Anthony Calfo said:
Thank you for your input... and it is always welcome.
Its just frustrating when you regurgitate the same point(s) over again. All I hear you saying is that you haven't seen what we've seen and you don't believe it because you haven't seen it. That one is tough for me to argue 
I'm sorry you don't agree with my perspective or experiences... but repeating your disbelief over and over again will not change my mind. Its not even my opinion at this point... I have seen, smelled and touched these animals in recent weeks/months.
And for what statements or opinions are relayed (wholesaler accounts)... they are from the perspective of 20 and 30 year veterans in the business that dive the reefs by the collecting stations they own or purchase from. Good heavens... how much more authoritative do we need? Its a much better opinion than inland/online basement sellers that would have us all believe market values otherwise that benefit them (profits) directly.
You are correct... I certainly do not want to only hear praise/support (if I do/state anything worthy)... but I'm hoping not to be berated on moot points just the same 
Oh I understand, I am not trying to drone over the same point, (more...per say.. expanded upon it.) The reason I don't comment on the other aspects.. Is I don't have exeprence in them. I have never agressively sought out, and reasearched a speciefic coral as I have with this one, and you must understand. For me.. if what your saying is 100% correct. That means, every person, rep, owner or whatever I have delt with and have attempted to purchase these corals from on a wholesaler level.. Have blantently lied to my face...which I find disturbing as I consider some of them to be nice people and I am rather friendly with a few...
I'm not trying to change your mind.. I just recall in previous posts you saying how hard it is to tell the diffrence, ect ect. Now maybe in recent weeks things have changed It has been over a month since I last went 104. Maybe next time you drop into san diego, la well take a trip together and you can show me my ignorance.. Or maybe when I head up on monday to start the restocking process I'll see something I haven't seen before and have to eat my words.
..and I to have had long conversation with a few of the owners of some of the larger wholesalers about this. I've sat down @ the computer with one, showed him pictures, ect.. 5-6+ months ago.. Others I have emailed pictures and discussed with.. All have come up empty handed... Honestly, these basement/inland guys aren't lying maybe they are mistaken as your are saying I am...but They've tried..We've tried.. We just can't get them.. Up until this last month.. I never thought RWM would have in as many in stock as they do now.
...but on another note. I think one of the things we over look is how these these trends, and rare corals do play a good roll in the hobbie and benifit us all. I mean, for one.. They keep people intrested. If you could get..any coral you wanted, in whatever colour, whenever you want @ the same price and everything was equal.. Sooner or later people would tire of there tanks, not just that..but they would have no reason to frequent there LFS, or purchase more corals...and if that were to happen , all the LFS and online dealers would have to depends on Start ups only for there business as the seasoned reefer would have gotten exaclty what they were looking for some time ago, and stopped going to there stores (as which is one of the biggest complaints with bread and butter stores vs online cherry pickers).. Another thing is it allows many of the vendors to keep prices on the "common corals" competitive, and they use the "rare" corals as there cash cows to.. pay the bills, and make some profit.. as we all know. Starting up a reef store isn't the easiest of things or the quickest way to make it rich. I mean nobody is retiring off sellling blue zoas..although they might be able to make a car payment on time..
.. But back on point the benifit of having these cash cows lets the entry level hobbiest, or non-discriminating hobbiest pay a lesser cost for the "non piece of week" while those whom are heavly addicted, have deep pockets, or expensive tastes can will help carry a fair share of the hobbie. While in princple it seems unfair to have to pay 60$ for a little 1/2" frag of flavour of the month. I think it's better then the altervative which I feel would be a flat rate incressed price across the board on everything in order to make up for the lost profit..if all corals were brought in at the same rate and at a similar cost or value... Another main benfit of these "rare" coral.. Is it allows the "little guy" to exist. If it wasn't for those with a keen eye for following or developing trends. The only stores that would be able to exist would be large volume moving business, and once they knew they didn't have to worry about the little guys whom drop the price on the bread and butter and mark up the "flavour of the month" don't you think they would be able to charge whatever they wanted for the most common of corals. Alot of this little basement, and garage guys.. have just that to get there business started.. a basement or a garage.. They don't have the capital to be able to setup a system to hold 1,000's of corals or purchase huge volumes... But the "rare coral" allows them a chance to build there buisness up with a few 100 gallon tanks, and there time and effort... I see that as a plus..
Another thing they do is open your eyes to diffrent things (back on the keeping it intrested..) Up until the Acan crazy who could tell the diffrence between, an acan..a blasto..whatever... It wasn't even worth the wholesalers, collecters or whomevers time to seek out and bring is such a coral as the demand wasn't there except for the few that have spent way to many hours reading verons book, or were luckly enough to see one of these first hand. To them it was just a brain, proboly worth very little. Now that a trend, and a demand has develpoded soon (or as you say now..they are going to be coming in and be commonly availabe ...keeping fingures crossed
) And a once Extremely Hardry, very easly kept in captivly and quickly to repoduce coral would never have been pushed to the forefront and hopefully soon make it into every LFS across the nation.. I'd much rather see somebody walk out the store after getting the acan, zoa, or ric bug..with a bag of nice hardy corals, and a smile on there face.. the see them walking out with a gonipora, foxcoral, or some other soon to be doomed readly avaialbe coral which most lfs are pushing due to a lack of direction or following of the market trends.. as when it comes to reef tanks.. we only have so much room. So every hardy coral purchased will take the place of a potentialy revolving coral. So if it wasn't for bugs, or trends. We'd never be exposed to more then what we've already seen...and places like reef central wouldn't be the way they are I mean.. How many people are going to jump online to show off there tanks, and spark and peak intrest if all our tanks look the same because we all have available to us the exact same thing as the next guy. It's the diveristy of this hobbie that keeps it alive and the average person intrestred. (not to plug) But how many of us pop up on Reefermadness every day just to see the coolest brightest, nicest looking "rare" thing.. Knowning full well we will never purchase anything... This is a hobbie..and hobbies are created by humans.. and humans crave what we can't have. Thats what keeps us motived.. I think when you look @ it from that perspective.. maybe a coral going on ebay for 1000 is such a bad thing.. I mean.. worse case.. it gives us something to talk about..
-brahm
