Is the work worth the $59 price?

sorce

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mostly for the theme song

Followed strongly by the need to see your fashion on the big screen!

Ally Dukes!

So much you give to society!

Sorce
 

Adair M

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I never watched the show. But from what little I know about it the best part of the show was the girl in the short shorts.
 

music~maker

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Smoke has a good point on this but there is another way to look at these type of trees, at least for me. While smokes point is from a professional point of view. What do you want from this tree and ones like it. I bought one very similar to this that was 250$ marked down to 50$. It has a few flaws like this but it's for my enjoyment and see what I can do with it. Granted you may need to ground grow, layer, graft or any other number of techniques. For me I love working on raw material, as much as finished material that smoke likes.

Not dissing smoke in the least, but what I'm saying is, even though at some point you will want more finished or rough stock grown for bonsai, regardless of price. Reaching that level, knowing what to look for in material when browsing nursery material, and I can't truly say I'd buy this without seeing it in real life, you may always have material like this because it's enjoyable to work on finished bonsai in a pricy pots and cheap material in plastic pots.(run on)

To me working on something worth my time is everything I collect or buy, EVERYTHING, no exception. To say "worth my time" means actually knowing what you buy and if you have the time to give the tree the respect it needs. I have somewhere around 50 trees and know my limit so I make sure I have time for anything new I pick up. So everything is worth my time, it's just that I enjoy material like this and what it can bring to me.

So I think I just pretty much agreed with smoke but in a more confused way, and I think I'd buy the tree too.

Well next time I'll post after I read that they gyped you. Good for thought I guess. Maybe go back and get a stupid employee to ring you up lol

My thoughts are similar. While Smoke as usual makes very good points, I enjoy trees that I can learn from as much as trees that will become showpieces.

With every tree I acquire, I try very hard to see the path forward before I buy it. Obviously, my preference is to buy things that I think can eventually become excellent, but I'm not averse to buying some clunkers here and there to practice on as long as I feel I can positively improve them.

Given limited time and resources, it's not always possible to find the most optimal material at any given point in time. But I do know this - if I can take something like drew33998 posted and spend 4-5 years turning it into something worth 3-4x what I paid for it, and learn a lot in the process, then it's often worth it to me. Especially if it's a species I haven't worked with much yet, or is suitable for a particular technique that I want to practice. I'd rather start there and gain some experience on it before delving into higher priced material. Often, I'll start with something like this, and then the following season or two later, pick up some more of the same species and use what I learned with the first one to better work the second.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not regularly throwing crap onto the compost pile, and I'm usually pretty careful with every tree I get. I don't buy "burner trees". I try to improve every tree I get, and keep it alive and healthy, and I often work material slower than I need to just to ensure this. Good maples are quite expensive where I live, and not nearly as abundant as they are elsewhere, so you take the deals when you can get them. At $189 it's not an amazing deal, but at $59, it would have been a no-brainer. There's no doubt in my mind that I could turn this into at least a $200 tree and learn a lot from it in the process.

Smoke, the trees you posted as counter examples are awesome, but they aren't the only possible maple style that are good. This starts to get very subjective here, but I've seen plenty of trunk-chopped trees that I've found quite interesting over the years, and I've been growing out a maple trunk from scratch over the past five years that started with a chop that I think will be quite interesting eventually. It's still got a long way to go, but the experience I've gained by doing that has been invaluable, even if I never chop another trunk again. And again, for me the learning I gain in the process is invaluable and mostly the point.

There is a lot to be learned by growing out a trunk and the major branches from scratch and I think every serious student should try it at least once. If you can find a trunk like this to try it on for only $59, then for me, the right answer is "shut up and take my money". :) It's kind of moot in this case because the tree was priced wrong, but I think the underlying point is still valid.
 

Paulpash

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I wasn't aware that Oregon is so prominent - you just never hear it said much on these forums... mostly California
 

Adair M

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Michael Hagedorn and Ryan Neal are in Oregon. Telperion Farms is there. They're forming. "Bonsai Village" in Portland, Oregon. The Artisan's Cup was in Oregon.

It's becoming a hotbed of Bonsai.
 

Smoke

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Michael Hagedorn and Ryan Neal are in Oregon. Telperion Farms is there. They're forming. "Bonsai Village" in Portland, Oregon. The Artisan's Cup was in Oregon.

It's becoming a hotbed of Bonsai.
Interesting how you put this together. Pretty much based on one thing and one thing only.....trees collected by Randy Knight. Take away Randy Knight and the whole bonsai paradise goes away. Interesting how one anonymous phone call to the right environmental group could turn Oregon into a bonsai Nuclear Winter....
 

garywood

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Interesting how you put this together. Pretty much based on one thing and one thing only.....trees collected by Randy Knight. Take away Randy Knight and the whole bonsai paradise goes away. Interesting how one anonymous phone call to the right environmental group could turn Oregon into a bonsai Nuclear Winter....
Al, I "think" Hagedorn only has one Randy Knight collected tree in his collection. He collects also. I think all collectors would probably be affected by the same phone call since they all collect, all over the west.
 

Smoke

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Al, I "think" Hagedorn only has one Randy Knight collected tree in his collection. He collects also. I think all collectors would probably be affected by the same phone call since they all collect, all over the west.
May be, but my point for Adair was that it could have easily have been Utah or Colorado , but Oregon already had an established collector in Randy Knight there, thus the pilgrimage.
 

Adair M

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May be, but my point for Adair was that it could have easily have been Utah or Colorado , but Oregon already had an established collector in Randy Knight there, thus the pilgrimage.
Colorado has Larry Jackel collecting there. And he has for a while.

Where is Golden Arrow located? I don't think it's Oregon.

Telperion Farms is a grower, not a collector.
 

Adair M

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Al, you're right that Randy is a large part of the Oregon bonsai scene.
 

Smoke

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Colorado has Larry Jackel collecting there. And he has for a while.

Where is Golden Arrow located? I don't think it's Oregon.

Telperion Farms is a grower, not a collector.
Al, you're right that Randy is a large part of the Oregon bonsai scene.
I like it when you figure out that your making my point.....
 
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