Yes but...
I know you are being sarcastic but truly people can get into this hobby and get overwhelmed by the commercial aspects. YES you can spend $5k on a tree. You can also dig one out of someone's old hedge, and with enough skill, your tree and the $5k tree will be comparable. That's why the best advice is ALWAYS to start with cheap/free material and kill a lot of it
By the time you get the skills necessary to create a $5k tree... it will no longer look like $5k to you. Instead you will see the time and care that went into the tree, and will better understand how/why someone is asking the paltry sum of $5k for 20 years worth of labor
Bingo!
It is Friday night after all... and you hit the jackpot!
This has been my point all along regarding bonsai... I don't have a problem with someone buying a $5 k tree... I think it would be safe to say that just about anyone doing bonsai if they had the money to burn would probably buy it, if it was a good piece of material.
The problem I see, is first most of us don't have it... which is evident by everyone chiming in saying they don't, and secondly how is one to determine what makes a good piece of material?
By, this I mean... that there are going to be a lot of factors in this determination besides just the price tag... this was the discussion I was having with Walter Pall and I have had on numerous threads since.
For some, who are newer to bonsai or collectors of bonsai, it might very well be just the price tag. For others, with some more skill they might say, ok here is a piece of material that I can with some work make into a very nice tree. And lastly for others they might pass on it completely, seeing that they would want to take the piece of material in a totally different direction, and would end up removing so much of the tree and starting over, that they would then want to start with something else, and save the money.
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here... just more to with one's level of ability, personal preference, and if they can see something in the material that is worth the money and time to develop.
Now, with this in mind, this subject of spending as much money as you can on a piece of material is and has been brought into question that this is the only way one could hope to achieve a World Class tree.
This thread, my threads and Walter Pall's threads have all been going back n forth on the concept.
My own personal take is that first I don't believe everyone around the world doing World Class trees is super rich and is affording the price tag... secondly, as in the case of Walter's tree, which I believe is an awesome tree has issues, that he enjoys and does not recognize as issues, in fact quite the contrary, he believes are what makes the tree, where others might not feel the same way. So, they might not think it has the potential. And lastly, where would it leave the other 99 percent of the population doing bonsai, who are being told that because they can't afford it, they don't have a chance of ever having a World Class tree...
I guess according to this logic, out of luck... but I don't think this is the case, which is why I say you just need to work harder seeing one is at a disadvantage, practice and build up one's talent, and create the tree from what you can afford.
It is a doable reality.
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