Tips for Buying your first San Pedro Cactus in 2021

You've read about them, you've seen pictures, and now you want your very own. Here are some tips on buying San Pedro cacti like Echinopsis/Trichocereus peruvianus, pachanoi, bridgesii/lageniformis etc in 2021.

If you are online, which, by reading this you must be, you likely have some sort of marketplace app available to you. There are reasons to and not to use each one. I am not claiming to be an expert, just a guy who collects cacti and doesn't live anywhere near their native or naturalized range (except for my homie Opuntia humifusa, only cactus native to my home state!). 

I highly recommend feeling relatively confident in IDing cacti to help you out in this process. I'll be updating my infographics soon because there are just so many ways to slice and dice data and information, and the more you learn, unlearn, relearn, repeat, the more I want to clarify some of what I've learned and presented in the past, and provide more detail. That said, they're a pretty decent resource in terms of learning some key characteristics to look for when IDing cacti. 

In terms of San Pedro cacti, generally we're speaking of Pachanoi, Peruvianus and Bridgesii/Lageniformis. These are the ones that, at the time of writing, have known historic use by pre-columbian native andean people. Those in-the-know are aware of the numerous and passionate debates that one can make to include more species, crosses, etc in this. In my opinion, those people are correct. That said, the wide variety of collection locations, phenotypes, etc, it's easy to get lost in the weeds there.

At the end of the day, you're just looking to get a San Pedro cactus. Not for consumption, of course! Just because they're beautiful, and you want to know you're getting a real one. I gotchu friend. Here are my experiences:

Marketplaces:

1. Etsy

As you probably know, or maybe you don't, I sell art on Etsy, so I'll start with that as I have experience as a buyer and a seller there, and also to include that link above which is good for SEO (want web-based marketing tips? I've got'm lol)

Honestly, I think Etsy in 2021 is crap for buying San Pedro Cacti. I find very reasonably priced other cacti that I like, like Obregonia Denegrii, my first Eastern Prickly Pears (shoutout to JerseyCacti) and even sometimes well-priced Ariocarpus. Lots of interesting seeds on there too. I would say it's worth at least looking, because sometimes you find something pretty rare and nice in the Trichocereus world, but don't get your hopes up. 
This could change. As an art-seller, and it's my first time doing selling online, I've found it to be an easy platform to deal with from the web app to the mobile seller app. If they are to be believed, they account for a lot of my SEO. That said, there's maybe a reason why there are few listings if any, and perhaps they don't like the idea of our favorite columnar being sold on their platform because they, idk, hate notches. Let's go with that. 
The other thing holding them back is the % of 'promoted' results that make up the search results. It's just too many, and often times it's a stretch as to how they are really related to your query. They're marked as such, promoted, but still it's annoying to go through with it. I advertised my art for a moment I believe but since I am sick of those myself I believe I shut it off. I'm not against them entirely but it's definitely too much for now. 

Go-to search terms:
echinopsis
cactus

2. eBay

In my opinion, eBay is the best overall marketplace for San Pedro cacti for a number of reasons. There are always listings of anywhere between rough looking grafting stock and pristine specimen worthy of a collector's shelf.
A number of well-known cactus sellers are on the platform and will occasionally drop a lot of beautiful cuts that will get snapped up pretty quickly. Because of that, I tend to search for things using Newly Listed. I also prefer Buy-it-now listings because I am very fragile and I don't like to bid, personally. That said, some really nice cuts go for auction only all the time, so a combo of auction/ending soonest is good to check too. You can spend a long time on ebay looking at cacti in general, there are just, so many. Not just trichos either, like Etsy, it's a good place to look for unique and rare specimen at good (and sometimes so ridiculously bad) prices. 

Overall, again, Ebay is my preferred marketplace for the combination of available cuts, prices and ease of use as I already have an ebay account, eBay automates all the shipping emails etc, and I've found some of the best stuff on eBay, like my Pachanoi "Helmut"

go-to settings: buy it now + newly listed ; auction + ending soonest 
go-to search terms:
echinopsis
tricho
trich0
pach
cactus

3. Reddit

There are a number of subreddits dedicated to San Pedro cacti, Trichocereus cacti, etc. Like with most plants that grow and split easily, that have a cult following, a lot of the posters are also sellers, traders, etc. /r/sanpedrocactusforsale/ is the main subreddit where I have seen a solid attempt to ensure quality control, enforced by their moderators and review process. The 'trusted vendors' are always ready to sell nice rare cuts. Expect to pay a bit more than you would see on ebay. A lot of the people on ebay are just 'people who happen to have huge cacti stands and sell them' whereas these sellers specifically raise and sell these cacti as a labor of love, which takes in more costs. My point is, don't argue with them, if the price is out of your range, save up and get it later, or ask if they have anything smaller or less expensive. Maybe they don't, that's ok, there will always be a cactus for you in your price range, you just need to find the right person. If you want a named clone from someone that cares about their cacti, and will passionately tell you exactly which nutrients they do and don't use, go with Reddit

go-to subreddit: /r/sanpedrocactusforsale/

Instagram/Facebook:

Fuck Facebook. Instagram is owned by FB and I don't trust them either. If you're a seller reading thing and you only sell on those platforms, diversify.
"But SanPedroPrints, you're on IG, and you sell stuff on there sometimes too" 
fair criticism. 
my response to that would be that my IG definitely helps drive interested parties to my actual sales channel, which is etsy, but I would not use IG as my sales channel exclusively because they're historically shady with how they present content. 
That said, I really would not recommend buying on insta or FB unless it's from a very well known cactus person.

4. Individual cactus seller websites
I sometimes buy my cacti online nurseries or specific sellers. That said, it's a lot of what is in stock at the time. Most seem to all accept modern pay solutions like google pay, etc, so that's been very convient. I don't have anything bad to say about any specific sellers, they can be hard to find, and sometimes they're out of stock.