I would like to point out a few things here...
Go to the local nursery's if you like, hell I do it and have a great time there. I even sometimes pick up things to play with. I have however found the following...
Rough (nursery) stock purchased at your local bonsai shop is FAR better suited and picked by the bonsai shop specifically for it's attributes to make the best stock for use with bonsai. You are more likely to find species that are better suited for for bonsai. If you are buying rough stock the prices are not that far off. I'm not sure how bonsai nursery's in other parts of the country/world are, but here in MA each of the nursery's has a rather large section devoted to "Stock Plants". As an example please see
This Thread The Juniper seen here was purchased at New England Bonsai Gardens, in a 5 gallon nursery pot for $45 (give or take a couple bucks my memory isn't working this morning). It has over a 2" trunk at the base and had so many options of where to go with it Kenji Miyata said we could do anything we wanted with it. The Juniper shown
HERE was purchased at Bonsai West for the nominal fee of $19.95 and again had plenty of options to work with and a 1" trunk. Due to personal circumstances I was unable to finish the initial styling before the contest deadline but you will see the results in the spring when I can complete the work. Also just before the winter I purchased another Juniper from Bonsai West that they had for only $14.99 that had been a stock plant sitting in the back since the late 80's. Plenty of potential here as well.
And my final thought.. If you don't support your local bonsai nursery's in buying their lower-priced stock even to play around with...
THEY WILL NOT BE THERE FOR YOU IN THE FUTURE!
They depend on us as customers just as we depend on them for our needs.
Thank you for listening to my .02
Adam