True, some people will and do take advantage. Yet, most of the people that I know that were suckered into paying some really high price for a named coral were also extremely impulsive and 9 out of 10 times do not last very long in this hobby.
I've been here over 10 years and I've been in the hobby even longer. Shoot, I remember bringing Arabian Macro Algae from the Dead Sea to an Aquarium society meeting in the mid 90's and watching the auction for it go thru the roof because it was named. The difference was ALL of the proceeds went to the Aquarium Society.
Us old timers have to stick together Mucho, these whippersnappers have no respect! hahaha JK
Reef Junkie, that is a very sad testimony to hear. Like the PM I just received, a lot of people don't know they are being taken advantage of. SOME do and don't care because they are only going to spend $ 100 for a polyp which they know is an outrageous price, but they pay it anyway. Why? They will watch that single polyp on that single round frag plug and as soon as a polyp grows next to the one they have, CHOP CHOP, it is fragged off of a frag and placed on another round plug to be sold for $ 100. This is why you don't see many colonies. It's much too profitable to keep chopping than to just let them grow, by SOME.
If you know of people being "suckered", have them read this thread or do a search in this forum on LE, limited edition, rare, names, naming, gougers, gouging, exotic, pimpin, sky high prices, sky high pricing etc.
Fragging as a means of controlling growth or growing frags from ones own frag tank to sell in the selling forum is what we have done for tens of years to make a few dollars to help subsidize the cost of reefing if need be. But with sky high prices, lies, false claims, hype, misleading statements claiming something is rare, new on the scene, just released, limited edition etc, are all means to get you excited to make those impulsive purchases as you spoke of above. As one reefer just told me, "I never knew they were sold in every color imaginable for $ 15 to $ 25 a frag loaded with polyps". Many people just didn't know. Now ask yourself JK, why would someone want to pay $ 100 per polyp that use to cost $ 2 a polyp, all because of a name and claims of, "oh, it's just supply and demand". The supply has always been here as well as the demand. Just do a search in the selling forum or any other forum on the net on sales prior to 2006. Note all of the selling which went on for years with $ 15 frags of most anything and lots of polyps on that frag. Reefing as it relates to zoas and palys is now actively known as retailing, and this is why you don't see any colonies. Excessive fragging, premature fragging, improper fragging, improper care and chop shopping as soon as a polyp sprouts.
This isn't just about so called LE frags, which don't exist BTW. This is not about rare or hard to find polyps. This gouging is running like wildfire throughout the hobby. I stopped by a LFS and the most basic common polyps on the market, that have a name, were attached to as single and double polyp frags to a round frag plug. You see this price gouging has trickled down to all polyps.
Note the push back against lowering these prices back to where they were. It has been stated time and time again, you can't compare sps or lps with zoanthids and palythoas. Zoas and plays grow overnight. Sps and lps take months and many years to produce even a frag to sell. Do you see the overhead/cost difference? But this is the excuse so many have given to keep these prices sky high.
THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES.
IF anyone has colonies to share, we'd love to see them.
