I’m in Virginia, US and we have been saturated for a while, seeing lower prices than a lot of other places. It’s really been a buyer’s market for the better part of a year, but I could still hustle locally and sell cuttings/plants. This isn’t my main job, but a side hustle I use to support my hobby.
I feel like many are getting burnt out or financially can’t afford it- I asked a couple other local sellers and they have noticed the same. For a while, it seemed like no one wanted to buy things that were more than like $10- same mofos that had no qualm about dropping $200+ on an albo cutting two years ago. Now, very little purchasing and I’m seeing more purges than ever.
I’ve tried national FB groups, Palmstreet, etc but it’s really hard to get views/get seen. What has your experience been like as a seller?
Photo is of one of my plant cabinets that just got new lights.
by sarcastabtch
10 Comments
Europe is booming.
Post Covid slump. Like the cycling industry. At least in cycling you can’t put your bike in water and turn it into two bikes…
It’s evolving. BVP Alocasia and several rare Philo varieties are just starting to sky rocket in availability. Still having luck selling insanely rare stuff like my Alocasia Venom babies or Variegated Crystallium cuttings. But the market has shifted severely away from Monsteras.
It’s summer, a lot of people don’t have time for plants right now. I personally think it’s a lot some days to care for my plant collections inside and outside plus my vegetable garden and my regular garden.
The local market near me sucks right now. Plus the main group I’m in is filled with pothos and peperomia collectors and are still into PPP’s 😂. Kinda hard to sell my anthurium seedlings, they think I’m talking about alocasia 🙄 haha.
I’m in Maryland, everything is still dummy expensive 🙄
Have you tried selling on r/TakeAPlantLeaveAPlant ? You would have to ship, but I’ve seen people set up for local meets.
I just bought a bigger house, so I’m adding more plants to my collection, much to my husband’s chagrin. Still plenty of people buying in my neck of the woods.
Moved from VA to CO a year ago; the plant market here has held up somewhat compared to VA but it’s for external reasons. Lots of people moving here from out of state that have left their plants behind and start over here. But there’s also a mix of new hobbyists that don’t know how much to pay for plants. How well things sell is REALLY dependent on who sees your posts.
I’ve found more success from selling in local plant groups rather than just posting on FB Marketplace. Plants differ in popularity/when they reach popularity in different cities; the price of a monstera albo has held up in CO, but less so in VA. Var. Philo Burle Marx are a dime a dozen here, but still fetch a decent price in VA (at least from what friends have said).
But yeah ultimately the local markets are tanking due to oversaturation.
This is generally a slow time for me because a significant amount of people are also growing vegetables and have a lot on their plate. It usually picks up again after plants go back inside and then you have all the big sales, Christmas, valentines, Mother’s Day, etc after spring it’s kinda slow, like all agriculture there is an ebb and flow.
Im in Canada and I started collecting plants since I was a little kid and once the pandemic hit, I was surprised how collecting plants became a trend and I was able to sell so many plants I accumulated over the years. Plants were so expensive like I could sell a boring golden pothos at 15$ that wasn’t very big and I’d have to ask for reservation deposits because it was insane lol. I eventually made so much that it helped me to afford to move abroad for a while it was crazy and unexpected. I noticed after that most people were just into plants so they could make some money and nowadays they all abandoned because it wasn’t worth the hustle and many didn’t have a green thumb to keep their stuff alive anyway.
Now, I can’t even sell a plant for more than 5$ , and ppl still ask for discounts🤣. But I grow plants for the fun because it’s a coping mechanism I developed as a kid being basically abandoned by my mum and having to deal with a mentally abusive “step mother” almost my entire life. Plants were the things that made me feel important.