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Plants - 1000% price difference. Why?

idris

idris

Member
Joined
3 Jan 2011
Messages
816
Location
Herts
I've been looking at different websites to order plants from and am surprised that the prices seem to vary by 1o times.
For example:
Vallisneria Gigantea from supplier A £0.95
Vallisneria Gigantea from supplier B £9.14

Hopefully there must be a good reason for this, but assuming you don't get 10 times more plants from supplier B, what makes their plants worth 10 times more than those from supplier A?
 
I bet I know who supplier B is hahaha

Sometimes there is a major difference, I mean from some ebay seller itl be a clay potted no roots small bunch jobby and then a tropica pot will be much much better quality and quantity, perhaps not enough to warrent a 10pound pot.



I went in to ADC and they wanted close to 8pound for a moody pot of P.helferi, and that's what the code told them there supposed to sell them at...

I then went into pets at home and picked up a pot of overflowing HC and a pot of P.helferi double the size and just as good quality for 8pounds.

some companies just wish to punish the people that actually support a hobby that pays there wage lol.

Where's Garuf?? I met his batsense is going of the radar with all this over priced plants talk.....:D
 
You get what you pay for.. :)

I have bought plants from most suppliers, no names needed :), but I have found that a Tropica pot has very good return for money. I go to ADC on Friday's, as their plants get there on Thursday's and always get good plants. Pets at home actually has really good plants.

But you get what you pay for, it usually is cheaper for a reason. :)
 
I agree with Luis. You do get what you pay for, if I was paying under 2.50 for a pot of anything I'd expect to get something that is below average condition and/or little quantity.


Expect to pay at least 3.50 for OK or 'average' quality and quantity and for the rarer or harder species slightly more...understandably. I just fink over 6.50 for a black plastic potted plant is excessive, maybe I'm tight. I know retailers need to make money but I feel if plants where cheaper people would be more inclined to rescape more often, buy more in the initial plant out and proberly have more than one tank set up meaning more plant sales,

But what do I no, I'm just a shmuck electrician what do I no about running a successful plant distribution shop
 
Ok, so you get better quality. But that's a very abstract concept. What makes them better?
And when I've just spent best part of £X00 on a new custom made tank and all the gubbins to go in it, I'm struggling to see why spending £200 and have "good" (common) plants makes more sense than spending £40 on twice as many plants and having to replace half of them in a few months.

I'm not trying to bash any particular company, I'm just trying to understand the price difference.
 
I agree what many are saying here and I think you've just got to try for yourself to a degree.
I.e. Buy the main plants, the ones that are most important to your display from the supplier B, paying through the nose on 2 or 3 plants that are very important to your tank layout. The chances are you'll be so happy with the product you'll soon forget the expense.
Then spend the same or even half as much with supplier A and get lots of plants to look through and perhaps not use them all but benefit from choice on both quality and product will prove useful to you. This gives you the chance when ordering to choose a few unusual items that you've not seen in the shops perhaps, and it allows you to pick and choose without breaking the bank.
Each supplier has it's merit in my book, and an online retailer doesn't need to make as much money and also doesn't have customers viewing and criticising poor plants, so offering the cheap stuff with people being less offended if they get one or two dodgy specimens isn't a huge risk.
Whereas the shop with all the overheads who need to make money to stay there, they have to find the balance of great plants(expensive, but customers see that they do get what they're paying for and appreciate it) or taking a risk on lesser quality plants but still needing to make a decent profit so unable to slash prices to compete with some online companies. This means a middle of the road price and some good plants, some not so good. If I had a shop Id be leaning toward the quality expensive plants for sure.

At the end of the day, for a business, the problem is 'you can't please all the people all the time'

I've bought at both ends of the scale and would use both suppliers again when I need to.

One thing to remember here is 'aquascapers' make up a small amount of folk in this hobby. Most people setting up a planted tank for their living room really don't wish to start re planting in a month or two. So the other way to look at it is why spend all that money on a tank and hardware to decorate it with poor plants that need major care and time to develop, when spending alot more (but still nothing in the scheme of things) can offer a big finished display that makes you stand back and just smile :)
 
I've just planted the Mini M. I was going to get maybe 6 pots of Tropica plants, and spend about £40. I then decided to try out a couple of new suppliers (one was Aquafleur, one was some other import). I got 10 pots for £26 posted (that's 2 sets of postage), and the only bad thing were 2 pots of yellow Glosso that they offered to replace for me anyway without me asking. I'd much rather pay almost half as much and receive 40% more although admittedly they're not Tropica (but still perfectly good enough). The gamble has paid off, and I'll be using both again. I doubt I'll buy Tropica from now on, as it doesn't make sense for me. If you can afford to though, go ahead and you won't be disappointed with quality. It's quite interesting having looked at both Aquadip and Tropica's wholesale price lists.... From what I remember, you can get a pack of 6 Aquadip plants for the price of your average wholesale Tropica plant so it's not the retailer's fault.
 
At present I only buy Tropica if nobody else supplies the same plant - for example, Vallis Mini Twister is seemingly only available from Tropica. I've usually had excellent 'quantity' from a Tropica pot vs other brands, however once or twice I have been disappointed on that front which does begin to put you off slightly given the price premium.
 
All very good interesting points made,

My final comment,

If you can afford it, Tropica, simply because if you order them from TGM they will be very good quality above average quantity and shipping is fast and customer service very good, BUT You do pay a big difference for all that.

If you can't afford it ( or justify it (o yourself ) go with one of the sites such as plantedtank, from reading Toms journal the comunication shipping and quality and quantity seem OK

With sick plants you will spend more time nursing them better before they start to grow, delaying your tank, possibly ammonia leeching from dead leaves and stems ( I think that's right ) so you've managed to plant it out on the cheap, but have patience if you haven't got benjamins .

Good luck broseph
 
Quick note

I didn't compare TGM to PlantedTank to say these two companies are either end of the spectrum, far from it...it does seem plantedtanks is getting a very good name and reputation for itself, and will be who I plant out my next tank with.


Thanks

•there is a post on the previous page also.
 
Just thought I would add that some suppliers also sell the plants in differing amounts. For example, they might sell vallis as either potted, bunched or individual. So to compare £0.95 to £9.14 might not be looking at the whole picture and not a direct comparison :)

I tend to buy Aquaflue if possible, as the quality is often as good as Tropica, but about half the price :)

Sam
 
I usually just ask in the sales section for a donation or a swap :) works out even cheaper :p

I have always purchased my plants at ADC not realizing they were the best (Tropica) until I joined this forum. So can't really complain, MA also sell aquafleur and they usually of good quality also.
 
foxfish said:
While on this subject - wouldn't it be nice if we could buy plants that have been grown underwater & already acclimatised to our tank conditions?
Click to expand...
We already do that to some extent when we buy/obtain plants from other members ;)
Now to your tank conditions will be impossible as one tank differs from the other on many aspects ;)
 
Yeah Ok but I was talking about a wholesaler supplying a retailer with plants that have been acclimatised to underwater conditions & it was a generalisation referring to tank conditions.
I know the reason are based around supplying algae free plants at a reasonable cost & growing plants underwater would be considerably more expensive - however it would be nice :)
 
I'm not going to post my opinions on this, asking me anything on this sort of subject means I instantly tread a very thin line.

Foxfish the issue with what you say is that it means the plants aren't as strong or as able to react and you can get much higher levels of melt/difficulties Especially if you're running less of something key.

As much as I like using the forum for plants I sort of feel bad about it because if I can't afford the plants in the first place I shouldn't rely on other peoples kindness to get plants, I often think with the size of my wallet I shouldn't be in the hobby at all!

The price of plants is disproportionate across the board and you get what you pay for but in this economic climate when everything costs more as a hobby we need to address this if we want to grow/keep people in the hobby. It's off putting to a newbie nowing that the best plants they can't afford or those they can afford will make their life more difficult in the long run which is a real shame.
 
After gratefully reading all the above, visiting a several LFSs, and cross-referencing various websites (including the pictures and text that online retailers use - they don't make it easy for you!!!) I'm starting to get a better picture of the price difference.

From what I can see the main differences I hadn't appreciated are:
1 - mark-up by retailers
2 - cost from different wholesalers
3 - size of portions (which I'm still trying to get a sense of)
4 - (and I think this is the most easily understood aspect for a noob) pots vs bunches.
This still leaves a price difference of over 300%, but at least it's starting to make some sense.

FWIW I suspect for my first planted tank I'm going to opt for 70% cheaper plants and get a few more.
 
I suspect the cost of heating greenhouses and controlled hydroponic systems in a colder northern country such Holland is rather more expensive to maintain then 'farming' plants in bulk in the east where no artificial conditions are necessary. They've started growing cheaper flowers in Africa then in Holland for the same reason.
 
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