I am pretty sure the price bubble on
blooming size Paph sanderianum plants in the USA is about 8 years from
bursting. :-)

Agreed!

Actually sanderianum flasks have come way down in recent times. I remember when
Doc Charles was first making these flasks (some of which are still in flask
almost 20 years later!) and he and others were finding out how tough this was
going to be. Apparently there are some tricks that have been learned, but in
the early days anyone who was having luck with sanderianum from seed was
keeping it a secret.

In the late 1980s, Orchid House had flasks of 5 seedlings for $250 per flask
and that was the reigning bargain at the time.

And when Orchid Zone first offered their sanderianums, the price I was quoted
was a mere $40 per inch from one of the retailers they supplied.

In the most recent Orchid Inn list, a new sanderianum sibling cross is now
$300- not sure if the others are left and have been discounted too though.

Heck just look at rothschildianum. Back when those were $10 per inch, the
Tonkins had greenhouses full of the things to bring to bloom. So did a few
other growers seeking to get some good breeding stock.

What I have often wondered is what happened to the 1,000s of plants that did
not make the grade with some of these growers.

Either way, rothschildianum is now probably the most common Paph around!
Everyone has some of their own and some to sell. And prices are much lower too.
These days a BS seedling from an FCC sibling will cost you $200 at most. 10
years ago a jungle collected plant could easily cost $1,000-2,000 per growth.

I am not sure sanderianum will ever get that cheap unless the germination
techniques can be improved, but I definitely agree that the $2,000-5,000
current going rate for a BS seedling will crash dramatically in a few years
time- and we will have by that point even better sibling crosses to choose
from.

Tom.