should i buy this Zelkova? help identify?

[trigo]

Im thinking of buying this Zelkova, the seller says it has approximately 20 years.
5,5 inch of trunk base and 18,5 inches high without the pot.

So what do you guys think? the seller is asking for 400 usd (converting from my country currency) how much would you pay? Also what variety of zelkova is this?

 

[trigo]

 

[Kanorin]

Looks like some type of cork bark elm rather than zelkova.

 

[BobbyLane]

yes its cork bark elm. I wouldnt buy it, has an odd shape.

 

[trigo]

Looks like some type of cork bark elm rather than zelkova.

yes its cork bark elm. I wouldnt buy it, has an odd shape.

chinese cork bark elm? i liked the shape, but if it is not a zelkova, im not confident in this seller anymore
how much do you think it is worth? maybe i could try to haggle the price down.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I don’t mind the shape but man…. Maybe 200.

 

[Kanorin]

chinese cork bark elm? i liked the shape, but if it is not a zelkova, im not confident in this seller anymore
how much do you think it is worth? maybe i could try to haggle the price down.

Yes, one of the varieties (there are a handful) of cork bark Chinese elm.
Pricing is so subjective. I’d be suspicious about the seller too. If the pictures aren’t hiding any additional flaws, I could see this going for 200 or so. But it seems like the seller is trying to get away with something. Maybe ask for some more pictures with a ruler in them. I assume this is a mail order and you can’t view the tree in person.

 

[namnhi]

5.5 inches trunk for 400 bucks doesn't seem excessive to me if you like elms. I don't so I will not pay that much for something I don't like

 

[Shibui]

Seems there are a lot of vendors labelling Chinese elm as zelkova. We have discussed this before. It is too common for the individual vendors to be making mistakes so possibly the wholesaler is mis labelling?
Someone suggested the mis label may be intentional because zelkova sounds more interesting than Chinese elm???

No scale in the photo so hard to decide how large the trunk is but based on leaf size it looks pretty thick. A couple of super thick branches and bad wire marks devalue it a bit for me.

 

[TomB]

There's no reason to be suspicious of this. Chinese elms are very frequently deliberately mislabelled as Zelkovas in the nursery trade, to get round import restrictions. It's likely to have been originally imported under that name.

 

[rockm]

There's no reason to be suspicious of this. Chinese elms are very frequently deliberately mislabelled as Zelkovas in the nursery trade, to get round import restrictions. It's likely to have been originally imported under that name.

Agree. Happens a lot here in the U.S. That mislabeling persists as resellers buy trees to sell the public. Many resellers have no idea of that mislabeling, so it's not really not a deal ender. $400 is a bit steep for this tree I think.

 

[Paradox]

Yea I'd agree, $400 is a bit much imo

 

[leatherback]

Too much money imho. I think the trunk suffers from a risk of inverse taper.

For reference, this is what I got for about 1/3 of that:

 

[trigo]

i will try to speak with the seller and get the price down, thank you everyone.