Is it worth to buy a previously owned fish (4 times more expensive)?

[J2T]

That's a pretty rotten attitude to have. I guess if somebody fixes up an old car and turns it into a hotrod you expect them to take a massive loss when they sell it after all the hard work and money they put into it? If the guy isn't lieing, and he's had the fish for a while, he's fed it a lot of $ in food, on top of the value of the fish.

The guy i've been buying live rock from is selling his rock at a profit, but he's selling it at less than half the price of the LFS, and he also frags coral and sells the frags to help pay for salt and other maintenance supplies. All his prices are fair and he leans towards the generous side on every transaction like if i only have 30 dollars, and the bucket of rocks weighs out at 12lbs he'll shrug it off and take my money. The LFS would charge you down to the tenth of a pound. I highly doubt there are a ton of hobbyist reefers out there profiteering and taking advantage of anybody. Most are probably just trying to offset their spending a bit.

What's wrong with turning a hobby into a business anyway? How do you think a lot of shops get started? For fish only stores, a lot of people start out as hobbyists, start breeding fish and selling stuff and next thing you know it becomes a business. People do the same thing with all sorts of hobbies like photography.

You sound like somebody that works in a job they hate and think that nobody should ever make money off anything they enjoy.

Not a rotten attitude to have when people run the hobby like a business and charge as much or more than LFS prices. Turning a hobby into a business, sure go right ahead but some people actually go through the proper channels and obtain a license to deal in livestock.

 

[EnderG60]

HA, for that price I would just buy 4 of them and see how many live.

 

[Hzuiel]

Not a rotten attitude to have when people run the hobby like a business and charge as much or more than LFS prices. Turning a hobby into a business, sure go right ahead but some people actually go through the proper channels and obtain a license to deal in livestock.

I thought i addressed this well enough, but to respond specifically to what you're saying, it's not a business if it's not turning a profit. If their maintenance expenses and initial investments total up to more than what they have sold, they don't need a license. I would imagine if somebody is even close to approaching turning a profit, they're already moving toward the direction of getting licensed to import and sell so they can start a business.

 

[humaguy]

some of these comments make no sense to me...

If I buy a 1 inch Clown Trigger or a 1 inch Queen Angel for say $90, and decide to sell that fish 5 years later, and that fish is now 6 inches..I am going to ask a lot more than $90 for it...
this has nothing to do with turning the hobby into a business...
bigger fish are more expensive...

 

[pinnatus]

I like buying fish from other people. They have already adapted to aquarium life, which is always an iffy proposition in my experience. Plus the fish already has a track record. If it is eating prepared foods and it is a copperband, then that price may well be worth it my view. That is, if I wanted a copperband that will eat. Copperbands are notoriously finicky eaters. The last one I had ate aptasia, but would never eat prepared foods. When the aptasia were gone, the fish starved to death. So if the fish is healthy and eating, I'd consider paying it!

And by the way, it is none of my business if the owner is or isn't making money. If the deal is worth it to me as an informed consumer, then that is all I need.

 

[CHSUB]

I just bought a 4-5 inch CBB yesterday that is eating pellets and frozen mysis. i paid $24. i had said i would never get another one, because they are to difficult to keep, but it was agressively eating pellets, so i gave it a shot.