Spring Orchid Sale

[Marty]

Time to try something new... We are now running a completely new classified system. It's been suggested that we do an orchid swap/sale here for all the members to enjoy. An Orchid flea market type of sale. We have almost 5,000 members now. It's spring and things are budding, it's warm enough to ship plants.

I encourage everyone to put up any extra plants a division or supplies up for sale using the classifieds. With enough participants, this should turn into a major Orchid marketplace. If you're private hobbyist or you run an orchid business, feel free to place for sale/wanted ads. All ads are free.

Our classifieds are sortable by country so whether you're in the US, CANADA, Australia or anywhere else, feel free to place your ads. Please be sure to add photos to your ads, it will make things much more interesting. Ads with photos, sell much better and faster !

We have PayPal enabled on the classified system, so the buyer can send the payment directly to you.

Please note that OrchidBoard is providing this service AS IS. It's your responsibility to make sure you don't get burned on a deal. Buyers and Sellers beware, if your deal goes bad or you have problems please don't contact me or the mods. We hope things will go smoothly, without any incidents...this is OB after all, we tend to get along nicely !

Buyer and Sellers, play nice and have fun !

To place an ad, click "Post Classified Ad" on the left ADD CONTENT MENU.



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[kiki-do]

This is a great idea! I have a couple questions. If I place an add to sell a plant and someone wants it from overseas, how do I ship it? (I'm a newbie at all this stuff). Question 2, I have used paypal before but not as a seller, how does that work exactly? Question 3, what is the best way to ship a plant...in it's pot and through UPS or Postal? Question 4, how do we know what is a fair swap, is there some type of guideline or is there someone like an "Orchid Dear Abby" we can go to for help and reference?
Are these dumb questions or what??????
Newbies, huh?

[Ross]

Originally Posted by kiki-do

This is a great idea! I have a couple questions. If I place an add to sell a plant and someone wants it from overseas, how do I ship it? (I'm a newbie at all this stuff). Question 2, I have used paypal before but not as a seller, how does that work exactly? Question 3, what is the best way to ship a plant...in it's pot and through UPS or Postal? Question 4, how do we know what is a fair swap, is there some type of guideline or is there someone like an "Orchid Dear Abby" we can go to for help and reference?
Are these dumb questions or what??????
Newbies, huh?

My recommendation is to avoid shipping outside US unless you have all the paperwork in place. You'll need Agriculture inspection, CITES permit, etc. and a friend in customs. Also the red tape may hold the plant up so that it becomes moldy or dessicated. Most shippers that ship routinely overseas (including into US from outside) have all their paperwork in order. Just a thought.

[cb977]

I agree...the paperwork fees for exporting would most likely increase the price of the plant so much, it wouldn't sell.

It would probably be much easier for all involved if the sales were done within each members own country. For the U.S, keep in mind, there are certain states which do not allow for plant shipping/receiving without the necessary paperwork.

If you plan on becoming involved in this spectacular event, please be sure to do your homework and know what you're getting into before it starts.

I will try to help in answering questions if I can but I really don't know much about interstate or international shipping.

Kiki,
whenever my friends and I ship to each other, we usually unpot the plant and send it bareroot.
As far as what is a "fair swap"...I can only suggest you do some research (using the Google lists we put together for our recent project would work well for this) and find out what the going price for a plant of the same size is.

I'd also suggest looking through the gallery and posts from a particular seller to see what their orchid-growing background is...nothing personal, folks

[Soonix]

Yeah, great i look forward to buying lots of stuff .

You can just open a paypall account, link it to your bank account. When you sell something you send an invoice out of paypall and receive the money, the money stays in ur account till you request a check or reuse the money.

Chumy

[Marty]

Originally Posted by kiki-do

This is a great idea! I have a couple questions. If I place an add to sell a plant and someone wants it from overseas, how do I ship it?
(I'm a newbie at all this stuff). Question 2, I have used paypal before but not as a seller, how does that work exactly? Question 3, what is the best way to ship a plant...in it's pot and through UPS or Postal? Question 4, how do we know what is a fair swap, is there some type of guideline or is there someone like an "Orchid Dear Abby" we can go to for help and reference?
Are these dumb questions or what??????
Newbies, huh?

I didn't mean that you list items and ship them overseas...of course if you have the right paper work you can. What I meant was that, wherever you are...say France, you can put up an ad for sale of orchids in France. In the description of your ad, you can put that the offer is only available in France, or whatever. Plus, the ad will have a French flag on it, so it will be easy to see.

not sure what the best way to ship is...there are vendors here that ship all the time, maybe they'll chime in.

As for paypal, when you place an ad, there's a place to put your email that you have registered with paypal. If somone commits they can send money directly to your paypal account. Once you place the ad, you'll see where to enter the information.

[kiki-do]

Thanks Marty, that helps alot.

[Dorothy]

You can ship either US Postal, UPS or FedEx .. I found that UPS can be a little less expensive than US Postal but that is determined by weight and size of box .. Yep .. size of box can play into how much the shipping will be .. and where it is you are mailing to ..
You can go to their websites (USPS, UPS & FedEx) with an approximate weight and size of the package and the addresses of the sender and the receiver to get an idea of cost ...
I have always mailed plants in their original pots but there are many that will ship their plants bare-rooted. Again, shipping price plays into overall weight of the package which will increase with a pot ..
I find it to be a personal preference which way you decide to send the plant - potted or not - and would be great if it can be indicated in the ad ..

[kiki-do]

Also thanks to Sue, Dorothy, Chumy, and Ross...always helpful, always appreciated...

[Dorothy]

I thought I would add this link on shipping orchids here -
It also includes links and a video on packing orchids -
Orchid Shipping?