The package arrives in Miami on a Tuesday, twelve hours later than promised. Inside are forty bare-root Anthurium: a dozen luxurians, eight papillilaminum from a known clone, fifteen seed-grown dressleri that may or may not turn out to be dressleri, and five mystery sectionals labeled only with a grower's initials and a number. The broker who consolidated the box has already been paid. The importer who phyto-cleared it is about to be. The hobbyist in Ohio who wired $4,200 three weeks ago is refreshing a tracking page and chewing the inside of his cheek.
Somewhere in this chain, value is being created. Somewhere else in it, value is just being moved around and taxed. The hard part — for buyers, for sellers, for the broker himself when he's honest — is telling which is which.