I just can't imaging paying that much for two reasons:

1. These trees are really not all that slow growing. I know a lot of people who are coming to realize just how big a shrub the dissectums can be.
2. I could buy a tree almost that large from in front of a local nursery for perhaps $2000.

for me...

1. It's not "Beautifully kept" it's messy, it's a bug shelter. it probably haa a massive dead branch/leaf undergrowth. hiding a 5" trunk caliper.

2. $15,000? That a down payment.

3. it's getting all those hits because of item #2.

how long do JM's even live?

the price is obviously obnoxious regardless, but this tree is 30 years old to boot!

It isn't even worth 1500![pennies]....

This is probably listed by someone who knows nothing about trees and got an estimate of its value from an arborist, so they think that this is what the average person is going to pay. Although it's true an older specimen is often valued this high, it doesn't mean you're going to find a buyer. Usually the only people that pay these prices are companies that are landscaping their newly built sites. It's crazy what companies will pay sometimes. Very very doubtful he'll find a buyer, but it's not outrageous to see a tree with an appraisal like this. However, a tree is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Hi, I saw that.....wrote to them asking them if they were out of their minds? No reply. Can you believe that for that price they want you to come and dig it up and move it! It would probably die if it is dug up at that size. Lesley

I just saw a segment on Victory Garden on PBS, that has a nursery which sells these kinds of trees! Their specialty is the mature tree, many rare specimens. Trees shown on the tour were beautiful, very large. Host asked prices on some, $7-10,000 on several. They also had a HUGE tree spade on a really large truck. Owner of nursery said these kinds of trees are for people who do not wish to wait on plant growth. He buys these grown trees, moves them to his nursery awaiting purchase. Doesn't have problems moving such mature trees. Though I would call them small decorative trees, they were among the biggest ones I have ever seen in their varieties. Now I didn't see any fully grown, huge trunked trees like a beech or an oak. Did see a special pine, tall, rather old. A 40-50 year old red shedding bark maple. Large crabapple, with several trunks, perfect for the center of a circle drive with bench underneath! He buys these trees from people who may be remodeling, or think tree is not fitting landscape any more. I liked everything they showed!

While few of us would pay such a price for a tree, other folks would pay for what they percieve as the perfect plant for their purpose. This program did point out that there is a tree market in that price scale out there!

$15,000 is not at all out of range for a mature specimen Japanese maple, although I reserve comment on whether the one specified is worth that investment. Japanese maples, if given proper conditions, can live many decades so age is not really an issue - in fact it is usually a plus with regards to large specimens with big price tags as these trees often develop very appealing habits and form as they age. Something younger, smaller trees are not yet able to offer.

And there is definitely a market for these old, pricey specimens. There are several nurseries in my area that deal only with large, mature trees for major landscape installations and the prices go considerably higher than $15 grand. When you are paying a half mil for a new landscape, several tens of thousands of dollars for a large specimen tree is a drop in the bucket.

The issue not addressed is the cost of removal and shipping - these can easily double the price and should not be undertaken by anyone other than professionals specializing in such activities. And I certainly would never contemplate buying one online with only a photo to recommend it.

When you are twenty years old and have little money but a lifetime ahead of you, $15K is ridiculous. When you are sixty years old and have the money but not the time for a maple to mature to this size, $15K is a bargain.

As for most things in life, it all depends upon your point of view.

''$15K is a bargain

not for this tree. I would understand if it was pruned for aesthetic branching and airing; but this thing is 'Cousin It'.

I believe it'd be nutty to pay anything close to that price for that tree. Find a well-respected nursery in your area (this means your zone and climate) that sells mature trees. I have no doubt they can be expensive, but believe that price is ridiculous, to say nothing of the transplant risk.

Looks like more people are jumping on the bandwagon. Here is one listed at $30,000.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42353&item=4383322396&rd=1

xman

--> $30K jm
HOLY COW...a "7 3/4in. calibor"

I used to live in Yardley, PA where this tree is growing. Kind of a snobby area where everything costs top dollar, and someone else's junk suddenly becomes an heirloom or antique, so I can see why this seller thinks this should price so high.

However, for a tree at this price, you would think the seller would at least list the cultivar, or make us think they know something about it. The way it is described makes me think that they don't like it or just want to get rid of it, and they are fishing for suckers.

I have sold a couple of Japanese Maples that ended up costing the final buyer well over $15,000 -- but that buyer's price included professional hand-dug drumlaced B&B, $450 rent on the 3-ton crane to come lift it from the hole to the truck, $4700 for transport from Oregon to East Coast, specimen broker's fee on this end, landscaper's fees and equipment on the receiving end ---- out of the entire price, the original tree in the ground was $3500 for a 20' tall, 25-30 year old Sango. The sellers on e-Bay obviously have heard about prices and don't realize how much service goes into the price, more than the tree itself.

There's an amusement park in Northern California whose designers spent months traveling and locating specimen trees of different special colored and variegated cultivars. Then they brought their own landscape crew -- 10 to 15 guys as I recall, and put them up in a hotel and fed them well while they dug oversized balls on the selected trees and constructed boxes around them in the ground before they lifted them out. Some of those boxes were 8' square and 6' deep in order to ensure transplanting without the tree skipping a single beat. Many of the trees were priced below $1000 in the ground, but were worth 10 times that amount in services before they were done!

It's amazing the number of people, mostly from New York, New Jersey, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, who think nothing of re-landscaping with all mature trees and a budget of several hundred thousand bucks.

FWIW, I think I prefer my own quiet rural simplified world.....

I would rather buy 1500 different 1 gal's and watch'em grow up if I had 15 grand to blow on trees.

If anyone knows of one of these mature tree nurseries on the East Cost (I'm in Philadelphia) please let me know. The previous owners of my house were Korean, and aparently, cut down everything native, and planted an entire orchard of Asian trees. I now have 3x 15 year old Ziziphus jujuba trees, and 5 Pseudocydonia sinesis (Chinese Quince), along with several varieties of flowering japanese cherry, korean plum, and a few I have yet to identify.

Not that they're not interesting specimen trees, but I don't really need flowering trees planted on a 6'x6' grid through the entire backyard, and no real shade trees.

I forgot, obligitory maple content, they did plant a Japanese Maple, now about 20' tall, and 20' spread. I will happily part with this tree, just come get it.

Would be a great spot for a magnolia or dogwood.

Today I saw a very nice Acer p. Crimson Queen in a 36x36 box
it retailed for 9999.99, 1 yr. guarantee, and they will deliver and plant it.

It came from the NW US. 3000 miles away

Large laceleaf maples may be 70 years old. I see new ones appearing on the local market every year, these days. A few of them have been much bigger than any I have seen still in the ground, myself, surely larger than those listed in 'Champion Trees of Washington State' (Although I haven't taped any of the dug up ones to check). There must be alot of old places being bought and redeveloped, where these amazing specimens somehow became superfluous and were removed (how many more have been bulldozed over?).

Tree is a tree. No one will tell the difference looking at it!

Yikes!

But Ebay is like this with EVERYTHING. You always get that person who thinks their wares are worth the top-most dollar ever heard of for an item of that kind. Anyone can pay to run an auction, after all....

The starting price seems to have gone up. Any takers?

xman

Here is a link that might be useful: Ebay:Maple