Doubt it. I’d actually be pissed if they did being someone that’s been refreshing my page for a very long time. I don’t recall them ever adding more trees though.
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Maybe. Another option would be to allow a preview period and then do some kind of lottery system for buying order. I think they did something like that at the big Kennett Collection sale a few years ago. Otherwise it’s just who can make the quickest decision and hit the “buy” button the fastest. Not the way I want to buy a bonsai.
Any case, I do think they should vary the format from year to year.
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A species list would be sufficient. Beyond that it’s first come first serve. Think of it this way; if it were a brick and mortar store we’d have to wait in line by order of arrival.
Too be honest, the sale going live early and the prices being so much high this year kinda feels like a spit in the face to some of us. i understand that these things are not cheap and a lot goes into it, but it feels like there is a small “in” crowd that this caters to. same goes with the in-person classes. i havent seen any effort from mirai to include people that are not wealthy. i love mirai live and will probably continue to use it to learn but less and less do i feel welcome, with my shallow pockets and i doubt im the only one.
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It doesn’t have to be that way. It is certainly the most convenient way for Mirai.
Species list alone would not be any better. You need to see the trees.
I agree on some counts. I fully believe that the trees are priced fairly, but it would be nice to see more trees in the range of the shohin junipers that are going for $350.
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I think it’s great of Mirai to do tree sales and ship trees out so people who don’t live within driving distance of the garden can have a chance to get a Mirai tree. They create great trees and it naturally follows that they’ll be in high demand. I’m sure they put tons of work into the web sale and it’s probably more a matter of what’s feasible for the staff rather than what’s convenient.
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im not saying the tree them selves are not priced right, but why not more trees that affordable?
in previous years there were some unstyled trees that were cheaper, but even then just a couple.
Mirai should just be careful that they dont push away people and become and elitist club.
since this sale expires on the 30th, do they add more trees?
I’m always sad to see Mirai Live trees go for sale on these things. I know it’s awesome that people have the chance to own them, but I’m a bit sad to know we won’t see them again on the live stream 
Also congrats to whoever got that blue rug juniper. It’s literally the tree that got me into Mirai Live.
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Typically they do not, but all these sales are ad hoc and potentially they could add more trees.
It must be tough for Ryan and Mirai to sell these trees. Some of the prices are out of reach for most. Lower priced trees probably get purchased and flipped within weeks…just guessing, I’ll look for some on FB auctions :-p. Was there a limit on how many you can buy? Hopefully the higher priced trees go to people who take care of them well.
Sad things were sold early, and some people (myself included) didn’t get a shot at something affordable.
I replied in another thread about this. Pasting here:
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Situations like this are tricky. You want everything to be run smoothly and on time. But when things go wrong, respecting the intended release time only hurts you, the aspiring buyer.
I had an alarm set today for just before 1pm EST (I’m in New York), so I’d be ready for their 10am PST release. But while I was eating breakfast I randomly thought, “I wonder where the sale link takes me now.” And it went to a live sale page! I was able to snap up one of the $350 junipers. Three minutes later, they were all sold out.
If I had only clicked on the link at 10am PST, after my alarm went off, all of those trees would have already been sold hours before. I consider myself lucky, and feel bad for anyone who visited the site at 10am PST only to see more than half the trees already sold.
Hopefully these kinds of website snafus can get fixed as Mirai continues to grow.
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Now that I’ve read some of the comments in this thread, I want to add a few sentences.
I wasn’t really planning on buying any trees in this sale. I live in an apartment and only have a small fire escape as outdoor space. I assumed all the trees would be very expensive, and I’d just wait until a time when I have more outdoor space. When I saw there were those little guys for $350 I just had to grab one.
I think some of you guys who are saying these trees are too expensive might benefit from a bit of perspective. First of all, even the baby juniper I bought was in a pot that Mirai was selling for $135. That means the plant itself was being sold for $215. A plant that was styled by the top bonsai artist in America, and the most exciting bonsai artist in the world (in my opinion). This is ridiculously cheap! Like, stupidly cheap.
I check in on bonsai sites every now and then that sell trees. Sites such as First Branch Bonsai, Driftwood Bonsai, Mendocino Coast Bonsai, and Backcountry Bonsai. All these sites collect yamadori and sell completely raw material for anywhere from $300 to $2000+. These are unstyled trees in pure pumice in a plastic nursery container.
Some of the “expensive” trees Mirai has in this sale are in pots that sell for $800+. The ceramics of artists like Tom Benda and Sara Rayner command steep prices. So when you see a Mirai tree selling for $3800, you need to understand that the plant itself is being sold for around $3000. All of the trees in that price range are 100+ year-old beauties hand-selected by Ryan, which have then received the pinnacle of horticultural care for some years to get them in full health.
The most valuable part of the whole equation is Ryan’s styling. In the world of painting, if an artist of Ryan’s stature had a sale like this, there wouldn’t be a single painting under $10,000. I said to my wife multiple times this morning how under-priced I considered every tree in the sale to be. We should all consider ourselves lucky to have access at these prices (~$5000 and below), even though many of us can still not afford it.
Edit: also, I’m glad I thought to download their studio photography of the tree I bought - they took all the sold trees down!
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I don’t believe any of the trees were priced unfairly and I think you’re right about them being under priced in some cases. We probably all had stars in our eyes about getting a Mirai tree. It just would have been nice if they had more of the smaller trees or unstyled trees priced at a lower point. And more shippable trees for that matter. The tree sale was publicized as Mirai’s biggest tree sale yet and there were only about 25 trees total, most of which were unshippable and priced at multiple thousands of dollars.
There’s no way around the fact that bonsai is an expensive practice. It’s just that Mirai’s model seems to be so inclusive of people all over the world and at different skill levels. But then the tree sale only seems to cater to the elite practitioners, or at least those willing and able to spend four figures on a tree.
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in my humble opinion, i wish people could have respected the 10am release time even though people found back door links / accidentally went live early (…etc) and bought trees early.
obviously we can’t control other people’s actions, but i guess it’s just my wishful thinking. it doesn’t seem fair. i’m sure the Mirai team feels bad that this happened and is trying to figure out how to prevent this in the future.
For what it’s worth, I counted this morning and there were exactly 38 trees.
I would be super happy, too, if they had more trees at accessible price points! @Eve if you’re reading this - there’s a huge market here of people wanting to spend $300-$500 for simple nursery stock put into simple but beautiful, inexpensive containers, with the simplest of styling by Ryan. So maybe dedicate a week out of the year to just have Ryan pump these puppies out? I bet he could do at least 100 in a week (that’s $30,000 to $50,000 for the mathematically disinclined).
It’s interesting, the same kind of thing occurs at the big shows, at least at the National Show. Many trees in the sales area (and pots too) are sold even before the show opens to the general public, to people there setting up.
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I don’t think it’s that easy to find that kind of raw material. How much time have you spent scouring nurseries for pre-bonsai? It’s slim pickings in my experience. Years ago it was easier to find good stuff but now things are so mass-produced…often instead of finding a single tree or shrub with a decent trunk, no you find a bunch of skinny plants in a pot. Lots of foliage which makes it look like a bigger plant but not even close to the same thing.
It was absolutely not my point to suggest that Backcountry etc’s trees are overpriced, but rather to explain that these Mirai trees are underpriced. I think buying any kind of yamadori for a few hundred bucks is an excellent deal, given how much work goes into it (apart from any intrinsic artistic value of the material).
Ah, I see I missed your point. I guess you were responding to my idea about making 100 small shimpaku junipers to sell for $300-$500. If Ryan tells a nursery he’s looking for that kind of material, I’m pretty sure they can make it happen.