Live Coral purchses on E Bay

[Howie69]

Anybody have good luck with good quality safe shipments from e bay sellers? There are some great looking live corals on e bay much better than my local stores. Any input would be great.. Thanks in advance

 

[zebrafish]

Have you checked out the coral selling forum? I have had great luck with people here.

 

[BADGUS]

I bought some clove polyps on ebay,when they arrived they had an awful stench,they were all dead,i took pics and tried to get either money back or an exchange,never got an answer.On the other hand,i have bought several corals here,they have all been as pictured.

 

[JWeller]

One seller I had was great... fantastic packing, shipping etc. Coral is thriving.

The other seller I used three frags, one is dead, one is iffy at best and the other is fine. Crappy packing, arrived cold and in dirty stinky water. Yeah.. won't use him again.

 

[shred5]

I have bought off ebay several times and no problems... You have to look at thier experience.

Also shipping is tough on coral and sometimes they just die no matter how good they are packed. Ups or fedex can be real ruff on them too...

Dave

 

[MikePowell]

Best luck is to find some local people and trade and buy with them. Not only are you going to see what you are actually getting, but less stress on the coral b/c of no shipping.

 

[EllieSuz]

I got my first corals from eBay. I didn't know what I was doing and the Sellers were fantastic! Corals (all Zoos) arrived in great condition and were open in a matter of a few hours. Sellers gave me their phone number and I took advantage of their kind offer to guide me as a rank beginner at this hobby. I have since purchased more from them with same excellent results. Their eBay ID is mtnreef. BTW, you pay $26.00 for shipping the first item, but only $3.00 for each additional item. eBay can be great if you pay attention to the Feedback.

 

[Tylt33]

I paid $170 for various coral on ebay from one seller. Most were dead when they arrived, the rest died within a day. Dirty stinky water. NEver doing that again.

 

[mnml]

ebay is a hit and miss. luckily i've found 2 reliable sellers that have awesome selection and solid packaging. however, most of my purchases are from local reefers/farmers.

 

[JWeller]

I'll be ordering some coral from mtnreef this next week. They have some great looking pieces. Now, this one: jrallen321, this seller I'm very disappointed with. Out of the three frags I bought only two has survived and blossomed in my tank. The third arrived in dirty rank smelling water with a ton of debris clouding the water. Not having experience with GSP's I went ahead and acclimated it and placed it in the tank. I gave it a week before tossing it out when it started falling apart. I would call that Dead On Arrival but for five bucks.. I wasn't very heartbroken. I was actually surprised that the other two survived shipping as everything arrived ice cold with only a cheap HandWarmer wrapped in newspaper for heat. For the shipping costs that was paid I expected better packing and shipping. This seller refuses to acknowledge or reply to any of my emails about this frag. That was my "bad" experience with an ebay seller.

I've had several great ones too! Utilize toolhaus.org and really research any potential sellers. Read each neutral and neg feedback to find out if they have certain issues.

With the new feedback policy starting in May, buyers will be able to leave truthful feedback about shipping exp. etc without fear of retalitory negative feedback. Lots of sellers will give you negative feedback if there is even a hint of negativity in your feedback rather it rated a pos., neutral or neg. I can't wait for May!

 

[Howie69]

Thanks guys...:0)

 

[aural]

I've had good luck with buying coral on eBay - I'd always make sure i could get a picture of the actual piece that was being sold rather than a picture of the colony the piece was fragged from just so i knew without a doubt what i was getting and had some sort of record of it.

 

[All Delight]

I've gotten a few too. There are a few of very reliable sellers.