EBay, like Wal-Mart, is a fact of life in contemporary
economy. As individual consumers, we can ignore them or indulge
in them. They are major market forces, however, and anyone
participating in the market has to know that you have to be
really lucky AND talented to work around them successfully.
Many legitimate bonsai businesses have decided that they
ignore eBay at their peril, so they market there routinely. There
are also many disreputable vendors there selling poor quality
merchandise with no service. Dale and others have pointed out
several practical and ethical reasons to beware of eBay and to
support local and established vendors who have real names and
offer real service.
That's what I prefer to do personally. However, to flatly
warn to avoid eBay seems a little xenophobic to me. I find a
balanced warning a lot more credible. If we don't have something
like this on the IBC FAQ already, I suggest it would be helpful
to do so.

Alan Walker
http://bonsai-bci.com http://LCBSBonsai.org


-----Original Message-----
From: "Steven Wachs"

EBay has a huge assortment of pots. If you do a general search
for bonsai pots you will get a large number of pots to bid on. I
have made several purchases through Ebay I have found a few
reliable dealers. It requires a little patience sometimes, but I
usually what what I am looking for.
Stevew Long Island NY

On Mar 19, 2005, at 11:57 AM, dalecochoy wrote:
Steve, Don't you have several large reputable legal bonsai
dealers fairly close to you? Where you can actually LOOK AT the
pots, measure and decide what you need? Also, why not support pot
importers such as the Monastery, for example, instead of eBay. If
you want good bonsai supplies.... you should be importing from
the bonsai suppliers.
Regards,
Dale

From: Craig Cowing
I agree. Forget eBay.
Craig Cowing NY Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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