I buy mail order all the time but I have a list of fav sellers that I have had consistently good experiences with. Jim, you can always ask me if you want to know about sellers I like. There is a learning curve, but I pay close attention on ebay to the number of sales and the reviews. Larry's is on my never buy list. I have had bad experiences with Ecuagenera when they ship from a show to here (too much time on the road), but good experiences buying from them at shows. Pre-ordering is a great idea. I have had my very best experiences with South American orchids by buying from northeast US sellers who have grown the plants for a year. That way they are acclimated to North America. As far as Andy's, I have had mostly very good experiences with mail order. The best plant I bought was a specimen size laelia for a reasonable price. I would buy mail order from Santa Barbara constantly but their shipping is exorbitant. So I make a big order every 5 years. When I was running the orchid cubit, I had a thread about Santa Barbara's packing job. They send plants in flower so well!
