Many call me cheap, some call me crazy, others call me a shopaholic. I never go crazy at conventions shopping. But, its the thrill of the hunt is what I enjoy the most. For that you need to be the first or the last shopper at the convention to get those type of deals. At this convention, I was either. I tried to make it down on Thursday afternoon, but the traffic on my Iphone said, "No". I wasn't even the first shopper on Friday, because of work. At that point all the deals to be had were gone. But, there were a ton of stuff still on Saturday and late Saturday afternoon.
I did get a chance to catch up with some people I know and shop regularly at. Here is Travis Goldenstein of California Bonsai Studios in Thousand Oaks. If you need some Masakuni he is your man! I've been trying to pair down my collection of tools to about 3 tools and I think I found my last branch trimmer.
George Muranaka from Muranaka Bonsai Nursery in Nipomo was selling his shohin collection next to Frank Yee. If you haven't been tagging trees at Muranaka Nursery you are missing out. Every October-January you can tag trees in the ground at the nursery. Around spring time you drive back to his nursery and you get to dig up and take your tree home.
Frank of course was selling his famous cork bark succulents. He was teasing everybody with his mature tree he brought to the show.
Elliot Martin (Keith Martin's Dad) and Javier Vallin selling some personal collections off. Javier had a killer cork bark oak! Keith I still like that live oak you had! Barry Altshule from Legacy Oaks were next to them. Sadly, Barry wasn't around when I was taking pictures. He had an awesome collection of oaks and olives for sale.
What else can I say about Mel Ikeda selling? He had some big trees there.
Ron Reekers had his print shop in the middle of the sales area. This year he had a special tshirt made up just for this show with his signature art work.
Of course how can we forget about June and David Nguy. They are the backbone of any club show and always has a table at them. I had some more pictures but for some reason they all were blurry. I think it was the dry fingers from lunch. Oh well until the next shopping excursion!