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$158 venusflytrap on ebay

  • Thread starter cool85k5
  • Start date
  • #21
Well.. obviously the people bidding on it feel it's worth that much. Ones mans "trash" is another man's treasure.

I would definitely pay up to $150 for a flytrap if I liked it enough. I already pay up to $40 for some young flytraps.

Or they are just bidding without intent to pay, which is pretty common. Make a new username and bid when it lists again.
 
  • #22
Well.. obviously the people bidding on it feel it's worth that much. Ones mans "trash" is another man's treasure.

I would definitely pay up to $150 for a flytrap if I liked it enough. I already pay up to $40 for some young flytraps.

Or they are just bidding without intent to pay, which is pretty common. Make a new username and bid when it lists again.

I agree. I wouldn't pay that much for an eddie but for a wacky traps when it was still rare before people flooded the market, I would have payed at least $150
 
  • #23
I agree. I wouldn't pay that much for an eddie but for a wacky traps when it was still rare before people flooded the market, I would have payed at least $150


Just a few months ago I would have looked at a robcantleyi and said "lol wut? No wai. $100 for a nep? pfft" But a flytrap? I would jump on it so quickly if it was one I wanted. Of course now I'm crazy about all carnies.. but it's just all about personal value, not the value everyone else places on a particular item. Just like I payed $40 for a young Korean Melody Shark, but I would have easily payed $150 for it, because it's worth that much to me. I'm pretty much that way with everything I buy.
 
  • #24
I don't know guys... Still I would never pay that much for a Dionaea, why? Because they are all the same species. It just so happens that that species is very easily reproduced and not generally hard to grow.

That's why 100 dollars for a flytrap to most people is insane. Even if I thought wacky traps should exist, I would never pay more than 20 bucks for it because there are growers dividing rhizomes right now as I type this.

Rare Nepenthes and Heliamphora? It just takes a long time to make more of those. Which is why I would pay over 100 dollars for one. They're not easy to recreate which is why not everyone has one.
 
  • #25
+1 to that dex. Exactly what I had in mind.
 
  • #27
I don't see what the debate is for, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" I think that paying that much for VFT is just as legitimate as paying that much for any other CP, because its money spent on something they like.

Its really no different from paying from good money for an orchid, or nepenthes.This is just proven by the people saying that they wouldn't pay 200 for an N. edwardsiana, and then someone else saying no to a 150 VFT, no real difference there besides the amount.

There is no naturally occuring price tag for any plant, they are only worth what we are willing to pay for it, everyone has different tastes and wallet range :p.

So I say it is kind of irrelevant to be comparing these things.
 
  • #28
I really don't think there's room in this hobby to judge monetary value, since it's all so subjective. You all know that some of the most beautiful neps/dews/helis are also the cheapest, and since even the most modest collector can obtain them, people don't think they're "worth" that much, and therefore not as desirable. When I look at expensive orchids, I have no idea why anyone would pay so much for them, since there are others just as nice for $10 in the grocery store. Why is this? Because I don't obsess over orchids and don't really know what I'm looking at. If someone spends their time researching and admiring flytraps, well, they probably see something very striking or beautiful that the rest of us just see as subtle, if not unimpressive, differences.


Subjective is the key word here..
 
  • #29
]That's why 100 dollars for a flytrap to most people is insane. Even if I thought wacky traps should exist, I would never pay more than 20 bucks for it because there are growers dividing rhizomes right now as I type this.

And even though there are places that sell them for $20, I would still pay up to $75 for one if I saw it. See how that works?


Rare Nepenthes and Heliamphora? It just takes a long time to make more of those. Which is why I would pay over 100 dollars for one. They're not easy to recreate which is why not everyone has one.

See, you're basing their value off the difficulty and time it takes to cultivate them. I don't. I base their value based on how much I want it, how beautiful it is to me etc. If I like it enough, it's worth more. It's how bidding works. Some people have a cap, because they don't feel it's worth that much to them, while other people have no cap at all, because it's worth THAT much to them.
 
  • #30
A certain person that is well known is selling flowering size bigmouth x B52 for $19.00 witch will be easly as big as this plant. That's why I think that 150 for this plant is a little much. But as others have said it is in the eye of the beholder and I do agree with that.
 
  • #31
It's all about collecting if you are a collector. A plant that is nice looking and rare will always sell for higher. Nice looking vft. I want one.
 
  • #32
Part of it is in the eye of the beholder, but IMO that doesn't justify certain prices...

I truly am just basing it off of how fast you can divide and spread the plant. The more common something is, the cheaper it will be. High demand, low supply = large prices, high supply, low demand = low prices. It's just economics.

There are plenty of really cool Nepenthes that I would love to have such as jamban or jacquelineae (again), but until I can find them in the 20 dollar range, I wont even consider buying them. Because I KNOW that they are fast growing plants and can be cut up or vined relatively quickly. Same thing with D. regia, it's an amazing plant, and it goes for large sums of money. However, I never actually bought one because I KNOW that people are good at propagating it easily, so why would I pay that much for something that somebody could just take a root cutting of in no time?

The rarer and harder the plant is to grow the higher the price will (and should) be, IMO. If the price isn't low? Don't worry I'll just wait it out another couple years when people are selling melody sharks and wacky traps for barely more than a regular VFT. Cup-traps comes to mind...

Now seed-grown edwardsiana... I suppose if I thought people would be breeding these like crazy, I wouldn't care to spend more than 50 bucks. But that just doesn't seem realistic.
 
  • #33
Part of it is in the eye of the beholder, but IMO that doesn't justify certain prices...

I truly am just basing it off of how fast you can divide and spread the plant. The more common something is, the cheaper it will be. High demand, low supply = large prices, high supply, low demand = low prices. It's just economics.

There are plenty of really cool Nepenthes that I would love to have such as jamban or jacquelineae (again), but until I can find them in the 20 dollar range, I wont even consider buying them. Because I KNOW that they are fast growing plants and can be cut up or vined relatively quickly. Same thing with D. regia, it's an amazing plant, and it goes for large sums of money. However, I never actually bought one because I KNOW that people are good at propagating it easily, so why would I pay that much for something that somebody could just take a root cutting of in no time?

The rarer and harder the plant is to grow the higher the price will (and should) be, IMO. If the price isn't low? Don't worry I'll just wait it out another couple years when people are selling melody sharks and wacky traps for barely more than a regular VFT. Cup-traps comes to mind...

Now seed-grown edwardsiana... I suppose if I thought people would be breeding these like crazy, I wouldn't care to spend more than 50 bucks. But that just doesn't seem realistic.

I agree with you and see both sides of this conversation. If you are a carnivorous plant hobbyist, collector, or nursery owner etc., you are probably interested in propagating or creating hybrids that show characteristics people will like and pay more for as you state in the beginning. There will always be rare neat plants and they will become cheaper overtime as more make it into cultivation. See Sarracenia 'Dixie Lace'- a bunch of people have them but when first registered as a cultivar I bet they had a hotter price tag. Some collectors want the rarest first. I've probably spent too much on a few plants here and there but I'm like you I like to wait on the price to drop, at least a little. Look at S. 'Adriane Slack'. I've seen it bring $350 on ebay. It is still somewhat rare in collections. In my opinion trading with folks you trust is the way to go.

If a plant is rare and expensive, a collector wants it and buys it, the plant owner gets to then buy more supplies to continue the hobby of producing new rare plant varieties or cultivars. I see nothing wrong with that.
 
  • #34
For me, it's definitely not about acquiring what's rare, and being the first to have it. It's about acquiring what I want, and if it happens to be expensive.. *shrug* I'll most likely buy it.
 
  • #36
People can and do spend crazy money on eBay especially if they get into bidding wars at the end of the auction. I saw a Norwegian black metal record go for over $1000. It was one I passed over multiple times years ago when we had a dedicated metal record shop here and it was an import priced at $20... dang! :lol:
 
  • #37
I don't know guys... Still I would never pay that much for a Dionaea, why? Because they are all the same species. It just so happens that that species is very easily reproduced and not generally hard to grow.

That's why 100 dollars for a flytrap to most people is insane. Even if I thought wacky traps should exist, I would never pay more than 20 bucks for it because there are growers dividing rhizomes right now as I type this.

Rare Nepenthes and Heliamphora? It just takes a long time to make more of those. Which is why I would pay over 100 dollars for one. They're not easy to recreate which is why not everyone has one.

They can be dividing rhizomes and driving down prices with tc, but that will not happen all the time for all cultivars. And IDK if they are the same species because they have different genes to some extent that give them a different look. Obviously nep people feel the same because they want multiple seedgrown plants when they are all the same species.

AND.. Once you get it in tc a nep and heli/ceph is easy to make thousands of. Trust me. As soon as someone gets some eddie seeds into the hands of a tc'er they will make it drop in price soo much if they are as inexperienced in business as the people cloning dionaea in the hundreds for low prices. Neps are only so "rare" because places that sell them and tc them only sell males and partake in other smart, although somewhat hateful business practices.
 
  • #38
They can be dividing rhizomes and driving down prices with tc, but that will not happen all the time for all cultivars. And IDK if they are the same species because they have different genes to some extent that give them a different look. Obviously nep people feel the same because they want multiple seedgrown plants when they are all the same species.

AND.. Once you get it in tc a nep and heli/ceph is easy to make thousands of. Trust me. As soon as someone gets some eddie seeds into the hands of a tc'er they will make it drop in price soo much if they are as inexperienced in business as the people cloning dionaea in the hundreds for low prices. Neps are only so "rare" because places that sell them and tc them only sell males and partake in other smart, although somewhat hateful business practices.

Neps do not multiply that fast in TC, Doom, not all of them anyway, and Cephs do terrible in TC from everything I've heard. Once you try them, then you can tell us if they are still easy.
 
  • #39
Neps do not multiply that fast in TC, Doom, not all of them anyway, and Cephs do terrible in TC from everything I've heard. Once you try them, then you can tell us if they are still easy.

As soon as i can get my hands on some seed I will. I will be doing it this summer with cephs and helis and neps as well with whatever seed I can get.. Starting in early june because I am super busy till then. Not enough time to set up for tc and such.
 
  • #40
Doom, Eddie has been in TC for years. Many neps are bad in TC and grow slow which is why they still cost so much.
 
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