I have never heard of a buyer of an awarded plant receiving the original certificate. Cant imagine anyone wanting a certificate with someone else's name on it...but hey, I have seen some crazy stuff being sold in Ebay
As noted above- the original plastic tag that gets affixed to the plant was what I really wanted in terms of originals, and got that and so all is well. But I was curious if it was customary for the other documentation to come along (in original form) with regards to quality awards since they are technically to the plant.
To give some backstory here since things might have changed since I was last dealing in plants at this level- back in the 90s in high school when I was repping for Carmela at shows and growing on my own, I was giving serious consideration to making orchids a side living right after college- a step which I ended up deferring until now.
At that time, and in the years preceding, mericloning was really getting widespread and much of the public was not yet aware of the perils of overdoing it and having resultant populations that bore little resemblance to original plants. And so Phalaenopsis stem props continued to sell for quite a premium (I was growing Phals at the time and the plant I refer to in this post is a Phalaenopsis).
While I would not say it was common, it was not infrequent for some commercial growers to stem prop mericlones, and then sell the stem props at the going rates for stem props from original plants- without disclosing that they were propping mericlones. Some admitted it privately, and sometimes it was obvious when the plants flowered.
In any event, I have commercial purposes in mind for this plant- ergo my desire to have as much documentation as possible that I do in fact own the original plant. It could matter at some point when and if people ask.