A galanthophile is an enthusiastic collector of snowdrops and judging by the prices some galanthophiles are willing to pay it’s a serious hobby.
One galanthophile has just paid on eBay. The bulb was was bred from a plant discovered in Myddelton House Gardens in Enfield, Middlesex in 2002.
The proceeds of the auction are going to the E A Bowles Society to help conserve the historic garden, but seriously… £375.00 for a single snowdrop bulb – that’s a large amount of money changing hands. The previous record was £265.00 paid for a single snowdrop bulb in 2008.
It doesn’t appear to be unusual though – I ran some figures through the Terapeak research tool and whilst the average price for snowdrop bulbs is £13.98 this one seller has racked up sales of £6,293.00 in the last 90 days. They’ve cornered the market as that represents 50% of all snowdrop sales by value on eBay over the last three months.
If you’ve got some snowdrops in your garden then it’s worth checking out the prices they may fetch on eBay. You’ll need to identify the species you have, but when a single bulb is selling for hundreds of pounds a little research could be well worth the effort.
Many thanks to Griff & Lee from eBay radio for the tip on this story
4 Responses
If you’ve (still) got some snowdrops in your garden then’ …..
….. it may be worth putting up a security fence and hiring in a big pooch …..
Paypal SNAD claims will be fun.
I have a few snowdrops in my garden. Where do I find an expert who can tell one variety of snowdrop from another. After all to me they all look the same.