*Dearly Depotted*

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It’s long been a dream of mine to be able to grow real bananas off my own plants! So, please wish me luck on my quest to fulfill that dream!

AaronTT

Shill bids are one thing, but sellers are purposely putting up the price to the same ridiculous prices as other sellers. I know one guy who does it as a sort of negotiating trick. He is hoping someone will come along and ask him if he will take $400 or $300... doing so makes the price look better, and makes the buyer think they are getting a good deal since they "negotiated". Its the old used car sale trick of inflating the asking price, in order to get the high price anyways after the suckers negotiate a bit. They take advantage of those who don't do their homework first.

smeash

Heres the thing.. the value of an item is what someone is willing to pay for it. My point being that if the market wont support those prices, schill bidding or not, and nobody purchases the item, then the price will have to come down until a buyer deems it worth the purchase. Perhaps to you, that price is ridiculous, but there may be someone out there who thinks the plant is worth it.. its capitalism.. supply and demand. I dont buy from ebay, I have however purchased plants from ETSY.. ebay has always seemed like a place where you never know if the bidding process is on the level or not. For the record, I bought my AEAE from a seller in Indonesia. I paid 300 plus some customs costs. To me its worth it, to some, like my wife, thats insane.. If I sell pups from mine in the future, I will price them to be competitive in the current market. Just my .02

Iowa

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Growing Musa Orinoco since 1993 - Added 2018-Basjoo, Zebrina' Rojo, Ensete Red Abyssinian - Added 2019-Goldfinger - Added 2020-Kokopo (Short Cycle), Double (Mahoi), Highgate, Super Dwarf Cavendish - Added 2021-Pisang Ceylon(Mysore), Musa Margarita, Ensete Ventricosum - Added 2023 - Siam Ruby

smeash

Inflated shipping prices is purposely deceitful. Zero excuse for that. As far as crazy prices, like I said, its subjective. When the market wont support that price it will drop. I dont think anyone is paying a thousand bucks for the plant, but i do think the 2-300 range has been where most sales occur over the past few years.

AaronTT

Yep

*Dearly Depotted*

You know to begin with I think I mostly just wanted to complain. I had bought a Florida Variegated from a seller on Ebay just last year. Unfortunately b/c of the peat moss I used it died back to the soil line twice. Each time it grew back. However the 3rd it just gave up and died. So I went online to look to see if I could replace it. I was super shocked when I saw the prices of some being offered by different sellers. I do understand that the FV variety is an expensive one to start with. However, I would have thought that an AEAE would be more expensive than a Florida Variegated.

I went to the same seller I bought from last year. They had at least one for sale a couple of months ago. The starting bid was something like $865. So I just passed it by. I noticed that the next 2 ones offered had a starting bid $1000. Mind you this is for a plant that’s barely even 1 foot tall. This is the same seller who was offering about a 2’-4’ tall plant with a wining bid of $250 or $300. To go from that kind of price just a year ago to hiking it all the way up to $1000 as a starting bid is just a bit asinine if you ask me. I’ve even seen a 6’ tall AEAE sell for $500 including shipping. Believe it or not it was sold by a company right here in the good old USA! This same Ebay seller usually has good prices for all sorts of different varieties so why they are price gouging I don’t know!

__________________
It’s long been a dream of mine to be able to grow real bananas off my own plants! So, please wish me luck on my quest to fulfill that dream!