Is it just me ?
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Friday Night
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Couple of years? they already are.. its like zoa housing market.. it has already crashed now is your time to buy. alot of "short sales" are going on now
kichimark
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Thanks TeebD. yeah they had another rock with about fifty for 49 dollars but I will be honest I ran out of room a week ago and had to move some stuff to fit the magicians in. That is why I took the smaller rock. I will take some pics later (lights are out now).
I know some people will pay the high prices. I can't tell people what to do with their money. Eh I don't even care anymore. If someone wants to blow x amount then thats up to them. I just know whenever I sell my polyps it will be cheaper than the going prices.
I know some people will pay the high prices. I can't tell people what to do with their money. Eh I don't even care anymore. If someone wants to blow x amount then thats up to them. I just know whenever I sell my polyps it will be cheaper than the going prices.
kichimark
Μολὼν λαβ
Couple of years? they already are.. its like zoa housing market.. it has already crashed now is your time to buy. alot of "short sales" are going on now
shhhh Friday haha jk. It is true though. Been buying the expensive zoas and palys for cheap lately.
Friday Night
New member
bahahaha i mean who said that?.. one to many drinks... ignore that last comment... buy 195.00 per polyp zoa frags people its good for you! jk...
you cant take it with you in the end anyways
Akwarius
New member
This.
If you don't like the price, no one is forcing you to buy it. Go buy a beautiful $60 colony off of divers den. There is no conspiracy with the vendors, they are only business men trying to keep the roof over their head with a product that has a very low profit margin (once overhead is factored in).
subdrive1127
In Memoriam
OK..back to the topic.
Here's some old school VDM mini colony
and 3 poly I got from vendor which now covers the whole rock.
Here's some old school VDM mini colony
and 3 poly I got from vendor which now covers the whole rock.
cman_pogey
New member
After reading and lurking through this thread the last few days, I have to say something.
I wanted to thank Mucho, for telling me how the industry really is. I have only been in the hobby for about a year, and it is quite sad to see how price gouging is affecting my favorite type of coral the most. I guess I had always thought that these insane prices were normal, and I just got used to the fact that I would never be able to afford them. However, knowing that there was, indeed a time that ALL of these polyps were cheap, and seeing how greedy people drove the prices up tenfold, is very frustrating.
Since I am only one person, there is not much I can do. And I dont even have any very large colonies, but when I do, of some what nice zoas, I am strictly going to trade them, and if I do sell them, it would be insanely cheap, just to drive the price gouging, greedy people who are in it for the money crazy.
My goal is now to sell as many ''nice'' zoas on here for really cheap, and get as many hate messages as possible.
I really do feel like I have an entire new outlook on the hobby now. I didnt know what to look for before, but now that I do, I see price gouging all the time.
Thx Mucho.
P.S. I have some really amazing, super rare, and limited edition Sewage Brown Meadow Green's that were collected by Angelina Jolie, at $900/polyp.
I wanted to thank Mucho, for telling me how the industry really is. I have only been in the hobby for about a year, and it is quite sad to see how price gouging is affecting my favorite type of coral the most. I guess I had always thought that these insane prices were normal, and I just got used to the fact that I would never be able to afford them. However, knowing that there was, indeed a time that ALL of these polyps were cheap, and seeing how greedy people drove the prices up tenfold, is very frustrating.
Since I am only one person, there is not much I can do. And I dont even have any very large colonies, but when I do, of some what nice zoas, I am strictly going to trade them, and if I do sell them, it would be insanely cheap, just to drive the price gouging, greedy people who are in it for the money crazy.
My goal is now to sell as many ''nice'' zoas on here for really cheap, and get as many hate messages as possible.
I really do feel like I have an entire new outlook on the hobby now. I didnt know what to look for before, but now that I do, I see price gouging all the time.
Thx Mucho.
P.S. I have some really amazing, super rare, and limited edition Sewage Brown Meadow Green's that were collected by Angelina Jolie, at $900/polyp.
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I am going to disagree with alot that has been said here about how the coral industries works. The corals that comes from the import/exporter and distributors are not "Cherry Picked" especially when it comes to zoas. This represent such a small variations in categorizing they are mostly sold as colonies or in packages. These corals arrive and are stored in containers, not displays where someone sorts them out.
The only parts I do agree with is that the individuals that acquires the corals and sees them under good lighting and display are the ones that "gouges" on the pricing as you guys calls it. I dont understanding why this is good or bad for the hobby since it's the same with SPS and LPS all over and even some softies to an extent. Of all the people I deal with in corals, the only bunch that seems to turn their noses at this method of grading and pricing are the zoanthid owner so far. Which coincidentally are the ones that then turns around and frags and ups the price to everyone else.
The only parts I do agree with is that the individuals that acquires the corals and sees them under good lighting and display are the ones that "gouges" on the pricing as you guys calls it. I dont understanding why this is good or bad for the hobby since it's the same with SPS and LPS all over and even some softies to an extent. Of all the people I deal with in corals, the only bunch that seems to turn their noses at this method of grading and pricing are the zoanthid owner so far. Which coincidentally are the ones that then turns around and frags and ups the price to everyone else.
Akwarius
New member
What is your experience with the industry, Timinator. Do you work with a wholesaler or lfs?
I have friends who own a lfs and they have told me that all cherry corals are dealt with the same way through their wholesaler. The wholesaler requires the purchase of a certain volume of common corals in order to get the cherry. Now I don't know if this is industry-wide, but it's how things work for them. One of the wholesalers they dealt with was even selling some zoanthid frags.
I have friends who own a lfs and they have told me that all cherry corals are dealt with the same way through their wholesaler. The wholesaler requires the purchase of a certain volume of common corals in order to get the cherry. Now I don't know if this is industry-wide, but it's how things work for them. One of the wholesalers they dealt with was even selling some zoanthid frags.
indeed Akwarius-
yesterday my LFS got a shipment. he told me that he had to buy several "browned out" colonies to get a nice one from his wholesaler-" i had to buy that one and that one to get THAT one".
that is an exact quote from him. there were a couple of those examples he gave me...
don't know if it's true, but it is what he said.
i have no reason to believe it isn't true, he's pretty honest...
yesterday my LFS got a shipment. he told me that he had to buy several "browned out" colonies to get a nice one from his wholesaler-" i had to buy that one and that one to get THAT one".
that is an exact quote from him. there were a couple of those examples he gave me...
don't know if it's true, but it is what he said.
i have no reason to believe it isn't true, he's pretty honest...
Wholesaler, LFS and import/exporter. The gauging does not take place until the individuals gets the corals. And my proof is in the amount of "Fancy" zoas most stores can get. They are just not available as such through most supply chains.
Reef Junkie
Premium Member
Totally true. Have a good friend in LA that is a wholesaler.
Price gouging is across the board from wholesalers to hobbyists. But its so short lived for each color morph because of how fast they grow. Unless its a difficult morph to keep alive.
Also, a lot of the colors morphs we see on these "rare" corals are due to specific tank parameters. So one coral that is brown to you, may turn out to be the next rage for someone with a better maintained aquarium.
I was handed a colony of about 50 PPE's that way. Cha-ching!
chucktd321
New member
Well it seems to come down to the fact that some people think that people gouge that price just because of the name and the other side thinks that if its really colorful and nice of course its gonna cost an arm and leg. My opinion is that these trendy zoas are a joke because as the others said they are worthless basically the next year. This is what i have followed for a while as I just picked up a frag of majicians and RPE and they were each 10 dollars. If I got these when they were "hot" it eaily could've been 10x that since they were big frags. I've been really into collecting the no name zoas and what not that still look awesome. Colormorphologic or however you spell it usually has some real nice zoas that aren't too expensive and MR.Coral almost exclusively sells zoas that are not hyped up but are very nice.
In the end though it seems people will always want the coral thats in or "hot" and if they can afford them they will pay the high prices so they can have them NOW. And the people who WAIT for the trendy coral (like myself) to get pushed back by the newer corals out there will get them for dirt cheap.
In the end though it seems people will always want the coral thats in or "hot" and if they can afford them they will pay the high prices so they can have them NOW. And the people who WAIT for the trendy coral (like myself) to get pushed back by the newer corals out there will get them for dirt cheap.
You're very welcome. I received your PM and replied already. Please continue to spread the word. I will send you a lot of information on this subject for you to share with others.
Your sentiments are being expressed to me by so many others and that is all I want to do is spread the word. Zoas and palys are not like Sps and Lps as many have eluded to. Those corals take months and sometimes years of pristine care, time, money and hardware to produce enough to frag or sell. With good current, lighting and good parameters, you can produce polyps daily and weekly. There is ABSOLUTELY no comparison. When these prices drop back down to $ 15 to $ 20 a frag for 10 to 25 polyps, you are going to see people leaving zoas and palys like you won't believe.
cman_pogey, there are many people selling zoas and palys who don't want you to know exactly what I told you. Why? Because they won't make thousands of dollars off of you per year and laugh all the way to the bank. Also, others will do exactly as you did, you will no longer fall for the lies of trendy, rare, limited edition, hard to find, seldom seen, new on the market, just released and new to the hobby. I find it utterly bizarre with all the stunning zoas and palys and radiant colors we had in this hobby before 2006, and you never ever heard the phony hyped labels I mentioned one sentence above. Reefing, as it relates to zoas and palys, .....has been replaced with retailing by the gougers as you can now clearly see. As someone else said earlier, they will readily pay these prices, because they are simply going to try and grow them and as soon as they have ( 1 ) new polyp, it gets chopped off, glue to a round plug, and you'll find it on a web sight or in the selling forum. Or, in the trash, because it was improperly, prematurely or excessively fragged. A frag from a frag.
I gave all of my zoas and palys away to reefers who couldn't afford to stay in this hobby as they couldn't afford to set up a complete system, then try to stock it with rip off prices for per polyp frags. I'm told the street value of my zoas was well over $ 20.000 if I sold them at PRICE GOUGER prices. I chose not to, instead, I gave them all away.
You shouldn't have to settle for common green and dull orange polyps or wait years until something nice has a price drop, or for the market to be flooded because of these price gougers. Please continue to check out this thread, ok?
I applaud you for wanting to give back and help others with inexpensive frags as I and many others will continue to do. THAT'S REEFING. Keep spreading the word my friend. A change is gonna come.
Mucho Reef
PS. If you receive any hate messages, please let me know. I can show you what legal recourse you can take to insure it never happens again.
I'm with the OP and I really would like to see all of the colonies produced from all those stunning polyps being sold.
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Reef Junkie
Premium Member
Mucho, wth are my free zoas? I've been here even longer than you and I don't have one Mucho LE!
Haha jk buddy
Haha jk buddy
I give you my word sir, one day you're going to hear from me and I'm gonna send you something in the mail. You're gonna pay for the shipping, and when you open the package, you're gonna scream these 5 words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7kjtnW8t4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7kjtnW8t4&feature=related
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blasterman789
New member
Total disagreement.
As long as we're trading in captive corals, I could care less if we spend $1.00 per polyp or $1,000 per polyp. While high demand creates high prices, high demand also means more people will be buying them, and hence they become less rare and the price drops. Also, I'd rather be trading in small captive polyps than ripping football size chunks off of a wild reef and seeing these sold in reef stores for $150. I'm trying to get some trades going in my area to get some purple deaths, and the most anybody will sell / trade me is a single polyp.
The only time a specific color variant commands long term high prices is simply if it's a slow grower via genetics. Otherwise, prices will start to drop on rare color morphs if they grow just as fast as regular color varities.
Wasn't long ago that watermelons and eagle eyes were considered 'exotic' but now they're as common as gorilla nipples and regular green palys.
Sorry, but IMHO, trading of captive corals needs to be encouraged and not discouraged. If somebody wants to pay $200 a polyp for a rare 'Paris Hilton on Acid' color morph, and it's captive raised, who cares.
Local reef store has high growth SPS tanks, and can't give away Acropora and Montipora frags, even big ones at $15 a pop. They've made other reef shops mad because they're depressing prices for the area, so it works both ways.
We're all waiting to see the large colonies. I know they are out there. This is not a discussion about trading captive breed corals. I, we, are all for captive breed trading. This discussion is about price gougers who affect the price for everything else that has color and looks nicer then dooky brown, green or dull orange polyps. It's amazing, haven't corals grown enough in the last 6 years since the advent of names and sky high pricing for them to all drop back down to $ 15 for a frag of 15 polyps? Hmmmm !
There was high demand for them prior to 2006, so why were the prices so darn low back then?
Sir, if all someone will sell you is one purple death, you sir are being played. If you think I'm kidding and I don't know what I'm talking about, then send me a PM. I'm going to shock you. Then I want you to come right back to this thread and share what I did for you just as a favor to a fellow reefer. It's all up to you. I stand behind every single thing I say, now send me a PM and watch what I'm gonna do. Not bragging at all, just helping. It's up to you my friend.
Mucho Reef
There was high demand for them prior to 2006, so why were the prices so darn low back then?
Sir, if all someone will sell you is one purple death, you sir are being played. If you think I'm kidding and I don't know what I'm talking about, then send me a PM. I'm going to shock you. Then I want you to come right back to this thread and share what I did for you just as a favor to a fellow reefer. It's all up to you. I stand behind every single thing I say, now send me a PM and watch what I'm gonna do. Not bragging at all, just helping. It's up to you my friend.
Mucho Reef
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