I have been pretty disappointed with my eBay orchid purchases.

There is one seller of Paph rothschildianum (I prefer to say roth to save
space, but thought better of it after the first post on this topic ) and
similar seedlings with very good items. I also picked up some great Puppentanz
in spike last spring on eBay- but this was a private seller thinning an excess
collection, not an ongoing eBay seller for profit.

but among my other purchases have been,

"NBS" rothschildianums with 10-12 inch leaf spans and atrocious (ie almost
non-existent) root systems- one of them by its growth habit clearly one of
those 10 year old plants that just never managed to get to blooming size.

Flasks of "20-30" seedlings with far fewer- one I still have yet to compot out
actually has 8 seedlings and a few more shoots barely past the protocorm stage.
That was an extreme case, but I have yet to have a flask live up to
expectations unless it came from a certain someone in Florida who offers great
stuff.

"NBS" Slc. seedlings that were fresh out of flask.

And I can attest to the fact that more than one retailer is grumbling about
their sanderianum flasks being sold as single seedlings on eBay as
"established" mere weeks after the flasks were shipped by the retailer.

Definitely a place to trod with care when it comes to orchids. You get what you
pay for and these days I stick to commercial sites I know and trust.

And I think the same is probably true of other hobbyists in general. Otherwise
we would be seeing a lot more serious offerings on eBay for quality orchids.

Tom.