Plant species produce far more seedlings than those surviving to adulthood. It would seem reasonable to take advantage of that excess production, by relocating seedlings to desired restoration sites. There is, however, little information available on this issue. In the present study, we collected naturally regenerated seedlings of two native species, Calophyllum brasiliense (“barí”) and Vochysia guatemalensis (“corpo”), in old‐growth forest patches, and transplanted them for the enrichment of a secondary tropical forest in Veracruz, Mexico. For transplanted C. brasiliense seedlings, overall survival was 32% after 20 months, and for V. guatemalensis seedlings it was 66% after 26 months. The mean height (±standard error) of all C. brasiliense and V. guatemalensis seedlings that survived until the end of the study, was 33 ± 2 cm (from initially 12.9 ± 0.2 cm) and 52 ± 5 cm (from 4.6 ± 0.1 cm), respectively. We applied a cost–benefit model to assess the trade‐off between initial‐investment costs and the resulting survival of transplanting naturally regenerated seedlings in the current study, in comparison with direct seeding (with and without the protection of seeds and emerged seedlings) reported in a previous study for the same area and species. For C. brasiliense, the success of transplanting naturally regenerated seedlings was always inferior to direct seeding without protection, whereas for V. guatemalensis it was always superior. Comparing the transplantation of naturally regenerated seedlings with direct seeding with protection, the best propagation strategy depended on the (monetary) value that a treelet is expected to be worth after 2 years.