"Me thinks you live in never never land, $200 for a maple are ya kidd'n or what, would never waste that kinda dough on a maple of any sort, for sure no starter tree of any species"
Me thinks you're not thinking clearly
Two hundred for a "starter" maple isn't that bad--if the material is good. Good nursery material or collected material is where you find it and worth paying for.
A prime example:
http://users.ez2.net/manning/profil...hin/goshin.html
Check out the starter trees Naka used for this forest in his books. Primary tree, if I remember correctly, was a landscape juniper cut down from over 15 feet. The complete planting is well over three feet tall