This is what really gets me. Someone buys a tree that was taken care of by someone else, enters it into a show and wins? Same thing happened last year at the Winter Silhouette.
Well... in Japan some bonsai owners don't even house their own trees. They buy them, pay for styling and upkeep, and come visit them from time to time at the nursery
Reminds me of when I was keeping show koi. In Southern California every year they had a one year contest where they would import thousands of $100 "potential" koi from Japan. You would pick out your fish, they would photograph and record them,. and then you would bring them back in a year and show them. I spent a lot of time and effort keeping my water clean, keeping water oxygen high, giving my fish sun, feeding special food, etc. Year after year I would win at least one award... and one year I won two. My fish were never the biggest... but they were the best quality, with top confirmation (body shape), ink black sumi, blood red hi, good patterning, etc. The last year I competed, the koi nursery greatly expanded the size of their ponds, and they started offering a new program. Instead of taking your fish home, for a fee they would keep them at the nursery in a big pond, where they would be professionally cared for with automatic feeders, etc. Then after a year they would net out your koi and enter them in the show. At that point, I stopped competing. What's the point?
Yes, we made an exception for some vendors to purchase an item or two before we opened Saturday, because once we are all vending they can’t escape their tables.. ...our reason for no presales friday was to be fair to attendees. Nao sold all his forest trays at PBE before they opened and he felt bad about it, and that was weighed into this situation.
Two general comments on exhibition sales:
First, I think it is a little sad that bonsai shows have turned into a rush to see "who can buy the best 'X' in the first 30 minutes". There is a palpable fear of 'missing out' and it detracts from the experience, in my opinion. Some people only volunteer to work the show because it allows them to preview (and perhaps prebuy) merchandise. I don't know a solution. I have been to shows on the second day where the vendor area is half empty and people are packing to leave by 10AM Sunday morning. Certainly it makes for happy vendors when they sell out all their product... but as a show organizer I would try to ask vendors to hold back some stock for Sunday.
Second, I think what people object to with resellers or 'arbitrage' is that with bonsai we aren't dealing with a commodity. We are dealing with unique products that have limited supply. It is one thing if a retailer purchases goods wholesale and then marks them up. People understand - the retailer is putting time and money into shipping, warehousing, care, marketing, staffing - perhaps even retail rent. But when people buy up ALL THE POTS from a vendor at a show, and then proceed to immediately resell them at their own booth for a significant markup, they have invested nothing. They are simply trying to corner the market by creating an artificial shortage of supply in a very specific event... and make money off the attendees who have traveled far and spent much, just to be able to access a marketplace of those goods. It is taking advantage of the bonsai community to make a fast buck.
I've heard the same from people who took up suiseki after many years in bonsai.
