Crimson queen is a weeper. So how tall is it? How thick is the trunk? Does it look good? Nice radial branching?
59 bucks is ballpark. One gallons are usually 15 bucks or thereabouts. If it pleases you....buy it.
No problem at all to repot if you have a helper.
Soil...you can use potting soil, maybe add some small bark to the mix. Others have more exacting standards for soil for a potted maple and they might chime in. Or you could search this forum...I think I've seen the subject of soil debated a few times.

The trunk is thick and straight, foliage is very nice, good branching. I was impressed with the appearance. They also have some 5-gallon varieties for $20 (discounted from $30), but those don't look as good. The height is 5' from bottom of pot to top of tree. I didn't measure from soil to top of tree because I wanted to make sure that pot/tree fits in my car. But I think you can estimate the tree height, just deduct the 15-gallon pot height.

Thanks,

$59 is a BARGAIN for a tree that size!! 15 gallon, 4-5' 'Crimson Queen's go for well over a hundred at most retail nurseries -- my own sells 5 gallons CQ's for $75.

Because of the eventual mature spread, I'm not sure this would be my first choice for a long term container plant. It's just going be a lot harder to repot, root prune and provide other attention when you are working with a tree of this width. But it will certainly work for awhile :-) And for any long term container planting, especially Japanese maples, I'd look for the best potting soil you can find. It should have a high concentration of bark fines. There have been numerous dicussions on this forum regarding an appropriate mix. I've attached a link to a more recent one that generated a rather spirited discussion :-) One of the contributors (Al/tapla) is a widely recognized authority on container culture and you can safely take any of his recommendations to heart and with excellenst results.

Here is a link that might be useful: J. maple potting soils

I think I'll leave it in the current pot until next spring, then I'll plant it in the ground. It's gonna be between 2 banana plants, to be under under their shade. To control height and spread, I think I'll just keep pruning it back, and maples don't grow too fast anyways. Thanks for the link, let me go check it out, maybe it'll change my mind and I'll keep the tree in a container.

Sounds good.
Planting in the ground is certainly okay.
I have found with weepers though, that they can look really good in a container. I have a couple of crimson queens that are really sharp-looking. I do make 15 inch square and high planting boxes out of redwood for my maples. The only downside is the need to put cinder blocks or some kind of height enhancer under the planting box when they weep so far as to touch the ground. But on the other hand, by varying the heights I can place several trees fairly close together and have multiple leaf textures & colors in a small space.
I have never needed to do any pruning on my container maples, and actually very little pruning on my maples in the ground. Your results may vary of course.
And yes, that link on soils for maples is very interesting.

deep roots: I see that you're in CA Zone 9, what city are you in? I'll have to look for a better container than the black plastic the tree came in. A Crimson Queen deserves better. BTW, I checked out pacificcoastmaples website, some great advice on there, as well as beautiful trees.

Thanks,

I'm in the Bay Area, around Palo Alto.
I have six JMs in the ground, 15 in my planter boxes and maybe 10 more still in the black plastic nursery pots. There is only so much room in my yard after all!
There is a nursery in Menlo Park that used to carry lots of interesting & hard to find varieties in one-gallons, but they no longer do. They only carry larger specimen trees ($$$$$) now. Your big box stores also don't have a great selection of varieties, so the specialty nurseries on the web might indeed be the best new source.