Have you ever made a really bad orchid choice?

[playtime8978]

I started keeping orchids in feb last year and lost a couple of phal noids very quickly but got OB helping me and my next few did really well I bought mainly near blooming size plants as they were cheaper. then one day I saw advertised somewhere else orchid seedlings of all different varieties and jumped in thinking my luck was in as they were so cheap and bought loads I got ansellia africana 3 different Den species, 2 Phal species and an Encyclia cochleata(sp) when they arrived i found they were just out of flask and absolutely tiny they had this grey gunk on the roots and many of them were all knotted together they came in plastic pots with lids and plastic bags ( I thought oh heck what are these) so desperately started looking what to do with them but they were just too fragile for me to manage and I killed many over a couple of months. I have left one group of a Den species, cochleata which is thriving and one Phal species, all the others threw their roots in the air in disgust and went to the greenhouse in the sky, I felt so guilty but have learnt a valuable lesson, resarch what your getting and make sure that as far as reasonable you can give them a fighting chance, just unflasked babies are not for a complete novice IMHO