I ask myself the same question, and hope that those trees will survive next years. Ten years ago, i bought 2 nice yamadori sabina juniper for 1000€ each and they all died a few months later because of my poor knowledge of this species and my poor cultivation skills..
I agree, the pricings are the same in Europe (not everywhere but at least the same here) ->
You can wager a lot Ryan will NOT sell a tree not well ready to be sold. His reputation is on the line and he genuinely cares about his trees lives.
i hope for the tree survival.
More than likely demand created by added large public exposure/name recognition more than anything. This does not in ANY way denigrate Ryans knowledge, skill, ability, creativity, etc.
Yes, the penniless artist trope kind of goes out of the window when you read about the prices involved. Good read though, thanks for posting.The auction was interesting to me. Auctions at Christies and Sotheby's, where fine art of all types are sold...Provenance is very important to value. So it is with all art forms. I believe it's true with trees owned by Ryan Neil. It raises the value and the future value in this particular art form.
I found an interview with him in Architectural Digest. It's fascinating that he starting doing bonsai when he was a child. He's an extraordinary person. He admits to signing nondisclosure agreements with his clients because of their status. So the money isn't a factor for a lot of the people buying his trees. Here's the article. It's worth reading!
Meet the Man Who Grows Mini Million-Dollar Trees
Having honed his bonsai skills under a master in Japan, American Ryan Neil has taken his practice Stateside to wild (and lucrative) acclaimwww.architecturaldigest.com
agreed.
It is an art to create the feeling of urgency. Rian has been able to create this.
Personally I do think the snap sale aspect is what has raised some of the Mirai prices. If they were sold in the formats above then prices wouldn’t be able to be so high because people would have more time to make an informed choice. Also, more of a selection makes a difference. To my eye most of David Benavente’s trees are more refined and at a generally lower price point, though it isn’t to dissimilar. I appreciate that the vast majority of Mirai trees aren’t on display for sale online, whereas David Benavente’s are.
Flash sales, countdown sales, black friday sales are a common sales tactic,
This tree has been in training in a pot for eight years.
That's true of any tree bought from any source. It's survival depends on the grower. If you're spending $4,000 on a tree, you should probably already know how to care for it. Just sayin...I would think many of the buyers of these trees are Ryan's students who know how to care for them. I'd also think some will stay at Mirai for those students to work on. I have no way of knowing that exactly, however.
You are making the assumption that buyers purchased the trees in the heat of the moment only because a name is attached to them. I don't think that is very accurate or realistic.
Don't forget - Ryan has a large streaming video business. In fact, that is probably his core business - and selling trees is a sideline. When he has his annual sale, he sends several emails out to all of his subscribers, so he already has a personal relationship with his core target audience.
its another effective marketing tactic, holding on to your previous customers or subscribers or people who have bought from mirai before whether it be a piece of wire or a tub of cut paste. i opted out of emails so i dont remember seeing anything from mirai show up. im not aware if they run facebook and instagram ads too but that is another very powerful marketing tool. i cant recall seeing actual mirai ads though. his subscribers on youtube and mirai might be enough to hit his target audience, the short youtube vids they do are also powerful and very high quality.
I think MOST of those trees, if not ALL, went to Ryan's students or people who have seen them in person or had heard they might be coming up for sale before the sale started. While there is room for the "I gotta have it NOW, price be damned" buyers, I don't think those kinds of buyers got any of the trees, or even participated. The manner in which the trees got sold--most expensive first and the tell-tale show tree left unsold--tells me buyers knew what they wanted and had already targeted the trees they wanted well in advance. The show tree left over indicates there was some hesitancy in purchasing a tree so closely associated with Ryan and Mirai. It would take years to "make it their own" enough to show it in the future.
I think MOST of those trees, if not ALL, went to Ryan's students or people who have seen them in person or had heard they might be coming up for sale before the sale started. While there is room for the "I gotta have it NOW, price be damned" buyers, I don't think those kinds of buyers got any of the trees, or even participated. The manner in which the trees got sold--most expensive first and the tell-tale show tree left unsold--tells me buyers knew what they wanted and had already targeted the trees they wanted well in advance. The show tree left over indicates there was some hesitancy in purchasing a tree so closely associated with Ryan and Mirai. It would take years to "make it their own" enough to show it in the future.
FWIW, @BobbyLane I got several sale notification emails from Mirai, a month out, a week out and one 15 minutes before the sale started. Effective if you're on the Mirai mailing list and follow the nursery on FB. It's pretty basic social media marketing. It's not rocket science.
Nope. Don't know it for certain. I'm speculating. Why have the sale? To give people an equal chance of getting the trees. An auction wouldn't really be fair since only the people with the most money would get the trees... I'm sure even though they may have been scouted, each tree probably had multiple fans.
I think they wouldn't be students - at least not the ones he's teaching IRL.
