I recently spent $65 on a specimen size Phrag Schlimil Rodney Wilcox Jones that I got at our local orchid society sale, directly from another member.
I tend to average $20- $25 for my plants, and I've collected about 80 in the past 2 years.
Then there are the lights, shelving, drip trays, humidifiers, wood for the shade table, rain water collection system.
But I don't spend a lot on clothes, I never buy make-up, rarely buy (costume) jewelry, drive old cars. I do spend a lot on photography and travel. So maybe I'm not TOO crazy. Then again, maybe I am crazy.
I guess I'm spending my kids' inheritance. :biggrin:

Forty dollars is the most I've spent on a single orchid and that was for my Trichoglottis bracheata that's mounted to a palm tree and slowly dying from the frost damage it sustained last winter.

Last September I spent about $75 on a 3 plant combined purchase and the total price included shipping.

I've never considered purchasing a specimen sized plant. I'd rather spend conservatively and grow one myself. :lol:

There's a wonderful plant that has been awarded as Phrag. schlimii 'Wilcox' AM/AOS and as Phrag. Cardinale 'Birchwood' AM/AOS. They are the same plant - it is a Cardinale (Sedenii x schlimii). I wonder if that's what you got? It's a great plant. Phrag. schlimii itself is kind of a tiny thing, while Cardinale is much larger. The hybrid is also very vigorous and free-blooming - one of my favorite orchids.

i believe my spending pattern have changed as my experience in orchid progresses... i used to spend less than rm50 (usd16) per plant in the earlier days, the lesser the better, and which usually i'll get a seedling. after a few too many dead seedlings, i decided to wise up and spend more and get a flowering size or more mature plant... its the best decision i ever make, and no, not more rm100 (usd 32) with the exception of the phal gigantea!

Orchid spending
 

Average money spent would be $20.00 to $35.00, including shipping. Very few orchids available around here and those there are are all phals. The most I ever spent was over $95.00 for three vandeous type orchids. What the most I would spend is hard to tell. There is a black orchid for $100.00 I like, but I am not that tempted to buy it at that price.

I've only spent about $40 tops. BUT there is a little guy on my wishlist that is $75 at Andy's (Cleisocentron Merrillianum). I'll go ahead and take the plunge, once I am confident that I will not kill this $75 cutie!

I think I may have spent $100 in one stop, when I first started collecting. Now it is more like $60 - $80.

30 on a both a vanda and a cymbidium

50-80 on a haul is my limit

however, i do judge the price by plant size and how much i desire the plant. i wont spend more than 10 on a phal or oncidium type, 20 on a catlleya or vanda, 30 on a nice cymbidium, 15 on most dens. once i spent 30 on a miltoniopsis which is WAAAY over my limit for oncidiums and GREATLY regreted it because it died of erwinia 3 days later.

I have spent $50 each on 2 large Ascda and Rntda hybrids only to discover that there is no way I could ever get them to look as nice as the awarded ones.

Now I would spend $50 on a flask but I would have to really want it. I try to stay under $30 per plant and less if I can.

Connie,
I was doing stream-of-consciousness about your Phrag. yesterday. I hope I didn't confuse or offend!
Here's a pic of Phrag. "schlimii 'Wilcox'" in flower.
Phrag schlimii 'Wilcox' AM/AOS -
Here's a pic of a real schlimii in bloom:
Phrag schlimii culture sheet - growing tips
Here's a cute article about Rodney Wilcox Jones:
From Underwear to Orchids, 102-Year-Old Rodney Jones Is a Blooming Marvel : People.com
What came to mind when I saw that you had gotten schlimii 'Rodney Wilcox Jones', was that there was a very famous plant called, variously: schlimii 'Wilcox' AM/AOS, schlimii 'Birchwood' (I believe also with an AM/AOS), Cardinale 'Birchwood' AM/AOS and Cardinale 'Wilcox'. Everett Wilcox had the plant. G. R. ("Dick") Clements got a piece of it from him. Mr. Wilcox got the plant awarded and put the name 'Wilcox' on it. Dick got his piece of the same plant awarded and put the name 'Birchwood' on it. Dick recognized some years later after seeing collected plants coming in from Colombia that his plant was a Cardinale, and he changed the label, re-showed it, and got it awarded again (I got this from conversations with Dick in the 1990s). It was a relatively common (if unsavory) practice for growers to put their own names on plants at the time... If I had the plant, I would label it Cardinale 'Wilcox'. That said, it doesn't take into account that the plant had probably been in cultivation for many many years before Everett Wilcox ever started growing it, and it may well have been awarded by the RHS in the way-back days...
All this speculation and meandering aside, the plant you have came from Rodney Wilcox Jones, who is not Everett Wilcox. And so it's probably a real schlimii rather than Cardinale. At which point I've subjected you to more confusion than I ever intended to. Again, I meant no harm - I was merely musing. Please forgive the stream of consciousness!

The most I've spent is $75 for a Cattleya. It was one of my first three orchids, and it's still alive (although I've killed many others). I'm not sure about the most I would spend, but probably around $100.