Some of you may have seen this on another forum. For those that have not here is the story in a nut shell:
I visited an out of business bonsai nursery today. The seller was active in bonsai and had the nursery an hour north of me. In 2004 the three hurricanes that hit Florida did some damage to his property and made a general mess of his material. I believe he got overwhelmed and closed and got sidetracked on other things. For whatever reason he wants to liquidate everything for a lump sum. Everything is a lot of stuff, some good, some bad and some dead. A good amount of the bad stuff will need to be rebuilt from a stump but I am prepared to do that. There are some more cutting and smaller nursery pot stuff I didn't shoot as I was getting tired of looking.
Everything goes including benches, cement blocks and such. That is a minus for me as I would pitch it all and build new benches.
I have a purchase price offer range from the 'broker" (some dude on eBay hawking it all and his services to move it). I was not shocked by the number and won't post it as I would like to get a feel from some of the more informed and experienced people here. What would you give for everything you see? I'm looking for frank answers as I am too close to see the big picture. My trip today was informing but didn't help me to think this out.
Here is the link to a set of pages I have built. PLease excuse the photos - I had to hurry and didn't have time to set up a background and get good light. I also didn't get the names of all of the material as it was a lot to see and take in.
What would I do with it if I got it? For now I would move it all to a local nursery I have access to use and get it happier. Repot those that I can now and plan the repot of everything else - it all needs repotting, fertilizer and some TLC. I would more than likely pick the ones I want and slowly offer the remaining stock to local bonsai people. It's a lot of workable material that should be in the hands of people who want to work it and either know how or are willing to learn. I would hope to recoup my investment from selling what I do not keep.
There are several pieces with history - yet to be confirmed. The big pine is an import from what Mr. Kimura believed to be late 1940's, his comments from a workshop with this tree in Atlanta. A couple of the group planting were demo and workshop material from a couple of Mr. Naka visits to Atlanta. There are allegedly photos of all of the trees in said workshops - not that any of those things should effect the price on the trees in such bad shape.
I visited an out of business bonsai nursery today. The seller was active in bonsai and had the nursery an hour north of me. In 2004 the three hurricanes that hit Florida did some damage to his property and made a general mess of his material. I believe he got overwhelmed and closed and got sidetracked on other things. For whatever reason he wants to liquidate everything for a lump sum. Everything is a lot of stuff, some good, some bad and some dead. A good amount of the bad stuff will need to be rebuilt from a stump but I am prepared to do that. There are some more cutting and smaller nursery pot stuff I didn't shoot as I was getting tired of looking.
Everything goes including benches, cement blocks and such. That is a minus for me as I would pitch it all and build new benches.
I have a purchase price offer range from the 'broker" (some dude on eBay hawking it all and his services to move it). I was not shocked by the number and won't post it as I would like to get a feel from some of the more informed and experienced people here. What would you give for everything you see? I'm looking for frank answers as I am too close to see the big picture. My trip today was informing but didn't help me to think this out.
Here is the link to a set of pages I have built. PLease excuse the photos - I had to hurry and didn't have time to set up a background and get good light. I also didn't get the names of all of the material as it was a lot to see and take in.
What would I do with it if I got it? For now I would move it all to a local nursery I have access to use and get it happier. Repot those that I can now and plan the repot of everything else - it all needs repotting, fertilizer and some TLC. I would more than likely pick the ones I want and slowly offer the remaining stock to local bonsai people. It's a lot of workable material that should be in the hands of people who want to work it and either know how or are willing to learn. I would hope to recoup my investment from selling what I do not keep.
There are several pieces with history - yet to be confirmed. The big pine is an import from what Mr. Kimura believed to be late 1940's, his comments from a workshop with this tree in Atlanta. A couple of the group planting were demo and workshop material from a couple of Mr. Naka visits to Atlanta. There are allegedly photos of all of the trees in said workshops - not that any of those things should effect the price on the trees in such bad shape.