The 25th Anniversary

New York International Orchid Show

Rockefeller Center

Tuesday April 12th through Sunday April 17th, 2005

Hours: Tuesday 12pm to 5pm

Wednesday through Saturday 9am to 9pm

Sunday 9am to 5pm

To download a list of vendors that will be selling at the show, click here for Rockefeller Center’s Adobe Acrobat PDF file: Vendor List

There is no admission to get into the Vendor area. There is a $5.00 admission to get into the show’s displays.

**update**

I’ve updated the dates and times of the show, along with the vendor list and admission because I’ve been getting a lot of visits from people doing a search on Google for the show. The Greater New York Orchid Society did not update their website with this information this year. I found out from my friends over at the Orchid forum at GardenWeb (link below) that the Rockefeller Center website was the one with all the info. Here’s a link to their site: Rockefeller Center website click on the Events box on the right side.

**end update**

I just found out about this show last year from my friends over at the Gardenweb Orchid forum. Wow, what a show. I went prepared with my camera, lots of film, and my porter (my boyfriend Rusty).

I took tons of pictures at the show and purchased the following:

Brassia Rex
Lc. Morning Glory x self
Lc. Memoria Robert Strait ‘Blues’
Phal Brother Goldsmith
Cym ‘Geyserland’ (Valley King x Blue Smoke)

I decided to post about this show tonight because my accountant just called me and told me what my our tax returns are this year. I love tax time, don’t you?!

We’ll have enough money to buy a new orchidarium because I have run out of room in my old terrarium and I can’t go to this show without buying some orchids. We’ll also have enough to purchase the Nikon D70 digital camera we have had our eyes on for quite some time. Plus a few thousand left over for the savings account.

Did I say that I love tax time?

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Years ago when I first started really getting into photography, I got an interesting envelope in the mail. It was interesting because it had one of my photos printed right on the front.

When I read the material inside, I was surprised to find that my photo had been entered in a contest! I had never submitted anything, but I went to the website, and sure enough, there it was.

I read about the prize money and having my photo published in a book with all the other semi-finalists. But being the skeptic that I am regarding unsolicited online contacts, I did a Google search and soon found out that the whole thing was a scam.

They prey on people’s need for admiration. Your picture could be the biggest piece of crap out there but if you took it, and someone else says it’s good, you’ll start to believe it. Especially if they want to give you prize money and publish it.

Picture.com gets their money by duping people into buying the book containing their photo. Many people buy more than one. And they don’t stop there… They have affiliated sites for poetry contests too. I seem to remember the book being over $30.00. And there are reports of many people paying for their books and never receiving them.

Don’t be fooled, these people have been around for a long time and apparently doing quite well scamming people. Still.

 edited July, 2007

I’m very happy to see people finding this blog when checking these bastards out.  I’m not saying your photos are crap, they could be very good.  I’m saying that they count on your own pride in your photo.

I, too, wonder how it’s possible that these people are still around.  I want to do more investigating and see if I can bring their tactics to the attention of sites like Consumerist.com, that have a wide readership.  It’s people like us who can minimize the damage these scam artist can do by informing people.  Feel free to link back here from your own homepage so we can tell as many people as possible.

Thanks, and keep shooting pictures!

Trish

edited/added December, 2007

If you’re finding this post too late, you do still have recourse. This is a link to the Better Business Bureau’s page on Picture.com and Poetry.com. If you’ve already given them your money, you can file a complaint. Also if the charge has not gone through on your credit card, call your company and tell them you don’t want these bastards to have your money.

Spurred by my anger at the email Hex was kind enough to copy and paste below, I’ve just emailed tips@consumerist.com to alert them to picture.com, this blog, and your comments. If I ever get contacted back, please include in your comment whether you would or would not mind being contacted to re-tell your story.

If nothing comes from this, I’ll dig a bit deeper and see what else I can come up with.

Thanks again for all your comments!

Trish

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If you’re looking to purchase computer hardware online, there’s a ton of places to choose from. What I’ve learned over the years, purchasing for personal and business reasons, is that cheaper isn’t necessarily better.

A good friend Steve told me about Reseller Ratings and I’ve referred to it so much, I wanted to share. Take, for example, a terrible but popular online vendor, Tiger Direct. They are, in my experience, the worst of the worst. If you check them out on Reseller Ratings, you’ll find a fairly low score with tons of negative reviews.

Now take my favorite online vendor, New Egg. They have a very high rating with many positive reviews. That means even more when you consider that people are more apt to only post a review when they’re dissatisfied. I think NewEgg has a loyal following in the geek community and when it comes to price and service, they don’t screw around.

I could go on and on about Tiger, maybe another time. All you need is to read some of those bad reviews and their many complaints with the Better Business Bureau and just consider that they’re all true. The prices may look good on their site, but their service is what makes them bad.

Whenever I get the chance, I always take time to read and write reviews on products or services. We can all protect each other if we all do it.

Trish

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