How To Buy Rare Plants For Cheap Or For Free

Rare and exotic plants are obviously not cheap nor commercially available to the majority of plant lovers. While the “rare plant” market has gotten more accessible and many plants have decreased in price, most species (and now their hybrids) are still quite pricey. For those plant enthusiasts who are on tight budgets or like to shop smart, I’m revealing my secret method to buy rare plants for cheap or for free.

Before we start…

Just so we’re clear, this method will only work with eBay or PayPal for now. And this is NOT a “get rich quick” technique. Like anything in life, if you want something, you have to put in the money or put in the time. This is not a method of instant-gratification and will likely take some time to build up. That being said, let’s get into the details!

Open An Account With Swagbucks

Essentially, we’re using a rewards program to accrue points that can be converted to gift cards. This is why this technique only works with eBay and PayPal. I’m sure there are other rewards programs out there, but I haven’t explored them.

The first thing you want to do is open an account with Swagbucks.

You can do a lot to accrue points, including watching videos, taking surveys, making online purchases through their portal, and playing games.

Download the SwagButton

The SwagButton is an internet browser extension that you can download and install in your browser’s toolbar. It notifies you if the website you are visiting offers cash back or discounts. It also notifies you of SwagCode alerts (which are basically free points that you don’t have to work for).

Acquire Swagbucks

Now that you have created an account, it’s time to start earning those points! As mentioned before, you can do many things to earn those Swagbucks. At the very least, you should collect those Swagcodes and answer the Daily Polls. Both are easy and involve very little time commitment.

Another method that you can use for guaranteed points is as follows:

You can get your FIRST search win of the day using this strategy. Start with the first search (copy and paste the URLs), wait at least 15 seconds between searches and then try the next one. The 5th one will be a win.

http://www.swagbucks.com/g/l/xcq6yq
https://www.swagbucks.com/g/l/6vyye1
https://www.swagbucks.com/g/l/p3btd7
https://www.swagbucks.com/g/l/92x6fl
https://www.swagbucks.com/g/l/1j26i4

On typical days, you can expect to get between 3-5 Swagbucks using this sequence of URLs. However, during special promotional periods or events, you can end up pulling in 10-20 Swagbucks!

Buy eBay or Paypal Gift Cards

Eventually, you’ll accrue enough Swagbucks to redeem for gift cards from eBay or PayPal.

There are many vendors on eBay that sell rare and unusual plants, so using the eBay gift card is pretty straightforward. For PayPal, however, you would have to research your plant vendors to make sure they accept it as a method of payment.

One juicy and helpful tip: Ecuagenera (my favorite rare plant vendor) accepts PayPal payments, so you can easily purchase from their website with your PayPal gift cards!

Both eBay and Paypal gift cards come in many denominations. Choose whatever amount you’d like that’s within range of your accrued Swagbucks. In the following example, I decided to order a $25 eBay gift card.

Buy Your Wishlist Plant!

Now it’s time to collect your reward! This is the funnest part, of course.

For me, I’ve had my eye on some rare and unusual Alocasias, including this one below, the Alocasia Nebula Imperialis.

I purchased my plant from this vendor, who looks to have quite a few species of rare and unusual Alocasias!

The leaves don’t look too spectacular at this stage, but we’ll see how they develop. The leaves are very much like an Alocasia Dragonscale or Alocasia Silver Dragon. Very thick and leather-like, with a quilted, textured surface.

Something I wasn’t expecting were these speckled stems!

To Recap

If you don’t have time to read this entire post, here is everything condensed into a few important steps:

1. Open an account with Swagbucks
2. Download the Swagbutton
3. Acquire Swagbucks
4. Exchange accrued Swagbucks for eBay or PayPal gift cards

And remember, patience is key!