Yes, it's possible. Specimen sized JM's in nurseries here often carry price tags with 4 figures and I've encountered larger and quite mature trees for sale with 5 figure price tags. One exceedingly beautiful and very well formed and very large JM was for sale by a local landscape nursery several years ago and it was going for $80K! But trees that command these prices are not your average, garden-variety J. maple and their value only exists - as David notes - if there is a buyer willing to pay for them. The market for large, well-established and expensive Japanese maples is pretty small and most of those who do invest thousands of dollars into individual plants for a landscape are landscape architects or contractors developing large commercial projects or those planting estate landscapes and they are not buying their plants from ebay or private homeowners but from well-established sources that specialize in these sized trees and have the skill to successfully move and transport and care for them.

So unless you have a ready buyer with $10K in his pocket and his tree moving crew standing by, your tree is only worth the value you place on it, or for insurance purposes, what it would cost to replace it with one of similar size. FWIW, a specimen sized weeping laceleaf (6-7' tall, spread of 8-10') in nurseries here would set you back around $2500.

GG...makes good points... no reputable high $$ landscaper or designer would buy from an individual or off ebay ... and also location of where you live is also important ...in GG area as well as Marin ( as I said ) alot of things are differnt than where I live of Philly...Here you Can find an occasional 2500$$ tree (not necessarily a jm )but there is a big jump from 2500$$ to ten grand ...but as i and gg said if you find the right person ...... so the reality is the answer is NO....and %'s in the low single digits or LESS, that you could sell it for anywhere near that price in the philly area or pretty much anywhere else) does not really change that answer ( NO )

Hey Philly,

I think tree guy is saying 10K is the cost of buying, moving and replanting a mature desirable Japanese maple. If your tree is in great health and easy to get to there are nurseries and designers that may have an interest. Main Line area nurseries have stock that is in the 10-25k range. You could get a relevant reality check by chatting up the reps at THE FLOWER SHOW.

Here is a link that might be useful: Philadelphia Flower Show.

At 6-7 feet for a mature Japanese maple, we are most likely discussing some sort of weeping dissectum. The spread will be significant (unless the previous ill-fated pruning corrupted it), as will be the root system. A lot of prep work will need to go into any sort of moving of a tree of this size and it will need to be hand dug or with the use of a large tree spade. Neither of these are inexpensive processes in and of themselves. The expense of moving, transporting and replanting a mature tree can easily equal the cost of the tree itself and often exceeds it, which makes the sale of these items, especially from private residences, rather uncommon.

I again agree with GG ...I think Herman is giving well meaning,brotherly advice but in the end, and in the REAL world actually false hope to this person ...I still rate chances of getting anywhere near that much is very very slim. This forum is here to help folks and sometimes just laying it out with a dark ooutlook is the best and most honest thing we can all do ...giving false hope on VERY slim odds may be well meaning ( like reattaching a large broken dissectum branch in another forum ) is really not IMHO giving an honest...or helpful answer .......and nothing, that at least I have said, has really been more than down to earth common sence based on reality. Folks are welcome to try anything believe anything do anything but sometimes they must face the reality of the real world.as far as what will work or what something is likly to fetch..Like the guy on ebay did after several weeks of trying to sell a 10 grand tree. Good luck maybe you'll beat those slim vegas odds!! David

Thanks for all the responses (God bless the internet). I don't think the seller of the house was trying to be deceitful, so I think it is just coincedence that there was an ebay seller from PA (it is a big state). I thought it was highly improbable for a tree to be worth that much, but thought it was worth a shot. Not getting my hopes up, but I will be on the look out for an afluent tree buyer!

Hey Philly,
Check out the UBC post. Though the website is from Spain it beats opinions from Uranus.

Did you get to the flower show?

Here is a link that might be useful: Specimen size plant values

We just bought an Acer (Red Dragon) at a local nursery that was in a 30" container (our landscaper cut the container off and planted it on our front lawn). Its canopy is 5-5.5', the height is 4 - 4.5 feet, and the trunk is over 3" in diameter.

it was priced at 1,600; but we paid 1,000. not sure if its a good deal or not, but it is a truly spectacular specimen.

sue

Sue,

Love to see a photo.

I've seen plants like that at the nurseries near Sag Harbor (higher priced). Was 1k the price installed?

I have three huge beautiful Japanese maples.... How would I go about selling one or two if I wanted an what are they worth ?

Craig's list or ebay would be your first choices for a selling platform and value is whatever a motivated buyer is willing to pay.

Be sure to reread the previous thread. Digging and moving a "huge" mature Japanese maple is not an easy or inexpensive undertaking. The costs involved often far exceed any perceived value of the tree, unless it is a particularly unusual specimen.