can afford it, it may be helpful to do some exploratory purchases of inexpensive plants first, see what you get, then if you're happy with the seller, consider more costly purchases.

For the most part, I recommend that you avoid buying from sellers outside of your home country unless you're willing and able to swallow the loss if things fall through or you're 100% confident in the seller, for instance because you've dealt with them before. I know for the USA Ebay listings, the place is littered with scams, though virtually all of them are sellers from outside the USA. Fortunately there are lots of US sellers so I can filter by "US only" and still see a giant list of plants that I feel mostly confident in, you however, may not have that option.

Also, be sure to do your homework. Not all deals on Ebay are actually deals, and there are lots of incorrectly labeled listings and listings with other types of problems. And going back to the previous point, doing your homework will help keep you from falling for the obvious scams such as "blue phalaenopsis seeds" and things of that nature.

its amazing the seeds from china you can buy on ebay. purple and blue strawberries even black ones. monkey faced orchids even. way cool.

Sorry for the confusion. I think I fixed it. I'm originally from Sri Lanka but currently in the US.

Lots of good sellers and lots to stay away from. In my experience, feedback is a good guide. If there are a couple of negatives or neutrals, I check out how the seller responded to the feedback. Everyone makes a mistake eventually-- I want to know how the seller responds when a buyer isn't happy.

The biggest pitfall of watching orchids on ebay is that there is almost always something enticing listed. It's enough to make someone with less self control go broke.

ahem. :blushing:

You may have known this... all those listings are fake. Many, many people buy those seeds for bizzare flowers and plants, and get seeds of radishes.

yes thats what I was getting at.