So, I never buy anything on E-bay.. But I was poking around in the
orchid auctions just to see what is going on. I managed to find, in
approximately 5 minutes, several grievous errors in descriptions. Now,
I'm not the orchid police, but some of this stuff is annoying...
For example (one of zillions), there was a listing for Paph. Fairr 'Red'
FCC/AOS x self. Let me count the ways in which that is wrong...
1. The description is paphiopedilum Fairrieanum Red FCC/AOS x self.
Now, you all know by now that I'm a stickler for proper nomenclature,
but is too much to ask that the listing say, at least, Paph Fairrieanum?
2. Of course I might consider buying it, but should one really buy a
plant from somebody who doesn't know that genus should be capitalized,
and that a specific epithet in lower case? ie: Paphiopedilum fairrieanum.
3. At least they spelled fairrieanum right... Few people do.
4. Paph. fairrieanum "Red" has an 81 pt AM/AOS. And an AD from the
CSA. That doesn't even come close to an FCC. That is what set me off
in the first place, I was just working up to it. Maybe it is just me
over-reacting, but somebody somewhere made that FCC up to sell plants.
Probably not this seller, given the cluelessness in other areas.
So, said seller has 64 items for sale, so they obviously do this a lot.
And all of the species are improperly written. I can forgive that,
some people aren't as compulsive as I am. But, if they know enough to
know that "Paph Villosum" comes from Laos (It actually comes from a
somewhat wider range than that...), is it too much to ask for a little
professionalism? If it was just this one person, I'd not even notice,
but almost everybody selling an orchid on e-bay seems to have a complete
disregard for names.
I had to vent... I'd bitch in person, but I'm not registered as an E-bay
user, so I can't. It's that sore tooth again, makes me cranky... *grin*
Rob
--
Rob's Rules:
http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit