I've got nearly 10k of them. Do people even buy these? I guess I could buy some maple earrings on my NL and one day try chaosing them. Also what should I do with sunshine? Does it really take 100k sunshine to grow the tree?
You can either use the candles for yourself or sell them to other players. Personally I'd get the earrings since it's the best item available with the candles, after that it's up to you whether or not you want anything else. If you don't, you can sell them on the FM anywhere between 40-55k, maybe even more. You donate 200 sunshine to enter the Maple Tree map. You don't need to provide the entire 100k sunshine, it's supposed to be a group effort between all players.
selling them does seem tempting, an extra 500m would go a long way guess i need to find a new guild to run the tree event with
Well just wait for announcements, there will be a server wide announcement whenever the tree has reached 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%. Wait until 60% or 80% before going in because usually people will start to rush in soon after those announcements.