You can find pots at true wholesale/bulk prices by ordering them by the shipping container from Japan, China, or Korea. Do you need 20 cubic yards of pots?

If you, or really your friend that owns the nursery are looking to do this "for real" you should be able to find some bulk prices on pots. I believe Dallas Bonsai will vend in that way to a real business, and I have looked into purchasing from Lotus, but they require a $300 minimum order.

There's "bulk", and there's BULK. Bulk for you is a few dozen pots, while bulk from a bonsai nursery or a commercial concern it's ten thousand. You are unlikely to come across any "wholesale" lots of bonsai pots in the range you're looking for, unless you come across a bonsai nursery or seller who is going out of business.

You can import cheap low quality pots from China, but even then you have to usually buy a shipping container full, or some huge number costing tens of thousands of dollars.

Joining a local bonsai club would be a great investment for you since those clubs have memebers looking to offload unused or excess pots and plants at low prices. Most clubs have auctions where you can pick up very good deals. They also sometimes have estate sales where older member's bonsai (and containers) are sold off...

I have made my own bonsai pots by purchasing glass/ceramic/clay containers that are shaped or glazed/painted/colored to be suitable for Bonsai.
I have found containers at dollar stores, discount stores, Ikea's dishware/kitchenware section and swapmeets/flea markets.
I purchased a diamond drill bit at a hardware store for about $15.00 and have not broken a single container yet. I should add, I have 10 thumbs and zero mechanical knowledge. I did purchase some cheap cup saucers to practice on to be on the safe side though. Different materials take varying amounts of pressure to drill a drain hole, but the diamond drill bit got through everyone of them. Placing some modeling clay below the surface to be drilled and a little cold water in the container helps to keep the drill bit cool and something to drill into after making the drain hole.
Good luck.

4Bonsai is a rip offsize>

My thread about it can be found here

whats this guy talking about. brendan, whats going on here? Your link is not working.

Im with you... http://4bonsai.com is a scam. Its corporate America in the worst.

The post and thread have been deleted, I'm quite suprised that that post was not deleted aswell. 4bonsai posted yet another link in this thread

We sell 6inch and 8inch bonsai pots by the case on our wholesale site: www.Bonsai-wholesale.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Bonsai-wholesale.com

I know that my club gets bonsai pots for very cheap from Cass Bonsai. We get about 1-3 dozen at a time for our novice class and public workshops. The link is at the bottom and he's got quite a variety, not sure what the shipping is because we always pick up our order at the Chicago (Midwest bonsai society) show each year. One of the best ways I've gone about acquiring pots is through bonsai club members like Mark_Rockwell said. Sometimes people need more space so they give away, raffle, or sell unwanted pots. I had a woman give me five pots once for helping her style a tree.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cass Bonsai pots

I don't know if you guys noticed, but this thread started over 2 years ago. I doubt he's still looking for pots! I never look at the date either, but I just happened to notice it with this thread :)

I saw the start date but there's probably other people out there who are looking for pots. Do we ever really stop looking for pots? I'm still waiting for our bonsai club to take another trip to Sara Rayner's studio. That woman makes the best bonsai pots if you can afford them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sara Rayner's website

bonsaialr ,

I made a purchase from your site (wholesale bonsai.com) last week, and have not heard a word about shipment, nor had any reply to my email inquiries. Please have someone email me.

Matt

Matt, you should have waited a bit more before going public with your statements. We have been away to the (ABS 2007) American Bonsai Societies annual convention that was held at Virginia Beach this year. Also your order for a couple trees was electronically deleted for not meeting our minimum wholesale order requirements.

the ABS convention was the 21st through the 24th. If your company was going to be unable to fill orders a week prior you should have had something posted to notify potential customers of the delay.

Why should we? Its our business what we do. We were only gone 5 days. Are people that impatient for their items, that we cannot take off a little time? Mail order used to take 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. Now people whine if they do not get it in 4 to 6 days. Maybe everything should be sold at Walmart so you can get it in 4 to 6 minutes. There goes diversity of supply. We prefer only patient customers, period. Interesting how Matt came on here to put the rub on us when he made a short order from the same town in Montana, that we had priorly sent a large order of the same items to another customer. Go figure, how many people from the same town in Montana would buy bonsai items? I guess maybe he thought that he could get a couple plants cheaper than the other guy was going to sell them for. This original thread was for pots, not someones short order with us. We sell one case of pots at a time. Neat, when no one else in the business wants to for so little profit.

bonsaialr ,

I have no idea what you are talking about. I am a long way from Montana. "Short order" - that's very interesting.
The only reference on your website to minimum orders is for the pots. Nothing else indicates a minimum.

"Now people whine if they do not get it in 4 to 6 days"

If your competition does it, and you don't, you won't be in business long. Waiting 5 days for a response to an email inquiry is not acceptable in todays online business world - period.

Anyway, have a nice day. And good luck with the business (you're gonna need it)

We are very sorry you are carrying such a grudge toward us for not fulfilling your short order. We are also sorry for your not reading the home page or any category page that stated the minimum order is 100.00. We chose this small amount to allow many people who are not in business access to material at a discount and particularly small business minded people that also want to make minimal orders for their small businesses. We do set the terms, conditions and methods of our transactions with our customers. No we are not in the least interested in competing with "mr lightening speed bonsai business". Our sales are double those from last year. In just this week, we have received 2 small orders that we attribute to people that may have read this forum. We have daily stats of the traffic coming from this forum alone. Naturally it was our intention reading the pot blog to let everyone know we could send them a case of pots. We did not expect your jumping on here with your upset over your short order. We are sorry that you did not come back with an order that did meet our minimums and the offer is still open at any time.

For our 4th. we are repotting a couple trees that need it, moving all the cases of pots we have to a new storage shed we have made for them. Build a few web pages on our retail site and later in the day going family and friends fishing and crabbing and doing a BBQ on the fish pier until midnight. Tomorrow is just another ship it out day. Hope ya'll have a great 4th of July celebration of our independence from tyranny. God Bless America.

I thought that was a great question - where to get wholesale (and inexpensive) merchandise, and although I did not look at the date of the post, as a newbie, I totally appreciated the updated responses!!!!!

Thank you.
:D

I am from Saint Joseph, MO. Where in the Kansas City area could I go to purchase quality bonsai pots and tools? Thanks.
Chad

Has anyone looked at www.bonsaimonk.com? The monastery sells everything from higher end ceramic pots to loads of plain black plastic pots and trays, as well as an intermediate material (resin type) called Mica, which looks like unglazed ceramic, but is lighter, much stronger and weather proof. You can get 'deals' if you order more of something, depending on what you want and what you consider to be a discount.

do any of u think a thirteen yearold kid can join a bonsai club? cuase i need pots and everything at mine sounds fun but im not sure if i can join its the nashville bonsai society

Here is a link that might be useful: the nashville bonsai society

I think not only can you join, but you'll probably have to fight off all the people who want to help! There's nothing more attractive to an adult than thinking they have all the answers to a kid's questions Lol! Just be sure when you get there to not hide in a corner, to speak up if you do have questions, though listening a lot is also recommended, as you'll learn a lot of unexpected things that way.

Looking to get rid of Bonsai pots $3.50 lb unglazed 4.50 lb glazed. MUST take all. About 60% midsize pots. 25% small. and 15% large. Imported from Japan. About a pickup size load - several hundred. Also have bonsai books at 30% of retail price. Must take all - also several hundred. Living on LI so shipping would cost a fortune.

Hey cjeffery,
You can get bonsai pots and supplies in KC at Family Tree Nursery. I will post a link below to their website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Family Tree Nursery Website

I will work with you on the minimum order. My name is Jason from Best-bonsai.com. But call me at 786-385-3218 with questions regarding what you are looking for I have all sizes, styles, and colors.