PO'd about Zoas

daninflipflops

daninflipflops

New member
Going to vent a little. What is with all these crazy names for zoas? who exactly creates these names and why do people buy/sell them for so much? i see "colonies" of 8-10 polyps selling for $400 on here? There are so many crazy names and i guess i want to know where they come from and how "official" they really are? whats to stop me from going to my LFS and buying some colorful zoas for $2 a polyp and the calling them "Danny's Delight" or something stupid like that?

I really dont see how zoas are worth that much, they are basically the weeds of the reef and spread very quickly

Please help me understand.
 
some of the more rare zoas you'd be lucky to see 3-4 polyps in a year.. look at chalices some of them selling for a booger sized frag for 1,500
 
I can't help you to understand much about that, sorry!
I don't understand myself how people can pay that much for a polyp or two.

I call them "cartoon names". LOL!!!
The only thing I can guarantee is that I'm not THAT old (LOL!!!!), but in the past we didn't have all that stuff!!
They claim it's about "supply/demand" and they say there is no "hype" too, but others will probably explain more to you...

People love this kinda threads...

There is nothing official, are you kidding me?
It's like kids' stuff to get adult's money.
If you would like to play the game you need to pay their prices to be in their club.

Grandis.
 
These names are crazy and hard to keep up with IMO...agreed Marketing Greed. However, they do give a common reference point in most cases. On the other hand, the names seem to change a lot...probably based on what is selling better at the time. For example: I bet "Devil's Armor Paly" sells much better than "Orange Paly" and also for a higher price.

IME if you just wait patiently, that $50 or $60 pp zoa/paly will be for sale in a local club for $5 or $10 pp. I guess the bottomline is: if someone's willing pay that price, a seller is more than happy to charge that crazy price with a fancy name.
 
I see is as a way to separate on zoa from another but what I don't agree with is how some of the zoas are sold simply because of thier names. I have many of the ultra named zoas but as a collector I have never bought one because of their name. If the latest and greatest zoa was a "ultra" zoa that was pale brown and plain with no interesting character, I wouldn't buy it because it wouldn't appeal to me.

If you had a nice looking zoa and it was a super slow grower or extra hard to maintain, I would understand asking for a premium for it but a zoa that you will get 3-5 heads after a couple months will not get crazy money out of me because soon they will be all over the market. My advice is to wait. All of these ultra named zoas will eventually come down to a reasonable level. Look at the hornets and rastas. A few years ago, they were $100 a head now you can buy a head for less than half that. I bought a one head rasta frag last October and now I have over 30 heads of them and when I do frag them, they will be at a reasonable amount.
 
Someone always has to have the latest and greatest no matter what hobby you're in. There's dozens if not hundreds of varieties of zoas out there all are relatively good growers (not to mention all the varieties of LPS, SPS, etc...) That not one more collector should ever have to go diving for another coral. Yet we still have anemones selling for $10,000. The name game just perpetuates it.
 
There is always going to be the lure of exclusive.....whatever the addiction/hobby. Over time being true to what turns you on and not getting sucked into the frenzied trends is the way I try to approach and attack the things I put energy towards in my life. Hard earned money still gets spent...but not on the livestock (gifts from our oceans) that get mis handled by rooks trying to make a buck out of their garage or basement. Fun to look...but come on man.
 
"There's a sucker born every minute."
-P.T. Barnum


I think that a large part of it is those who want to be the first to have something that isn't widely available.
 
I just think the common names are much easier to remember and to use for reference. A full description doesn't exactly fit on a 2mL PCR tube. They will have scientific names soon. Don't worry. We are working on it.
 
I agree 100% with what everyone has said above. It's nothing more than "silly cartoon hipster names", it's "greed", slick "marketing" to take your money and to convince you that you have something rare, and you don't. "The name game just perpetuates it." And you know the funny thing is this, you're being told they are rare and they aren't, and they aren't even new. It's Marketing 101.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1888199&highlight=pimpin

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003
 
Last edited:
MUCHO REEF said:
I agree 100% with what everyone has said above. It's nothing more than "silly cartoon hipster names", it's "greed", slick "marketing" to take your money and to convince you that you have something rare, and you don't. "The name game just perpetuates it." And you know the funny thing is this, you're being told they are rare and they aren't, and they aren't even new. It's Marketing 101.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1888199&highlight=pimpin

MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

Grandis.
 
i see z's and p's I used to pass up when I see around years go when I used to hunt around for new polyps for collection, now being renamed, blasted with crap load of led or attinics put a cartoon name then sold as limited supply high priced Per polyp corals...... SMH
 
guess ill chrime in, as someone who has had probably a 100 or so morphs over the years, the name part does make me laugh, i remember the hornets before they was hornets and was $55 for a colony of a hundred of them, as well as many other of them, honestly i think there is only one name i havent seen in person yet and thats the soprano's, sure i have seen them, but the photo's you find online are so edited i wouldnt know one in person. the main reason why the pricing to me is because of the internet, and photoshop. i could post 5 pic's of the same zoa and make it look completely different, the term the jones is no different in this hobby, i think the only thing in this hobby i ever chased after and waited for a couple of years to get was 8line flashers, ill be honest i was so ****ed when they started coming in by the thousands, lol because it took me so long to get them and i caught my pair before they came in groves so i did feel special having them. buy what ya like and dont go by a picture cause unless your looking through a macro lense they wont look the same
 
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