Corals prices gone wild !!!!

Dave VG

Dave VG

New member
Sorry for the rant and I know this subject has been touched on many times here but after looking in the selling forum and stores online I'm disappointed and ****ed!!!!!! You know I can understand people trying to recoup some of there purchase price and monthly expenses back in this hobby by selling corals and I'm all for that. But prices have gone wild and reefers are charging other reefers what the big online stores charge even for an average everyday common coral. Not saying all reefers do this but that is the way it is with a lot of reefers these days more and more. I for one have never believed in this practice. I have given away high end corals as well as received some for free and know where I'm going to get them back from if something were to happen to my tank like a crash and vice versa for the other person in the deal. When I sell I figure on a price that is fair and that the average working man like me can afford no mater what I paid for it. I bought it because I liked it not to get rich off of it or I planned to recoup the purchase price in one sale of it. I don't have a lot of money to spend on regular priced corals these days let alone those high end named ones after Mr. Bill and Mr.Gov take there share of my paycheck and a few other circumstances beyond my control in the last couple of years. Would I like to have some"¦. yes I would. Have I spent big money on some in the past yes I have. Look I don't want to come across as a broke cry baby but it's just sad to see the hobby I love going in this direction and fast. Even if I did have the money and I'm sure I could scrape it up I wouldn't buy some of these ridiculously over priced corals. I like the hobby my tank and the challenges of it and I guess that's what it's all about anyway. Again sorry for the rant.
 
Not it all Dave vent all you want brother.. I feel your pain. Its funny how little timmy thinks he is going to get retail prices for his frags and its sad.. Not only that the name again? lmao... OMG A TYREEE POLYP!!!!! JASON FOX!!!!!! SC BAY!!!! *PANTIES DROP*.... untill people stop ripping off thier brothers and sisters in this hobby its never going to change...

YEA YEA then you have the side of the coin of.. "but but were a co we have to stay in business or if you dont like them dont buy them" Im not asking you to "give" your frags away for peanuts. But we all know deep down inside in places you dont like to talk about at party's you know what you paid for them wholesell..

Then you see people trying to ask how to put thier frags or zoas on steroids MAKE ME GROW!!!!! dude just leave em be and enjoy... ;)

And i know we get this type of topic once a week in the forums ya ya... lol..
I saw that the other thread got locked beacuse it turned into a "how to get rich quick" thread.. witch i dont want this one to turn into as well.. But yea Dave i feel you bro..
 
Dave VG said:
Sorry for the rant and I know this subject has been touched on many times here but after looking in the selling forum and stores online I'm disappointed and ****ed!!!!!! You know I can understand people trying to recoup some of there purchase price and monthly expenses back in this hobby by selling corals and I'm all for that. But prices have gone wild and reefers are charging other reefers what the big online stores charge even for an average everyday common coral. Not saying all reefers do this but that is the way it is with a lot of reefers these days more and more. I for one have never believed in this practice. I have given away high end corals as well as received some for free and know where I'm going to get them back from if something were to happen to my tank like a crash and vice versa for the other person in the deal. When I sell I figure on a price that is fair and that the average working man like me can afford no mater what I paid for it. I bought it because I liked it not to get rich off of it or I planned to recoup the purchase price in one sale of it. I don't have a lot of money to spend on regular priced corals these days let alone those high end named ones after Mr. Bill and Mr.Gov take there share of my paycheck and a few other circumstances beyond my control in the last couple of years. Would I like to have some"¦. yes I would. Have I spent big money on some in the past yes I have. Look I don't want to come across as a broke cry baby but it's just sad to see the hobby I love going in this direction and fast. Even if I did have the money and I'm sure I could scrape it up I wouldn't buy some of these ridiculously over priced corals. I like the hobby my tank and the challenges of it and I guess that's what it's all about anyway. Again sorry for the rant.
Click to expand...

Friday Night said:
Not it all Dave vent all you want brother.. I feel your pain. Its funny how little timmy thinks he is going to get retail prices for his frags and its sad.. Not only that the name again? lmao... OMG A TYREEE POLYP!!!!! JASON FOX!!!!!! SC BAY!!!! *PANTIES DROP*.... untill people stop ripping off thier brothers and sisters in this hobby its never going to change...

YEA YEA then you have the side of the coin of.. "but but were a co we have to stay in business or if you dont like them dont buy them" Im not asking you to "give" your frags away for peanuts. But we all know deep down inside in places you dont like to talk about at party's you know what you paid for them wholesell..

Then you see people trying to ask how to put thier frags or zoas on steroids MAKE ME GROW!!!!! dude just leave em be and enjoy... ;)

And i know we get this type of topic once a week in the forums ya ya... lol..
I saw that the other thread got locked beacuse it turned into a "how to get rich quick" thread.. witch i dont want this one to turn into as well.. But yea Dave i feel you bro..
Click to expand...

This sentiment is pretty common. But where there are buyers @ those prices, there will always be sellers @ those prices. If someone sells them cheap, its common to see someone turn around and sell it the next week for its normal price.

Its how it goes. Our local reef site has a PIF (pay it forward) forum. Someone frags something, they gift it too a few people...then those people gift it too a few people when they can and so on and so on.

If you really want to change this, thats probably the best way to go about it. The more people involved in PIF the faster the free stuff gets spread out...
 
It's appalling, but honestly for the most part it's not stores that are doing it, it's hobbyists that color up corals they get from their LFS or online, then tag their names on them and get a great pic which makes them rarer somehow so they can rip off other hobbyists.

Case in point, a lot of sponsors on here sell maxi mini carpets for $40-60, but you go on the classifieds and the SAME anemones are selling for $120. That they bought from sponsors or their local LFS. But don't post in the threads or you get banned, just shut up and watch people take it with no lube.

I know A TON of LFS all over the country that get in amazing, rare corals and sell them at great prices, but people don't support their local shops anymore because the fad is to buy a polyp at $40 than the same wild colony for $40 that needs a little coloring up. So the scammers buy from the LFS and the hobbyists buy from the scammers, and the cycle continues and now it's a pathetic mess where people "show off" their $12,000 90 gallon tank that's just 100 nickle sized dots on rocks and looks hideous.

We buy it, we perpetuate it by pretending it looks good and complimenting people on their awesome frag plug dominated tanks, so if anyone's the problem it's us, the scammers are just preying on the idiocy. Think about it, when was the last time someone posted a picture of a $900 two eyed speck of a chalice and the predominant opinion wasn't "*** is wrong with you that you let yourself be ripped off in such an obvious manner." It's always "wow, you must make good money and therefore be a better reefer, here, have some pointlessly undeserved respect."
 
Lol... I have often looked at this sites coral selling forum and laughed for a few minutes then go back to whatever I was doing. Its a fine line... If the seller has put in the work and grown his corals from scratch I dont have as much as an issue as the process mentioned above of soup em up and sell em. But even those guys have a right to charge what they want assuming some is willing to pay it.

Personally my best deals have come from local reefers. I would say that I have bought 50% of my corals local, 40% acquired via trade local, and 10% bought from LFS and online retailers. I have NEVER bought a coral online from a private seller because everyone I have seen has been so far out of line price wise I just choose to pass.

I choose to stay local and deal within our community as I have had great success and built some really nice friendships. There is something to be said about making a friend who is also a reefer. And I personally feel someone is going to be a heck of alot more honest with you when dealing face to face. But to each his/her own as the old saying goes: "Theres a sucker born every minute".
 
I bought purple hornets for 100 bucks for 1 polyp. When it arrived, it had already split in two.

It took about a year to get 10 polyps, and I fragged off 2 of them to trade to a local friends coral shop. I gave him a few other frags with them, but he traded me a silver dollar sized piece of tyree watermelon chalice. (4 colors)

Im collecting some corals to later start my own online frag business- did I pay a lot for them? yep- but it was worth it.

Reefing isnt a poor mans hobby. No offense. My wife has very good tastes in coral and always points out her favorites when we go to a shop. THose favorites are usually the most expensive things in the store. She knows nothing about corals besides what she thinks is neat and pretty.

When I start my shop, I am going to stock it with just about everything she thinks is neat and pretty. How many times have you been to a store and seen a bunch of blah stuff laying around in the tanks that doesnt move? How many times have you been to a nice pet store that has one or two tanks with nice stuff in it, and 20 with just blah stuff in it? Which tanks do you always check first?
 
1DeR9_3Hy said:
Our local reef site has a PIF (pay it forward) forum. Someone frags something, they gift it too a few people...then those people gift it too a few people when they can and so on and so on.

If you really want to change this, thats probably the best way to go about it. The more people involved in PIF the faster the free stuff gets spread out...
Click to expand...

That's awesome. I've always said that whenever I start fragging stuff I'll let it go for cost of shipping + $10. So far anything I've done locally has been for free. I think most people start selling "high end" stuff with good intentions (just to make up thier money spent) but once they see how easy it is to turn a profit they get greedy. Do the math in some of the selling threads and you'll see some of those guys banking a grand by the time they are sold out. A month later, they are selling again. [/rant]
 
i know exactly what you mean, if people pay 20 dollars a polyp they then charge that onto the next buyer. they buy a frag of 5 polyps for 100 then over a few months it doubled or tripled then sell them off. i have this hobby because i enjoy it not because i want to make money from it, the limited amount of fragging i have done has been given away or traded so you can increase my collection in a financially sustainable way
 
You know mikersx02 you are right this hobby is no poor mans hobby but it has transitioned into a hobby that a man with an average salary can afford as equipment selection is up and prices have come down to where those who have wanted to get in but couldn’t afford the startup equipment (because there was no selection and most charged what they wanted) can at least get a start. Look what that has done for the hobby more LFS than ever carry salt inventory and now we have the big online salt stores. Affordability for the average wage earner has spawned this it’s not because there are more wealthy people getting in lol. And with places like this with sooooo many knowledgeable people it is not voodoo any more. Now the coral prices need to come down especially reefer to reefer sales IMHO. All but five of my corals were acquired from local reefers at way below retail prices and I do have some very nice corals. This has been kind of the code of reefers to sell at reasonable prices to other reefers and build up the salt community in there area that way as more people can afford to buy different things and start to trade or sell them at good prices and the variety becomes immense and is a win win situation. The selling forum on here for the most part does not reflect that. The five corals I bought from the LFS are nothing spectacular but nice. As they grow out I will eventually frag them and trade or sell them maybe even give them away. But when I do sell them one thing is for sure they will be priced very reasonably. By the way the LFS where I bought the five corals from is over an hour one way but has amazing prices and coral selection even tho there are two salt carrying LFS’a within 20 minutes but just suck and have prices sometimes 50% higher than online stores and the one I travel to. You notice I put price first selection second. And ya ya I know it’s the people who gotta have it first and pay whatever that drives up prices and that really sucks for everyone. By the way Mike no offense taken from the poor man comment but then again I’m no poor man.
 
Want corals to be cheaper? Make them more common. Be more generous with what you have and you'd be amazed at how many other reefers do the same. Quit searching the for sale forum and get to know people locally. If you frag your red hornets and pass out the polyps eventually everyone will have some. When yours melt you'll be glad you passed them around. The problem is everybody is trying to impress everyone else and have that coral that nobody else has. Share/trade what you have and the hobby is a lot more fun.
 
I agree with folks. Making them common will lower the prices very quickly. Not buying stuff at insane prices will force prices to go down as well.
 
This is all true, frag what you have. PIF is a very good idea. That is why I got into the local reef club scene is because I was always told that these 'guys' cared more about the hobby rather than making money and wanted the hobby itself to move forward. I have been lucky enough to receive a few PIF corals and I plan on returning the favor when the time comes. Lets all share. These LE pieces that get purchased don't stay LE, in fact the idea that they call it LE is stupid because once someone frags it and so on it becomes common. If you can afford it fine, but I will stick to trading within my club, and buying from LFS who don't bump up prices.
 
You know what the worst part of this whole pricing crap is!! That it’s left such a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths and we are slowly loosing good reefers to it. As we all know some of the best right here in this forum. It’s sad man it really is.
 
There are places online right now that are selling 100 to 200 polyp colonies for less than a $1 a polyp and even less than $.50 per polyp.

They have good color and probably are more likely to be seen from across the room than your $75 two polyp frag.

The problem seems to me that every one complains about the "super bee hive rainbow chaos supercalafragalistic" polyps being too much money. By doing this you are feeding in on the hype.

Don't buy into the hype.
Don't create hype.
Don't buy the expensive polyp.

...and price will go down. Guaranteed!
 
Dave VG said:
You know what the worst part of this whole pricing crap is!! That it's left such a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths and we are slowly loosing good reefers to it. As we all know some of the best right here in this forum. It's sad man it really is.
Click to expand...

We didn't lose them, they'll be back. We lost the whiney one's that would rather quit than help solve the problem. I dont miss those guys, I kinda got sick of listening to them. I agree with prices being high but those guys turned the whole forum into a negative place and for a long time I wouldn't even visit the Zoanthids forum. Debating the issue is fine once in a while but they took it too far. In a way I felt like they were taking over the whole forum. I assure you though most of them didn't go any where for long.
 
Don't buy into the hype.
Don't create hype.
Don't buy the expensive polyp.

...and price will go down. Guaranteed! Co-sign.... have fun folks. This cycle will continue as long as reefers in general allow it.
 
WOW, i leave for awhile and you come back charles... you just cant stay away from this hobby can ya? :lol:


on a side note charles is 100% right here. if you keep paying the prices they will stay high. only way is for every body to stop paying crazy prices, sad thing is not enough of us can actually stay true to this.
 
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