Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 15:56:20 EST From: CMDodd@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3673$foo@default> Subject: Re: Nepenthes prices
>"Prices ranged from $3 for a tiny flytrap at Home Depot, to as high as
$1,000
for tropical species like Nepenthes, ...
>
As I have told my son ,who like to collect popular toys in the hope they will
one day be very valuable, things are only worth what someone is willing to
pay for them. I have heard of very rare Nepenthes like N. clipeata being
offered for $800 -1,200, and of an individual who tried to sell another
species for $12,000 (!), but for some reason did not get any takers.
What changed all this, and is continuing to do so, is tissue culture. Plants
like N. clipeata, rajah, burbidgea, etc. are now readily available at
affordable prices. Some may be beyond one's budget, but are still far less
expensive than when only a few plants existed and were sold one rooted
cutting at a time. This has fortunately helped destroy the
'I-have-the-only-one-of-the-these-in-the-world' syndrome.
Somewhere around $100 seems to be the upper limit of most rare plants being
offered from T/C, and if a mass market is desired by the growers, this should
probably be cut by 2/3 to gererate more buyers and get more people
interested. (It might be difficult to shell out $100 on a plant that you have
never seen, much less grown, when little information on some of these species
is available).
At orchid shows awarded clones of species and hybrid orchids can sell for
thousands of dollars but so far this does not seem to be the case with
Nepenthes at the few auctions I have attended. Most of us would agree that
there are more businesses and sales involved in orchids and they usually
comand higher prices than Nepenthes. Then again I have heard stories about
what they pay for Nepenthes in California.........!
Cliff
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