Yes! I am sure they did have over 100 before 8:01 a.m. First of all, this is the first time the sale has been done this way. It may need some fine tuning in the future, it may work just fine...time will tell.
There are A LOT of people every year waiting with baited breath for this rhizome sale. This is the biggest sale that I am aware of and everyone is super stoked about it. There are a lot of great irises available, some are quite rare, several people want them. This is really the only fair way to distribute those.
This system is totally automatic as I can see by watching the spreadsheet that there is no preference given to anyone. The people doing the sale, the officers of HIPS and so forth were no where near the first orders processed (and that is only the two or three that I have seen so far). I am certain that there were rhizomes that they wanted that were already sold out.
There is always the second round, several of these people will have gotten what they wanted so there should be a little less competition.
Keep in mind, it is a fundraiser for HIPS. Every attempt is being made to make the process as simple and as fair as possible. This system also gives the purchasers much fresher rhizomes than we have received in the past.
I do like this system much better than in the past. I just whine because I am good at it. I am so very excited that this sale is such an overwhelming success this year!! Bravo to all of those hard working individuals involved.
@DaveinPA I suspect you had a hand in this as well. Job well done.
!
