Are you talking about the straight species tree or maybe a certain cultivar 'Bloodgood'? Selling 'Bloodgood' by seedlings is deceptive because they aren't true 'Bloodgood's, because they aren't red all the time. I always thought that was ripping folks off, but i think it is still done.
I used to wanna do that too (not rip folks off) a while back until I found that out. Its very tempting because the parent 'Bloodgood' tree can be just amazing. But unfortunately, seedlings not so much.
If somebody is buying a 'Bloodgood', I'd ask if its a seed grown plant.
My 'Bloodgood' of choice was at McDonalds, it was a good reason to go there anyway!

Here is a link that might be useful: McDonalds 'Bloodgood'.

I have no idea what variety it really is. I'll see if my mom remembers - it's at her house. as for green-to-red or always red I don't remember. I'll try to get more info. thanks a lot for the help. I don't mind if its a less valuable variety, as long as I know what it is and can be honest about it.

Seed grown Japanese maples can only be sold as generic Japanese maples. Named cultivars are propagated asexually - not from seed. You may get a number of seedlings that look a lot like the parent plant and just as many more that will be quite different but you can only honestly call them "seed grown Japanese maples", no specific name.

finding a market will probably be the hardest part ...

but what you do have there is UNDERSTOCK for grafting ...

now there is a market ...

or learn how to graft.. and make better JP's out of useless rootstock ...

you MUST begin with a proper ID of what you have ... a picture of the leaves.. trunk/bark and buds.. will probably get an answer from some folks here ...

once you have an ID.. then you can determine what you can graft onto it ... and that would be how you make a $25 plant out of a 25 cent seedling ... given a little labor and 5 years ... lol ...

god luck

ken

Seed grown Japanese Maples have almost no value at all except for understock as Ken mentioned. They may be as nice looking,(usually not)but their characteristics are undocumented. Collectors are looking for certain varieties and home buyers want to know what they are buying. You can't expect people to buy a plant and not know what it's going to look like at different times of the year. Fall color is not the only criteria that Japanese Maples are judged by.
I have over fifty 4 footers you can have. I can't even give them away to my friends or neighbors. My garden is full of them.
{{gwi:332602}}

What if you are propagating from a known cultivar? How do patents work? I am interested in starting a small nursery.

LightGreen,

Patented plants can only be asexually propagated, for any reason, with the permission of the patent holder. You could get permission, often by paying a small fee per plant, but you'll have a LOT of competition in this field. This isn't really the right venue to cover the topic of starting your own nursery, but you might begin your research by reading some of the threads about the topic here on GardenWeb. Some can be found in the Professional Garden Forum.

Here are a few examples. I didn't re-read through them, but their title appears to indicate they are some of the relevant ones I've seen before:

Starting my Own Retail Nursery

Starting a backyard nursery

To all the dreamers who want to start a nursery

How profitable is a backyard nursery?

Reserarching Backyard Nursery, need advice!

and you can find many, many more in that forum with a quick search.

I appreciate all the info and links!

LGH, start small but take a shot at grafting. Some of the other members here are very good at it.