It was functional, fair to some extent...Having money would not have been sufficient to acquire what you want...A lot of moving variables and impossible to control...They establish groups of people in chronological order based on color wrist bands that each person got to select from a black box without looking...There were 14-16 groups (unsure how many) I was in group 3...Once your in you can stay in...You were limited to only 3 trees until every group was allowed in...So staying in after selecting 3 trees didn't change the game...the only thing that changed is that after 10 minutes they allowed more groups in... I got in at 10:30 and several dream trees were already gone...by 11:30 mostly everything was sold...What remains were the ok stuff and the $6K plus stuff...All azaleas sold, All Japanese Maples, Beeches Sold...
I was not a fan of the 3 tree limit rule expecially because there were about 2 more trees I wanted but I could not buy them...One hour later they were sold... But these were the rules and i guess it help calibrate the experience for most...I got 100% lucky and did nothing tactical to gain a competitive advantage...Perhaps others had their hands in the cookie jar not me...All luck of the draw...Within this consideration a lot of people were devastated if they drew in a group that was called in late.
