AusBonsai

This tree has just come back to me after being held for a considerable time. It was collected 5 years ago not 4. It is a Melaleuca rhaphiophylla.
It has had minimal amount of work. It is almost as it was when collected so it is a natural style ( shizengi ). Tomorrow I will add a new picture as some thinning has been done. Pup remember discussion. Pup

you see...this is where it gets difficult putting a price on something, although the tree may be many many years old it has only been in training for so long. even if it is minimal training its training none the less, where someone (pup in this instance) has put time and effort into the tree. not only the constant care involved in looking after a tree, whether its in a plastic stock pot or in a bonsai pot, theres other factors to consider. yes its only been trained for 5 years but it has been field grown(or wild) for how many? how do you put a price on that? yamadori is always considered to be more expensive isnt it?
constant feeding, wire (if used), soils etc. all these need to be taken into account. whether its from a nursery or private sale. a tree like this has had obvious care and time spent. so what are we paying for? the tree itself or the time and commitment spent on it to get it to this stage.
as for the tree being collected then theres that in it, it has had someone go out and find it, could of been after hours of hunting, or field grown, where there is still time and development involved in it.

so to put it in to context, i think if the sale of a bonsai tree is gonig to happen privately, then a fixed asking price or an auction with a set reserve is needed to stop confusion.
i think the owner should have an idea of what they want for the tree. and everyones got expectations of what they are happy with and whether they are open to barter. this being said i know it is hard to do this if you dont have any idea of what a standard is, so a little bit of research into the tree you are selling, the training and time put in etc. should be looked at before thinking about selling.
i find myself always trying to get the price of something down a bit but thats just me, every one loves getting a bargain right?
ok this is my two cents and i know i havent stated a price yet. so i will give it a crack anyways and i hope its something in the ball park respectfully..

$1000-$1500ISH (i hope this isnt offensive, i am sort of going off what i have seen and my personal experience)

my reasoning behind this price- it is quite a nice appealing australian native, it is a collected or field grown specimen, the time and effort spent on the tree is there, with the time put in, the effort to find it or grow it.
it looks of a decent size, my guess something about 350-400mm high, with a decent trunk size of about 100mm thick. but knowing pup he might have thrown us all off and its really small and if thats the case the price i stated would probly be considerably less.

just what i think anyways, hope this helps

regards jamie

I have a question why? just because it may be small it still has to be worked. In this case found and collected. This gets us back to what are Shohin worth against, Chuhin. A good or Kokufu Shohin is worth I have seen the auction sheets sell for $5'000 and more that is USDA. When I was at Peter Chan's in June I saw Shohin STOCK. that was priced at 750 pounds that equates to $1500-00. So another conundrum EH!.

well there we go again with another thing that has to be taken into account lol.

and yes it is a conundrum, i hope i didnt offend ya with my price i put up pup.

I agree with Pup, size doesn't matter! ask the ladies...

We that's what they tell me

But seriously, I feel trees should always be valued on appearance, more so than size or age or most other things.

It's all about the way it looks to me!

jamie111 wrote:well there we go again with another thing that has to be taken into account lol.

and yes it is a conundrum, i hope i didnt offend ya with my price i put up pup.

No this is an exercise in what you think of and what you are considering. As you arrive at what you think it is worth.
The one of the Shohin is always that coz its smaller its cheaper mine start at $150-00 and still need work those ones of Jow's were cheap.
A very good buy.

lol@jarrod and the ladies...

i do agree on whats been said there too though.
appearance is a major part of bonsai. bonsai should be something pleasing to the eyes. so this must increase value too..

and jarrod. your in on this now, whats your thoughts on the price?

dont you go all quiet now

Pup wrote: No this is an exercise in what you think of and what you are considering. As you arrive at what you think it is worth.
The one of the Shohin is always that coz its smaller its cheaper mine start at $150-00 and still need work those ones of Jow's were cheap.
A very good buy.

yea i thought so too with the size of them, look forward to getting them.. i wont divulge what i paid for them though lol

some nice taper that i think will be better in real life then in pics!

Due to the pleasing form, approx $2000, if I had the cash I would come visiting Pup and some of the trees in your for sale thread would be on there way to Melb!

Jarrod wrote:Due to the pleasing form, approx $2000, if I had the cash I would come visiting Pup and some of the trees in your for sale thread would be on there way to Melb!

Ya got a bloody Kombi what ya waiting for an invite

Pup wrote:

Jarrod wrote:Due to the pleasing form, approx $2000, if I had the cash I would come visiting Pup and some of the trees in your for sale thread would be on there way to Melb!

Ya got a bloody Kombi what ya waiting for an invite

there ya go jarrod you got ya VIP invite lol

It's not about the travel, I have a wedding to pay for!

Jarrod wrote:It's not about the travel, I have a wedding to pay for!

Ouch been there done that

4 times two of my own and two for the daughters

I know the previous price on this tree for I was the one looking to buy it. Sadly I can not buy this tree as much as I love it so.
The price on it was a dream, and I did feel wrong about that price as it is worth very much more than that. I also know the price of other trees being sold at the same time. These where 2k and above. This tree surpasses those in form and grace.

When pricing, do not look at age, look at what makes a good tree good, and go for there. Just because a tree is 90 years old means nothing if it does not have the qualities for a good tree. This tree has many such qualities, and I hope that no one here buy's it, so I may have time to gather the money to buy such a magnificent specimen.

I think supply and demand have an impact also. If someone is asking $2000 for a tree, and you know of just as good trees for $500 simply because demand is low, then the person asking $2000 will never get it (although, sometimes people perceive value in price... i.e. it's expensive so it must be better).

I get the feeling that possibly in Tasmania, Bonsai are undervalued compared with other states. I haven't seen any Bonsai down here for higher than $1500, and those were quite magnificent specimens.

As such, I won't be guessing a price on this one, as I'm unqualified at this point. This thread is a great education though!