matter of fact yes i am speaking from experience. heres a tree that was sold to me by a club member for 400 dollars. when i asked him for how much he said he was once offered 400 for it so how about 400. me being a beginner i said ok sure i guess. a month later i really thought him an asshole for ripping me off ...and judging from your posts yes you probably would rip people given the chance.
Mystogan, you probably won't appreciate me asking you to take a deep breath, but... take a deep breath.
Just because there are thieves and jackasses in the world, doesn't mean EVERYONE is. Just because Vance is posting photos of trees that he has grown from inexpensive materials doesn't mean he is trying to sell them OR rip someone off. He was TRYING to make the point that you don't need to start with expensive material to end up with nice trees - a discussion that has been on-going for a while on this forum.
No that tree was not worth $400. Not close. And the worst thing about it is that the person who took your money may have taken something away that is even more valuable - your love of bonsai. Let it go. Chalk it up to a life experience. Hopefully you don't have to interact with that person again. In the meantime, enjoy the tree for what it is, learn from it, maybe screw around with it - and don't let a price tag dictate your happiness. If I told you that tree was worth $2000 would it suddenly become more beautiful to you?
Save your money. Learn from people. And visit a lot of bonsai nurseries to see what sells for what. I don't know where you are but if "rain city" means the Pacific NW you are in the heart of good bonsai source material. Instead of bashing people on this forum, maybe try to hook up with someone who knows decent nurseries, etc, to help you out?
Better yet, next time you go to buy a tree, take a photo of it, come here to the forum and ask people "would you pay $x for this tree?" People will (hopefully) respond to what they think the market value for the tree is - in general terms. But we have all seen trees sell for more than what we individually would pay for them. Likewise one person's crapsai might be another person's treasure. We all have trees that we don't like, or we have grown tired of, or we just don't want to look at any more
I have gotten trees as gifts from bonsai friends that could probably be "sold" for a decent amount of money - but they don't sell trees only give them away to people they care for. I have bought plenty of trees... but have never sold a single one. Don't get hung up on the dollars and cents. If you find yourself spending too much money on source material, take a page from Vance's play book and challenge yourself to go the farthest with the most modest starting material. I have gotten some decent trees for free out of people's yards... or even garbage cans.