Rare Zoa Club

[yerboy]

First off all this was not my idea but rather a fellow reefer's over on saltwaterfish.com.

We all know there are tons of very nice expensive zoas out there that just cost to much for allot of us to afford. How would you like to get your hands on some of those uber expenive zoas and pally for much cheaper?

Before i go into the details you need atleast 1 person who you trust with your $$ and 1 person you trust to grow the zoas. Can be same person that doesnt matter as long as everyone involved can agree to trust that person or persons.

i will nominate myself as the coordinator. But feel free to volinteer yourself for any of the 2 jobs required for this to work. Coordinator/Farmer


This i how it works.
Everyone interested submits pics of rare zoas they want and those pics get compiled into a poll. Everyone then votes on the frag they would most want to have. Once the #1 zoa has been chosen we find the best place to buy said zoa. Rather it be online or local doesnt matter. Everyone's imput will be valuable for finding the zoa.
Also each coral selected will be available to only 10 people.


For an example lets say the #1 zoa picked is Black Wraith that goes for about $80 a polyp. And we want 2 polyps pluss shipping so lets say our total cost for the order is $200 with shipping.

Total price is price per polyp, shipping, and paypal fee, so price will vary depending on zoa selected. No zoa selected shall be less then 2 polyps.

At that point a thread is posted on the forums and lets everyone know that the buy in for that coral will be $20. The first 10 people who pay the $20 to the coordinator's paypal are locked in for that coral and then that coral becomes closed and then you move on to coral #2 #3 and so on untill you cant get 10 people interested in the other corals or if the farmer has set a limit to the ammount of zoas they are willing to grow.

If your locked in for a coral then you cannt be locked in for a 2nd unless we are having a hard time filling the 10 slots. In that event that coral will become open to everyone.

When all corals have been locked in for the grow out the corals are purchased and shipped directly to the person designated as the farmer. If the coral purchased is 2 polyps then that coral stays in the grow out untill there are 24 polyps at that time the coral is fraged into 2 polyp frags and given to the 10 people who where locked in for that coral.

The farmer and coordinator receives his/her frag for free. So after some time each person would receive a $200 frag for $20.

A few of the rules that should be stated.

Rule #1 The farmer can not be held responisble for death,color morph, mutation, or anything else that can happen to the frag. We all know things happen that are out of our control so considor this a risk. So choose the farmer you most trust.

Rule #2 Once you receive your frag and grow it out you can not under any circumstance sell your frags to a fellow MTRC member for more then your buy in. We are not in this to make money from our fellow members. If you want to sell them on RC for 80 a polyp then go ahead but no MTRC member should be expected to pay you more then what you paid for your zoa per polyp. However you can limit the ammount of polyps you sell the MTRC member.

Rule #3 If your a MTRC member and you buy a frag from someone for the cheap price the same rules apply to you.

Rule #4 Remember that some of the corals that could be selected could be very slow growers so you may be expected to wait many months befoe your frag will be available.

Rule #5 Rules are subject to change. If everyone decides to go with this we can change the rules to best suit our needs.

Rule #6 dont flame me for spelling or grammer errors. Im a reefer not an english major.


Here is a pic of the Black Wrath i mentioned above.

Plase post with any input or suggestions.

 

[yerboy]

reserved

 

[NeveSSL]

I think this may be a good idea, but not practical at all.

If you decide to do it, I wish you the best.

I also have issues with "designer" and named corals that are named simply to sell for a higher price. I think its getting a bit ridiculous, but thats just my opinion and neither here nor there.

Brandon

 

[SRT80]

Lucky for me, I'm not really interested in zoas.

But, if I was....I think no one should be able to put a rule on what you sale your stuff for. I know this is a hobby, but say I take the gamble to invest in this with the risk the person who is growing the coral could lose the coral and I'm out what I invested...then I probably would charge a little more. At least the buyer will be gettin' a frag and not payin' for one and hopin' they get one months later. It's not really a trust issue. Anyone can have a unexpected tank crash or the frags just wont grow...

I don't think it's a "dumb" idea, but I vote no because this is nothin' that would interest me.

Steve

 

[fallinapart]

I have to agree with Steve, I would not say it is a dumb idea, in fact if you are into exotic zoas, then it may be for you. I love zoas, but I could not name a single one I have. I call them by color like a pretty pink one with blue button and purple skirt I guess I'm just getting corals based on how the look to me and my checkbook.

I wish you luck as I'm sure there are some folks who are into designer zoas, and nothing wrong with that, it is just not my interest.

good luck yerboy

 

[yerboy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13221170#post13221170 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NeveSSL
I think this may be a good idea, but not practical at all.

If you decide to do it, I wish you the best.

I also have issues with "designer" and named corals that are named simply to sell for a higher price. I think its getting a bit ridiculous, but thats just my opinion and neither here nor there.

Brandon

I agree 100% and this is a way to bring those prices down to our reef members on those outrageous designer zoas.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13221252#post13221252 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SRT80
Lucky for me, I'm not really interested in zoas.

But, if I was....I think no one should be able to put a rule on what you sale your stuff for. I know this is a hobby, but say I take the gamble to invest in this with the risk the person who is growing the coral could lose the coral and I'm out what I invested...then I probably would charge a little more. At least the buyer will be gettin' a frag and not payin' for one and hopin' they get one months later. It's not really a trust issue. Anyone can have a unexpected tank crash or the frags just wont grow...

I don't think it's a "dumb" idea, but I vote no because this is nothin' that would interest me.

Steve

I had originally written the low cost rule to only apply to people who participated in the zoa club so that if you missed out on 1 frag it could later be available to you at the same cost if you where also willing to sell your frags at the same cost. So maybe that rule should be updated to reflect that or possible even removed completely.

If the goal was to do rare LPS,SPS also would more people be interested?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13222229#post13222229 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fallinapart
I have to agree with Steve, I would not say it is a dumb idea, in fact if you are into exotic zoas, then it may be for you. I love zoas, but I could not name a single one I have. I call them by color like a pretty pink one with blue button and purple skirt I guess I'm just getting corals based on how the look to me and my checkbook.

I wish you luck as I'm sure there are some folks who are into designer zoas, and nothing wrong with that, it is just not my interest.

good luck yerboy

thanks.

 

[rootx69]

well if you get this going im in.

 

[Mikeyjer]

This would never work cause a few reefer and I have attempted this several times before and there was no interest at all. We even setup a frag tank for it too, but because there was no interest, he used it for himself instead. Best to do it with just a few reefer friend of yours that's interested in zoas or whatever you want.

 

[DMBillies]

I would be more interested in SPS because I've had more success with them, but I think it really comes down to problems with the growth rates...

If it takes a small frag 6 months to double in size and another 6 months to double again, you've only finally gotten 4 frags out after a year. That would take more patience than I think most people have... especially because you'll then have to wait another year to get a decent sized colony for yourself.

You might think you can grow them faster (and some corals you might), but most of the higher end corals are rare and expensive because they are slow growers or sensitive to tank conditions. If they were easy to farm, they'd be common place.

For example, the pink bird's nest I have probably multiplies in size by 4 or 5 every six months and is not sensitive to swings in most tank parameters. It is a beauty of a coral, but at this point everyone has them, so they don't command nearly the price they would if you only based your coral buying on how "pretty" a coral is.

In theory I agree it is a great idea and if you have a core group of people (maybe 4) who are a committed bunch of reefers who will stay in the hobby long enough to see it out, then I think you have something... but in practice that's pretty hard to accomplish. People move, run out of money, tanks crash, corals don't grow, etc.

I think you'd have better luck posting links to zoa frag packs you're interested in and work out a split with a couple other guys so that you can save on shipping. Then, if you want to agree with those guys at the time that you'll all offer frags of your zoas to each other at some agreed upon low price before they sell to anyone else, you'll be accomplishing much the same thing.