The whole coral pricing has become a joke

[tang named junkyard]

rant alert

I get that people want to make money on corals but it's gotten to the point it's more about greed than making money. The zoa trend is probably the most comical of all. When I see 15-100 per polyp, I start wondering who in the hell is buying this? You can't even get a good colony of anything anymore because everyone wants to cut everything into small pieces and charge what they use to for large versions. I saw this "Nuke" green torch for 300 dollars. I paid 300 for our Huskie and she's a hell of a lot more entertaining than a torch coral. lol. Don't even get me into the renaming of corals. "Incredible Hulk Zoa" "Darth Maul zoa" "24k Torch" Give me a break. Last rant. The 40 dollar PURPLE HAZE mushrooms. These should have a street value less than a damsel. I had so many purple mushrooms in my tank I couldn't even see the other corals. They grow like weeds. I guess it all comes down what people are willing to pay for it. This hobby has a lot of people with more money than smarts, no offense, I'm one of them most of the time.

rant over

 

[sirclintler]

Agreed, I walked into the LFS the other week and thought to myself I guess I will keep some shrimp and live rock, I'm not paying that much for sick corals.

 

[TimeConsumer]

Yeah, I've paid those prices once or twice. It's easy to get caught up in the hype. I think a lot of it has to do with everybody wanting one of everything in their tank. So they would rather buy 50, 1/2" frags instead of 5 or 10 larger colonies. The names are just marketing, but they work, "darth maul zoa" sounds a lot more special than "purple and orange zoa".

I'm broke so my ric dominated nano I'm planning will likely be filled with shrooms that I try and scrounge from local reefers.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

It is sad, it really is... I have resorted to buying from people locally on the reef keeper facebook page. We have a pretty good one here and I really wanted some utter chaos but online is crazy expensive. Locally I got 3 for 20 bucks plus zero to ship. I was happy.

Buy from local reefers for zoas and faster growing pieces.

 

[3dees]

the fact is that prices will come down if we stop buying them. it seems like you can get some plain ole zoa's and give it a huge price tag and people will fight to buy them. it's no ones fault but our own.

 

[ryeguyy84]

I agree, I usually charge between $3 and $8 per polyp for Zoas. That's mainly to cover my time to frag them, mount them, box them and then ship them. I always lose money on shipping because of the box cost. I bought a giant piece of Styrofoam from home depot to make insulated boxes to ship in, because people want $15 for a cooler box.

 

[rffanat1c]

Seriously, one LFS has "Holy Crap" acans for $250 a head. I bought the same looking acan without the stripe for $5 a head

 

[toothybugs]

I've kinda quit buying corals from the LFS. But you have to be careful buying online, with saturated pics and adjusted (improperly) colors being easy to do.

I'm in the 'buy local' boat - I filled my SPS frag rack off a local guy for a total of around 50 bucks. I counted them up the other day and ISYN (I kid you not) they average out to under $1.20 each.

 

[moatdaddy]

want to know the worst part of this whole thing. The suppliers have not raised their prices, just the middle man. I get the middle man (person PC correct) has overhead, risk of pest, power outage, and many more causes for crashes. So i am not justifying it, but i noticed the average LFS knows there is a ceiling, and if corals do not sell they lower the price or stop carrying it.

Also ranting about this hobby is sometimes how things get changed. I for one, know that 20$ a head of zoas is outrageous. Things is some people here are lawyers or doctors and who are we to judge how they spends the money they earn.

Sales 101, you can only sell something at a price someone is willing to pay. Or was that Art of the Deal. Lol

 

[ca1ore]

The answer is easy ..... don't buy them! I have pre-teen boys and I am always telling them that just because somebody says it's 'rare' doesn't mean it actually is. Plenty of stunning looking animals in this hobby that don't carry a hype premium.

 

[kcinnick]

Distributors certainly have raised prices and are cutting up colonies before they ship them. It is a little sickening.

There is a popular LFS that gets in whole colonies and advertises it for sale... oh wait, they take a picture of the whole colony then break it up and you get a frag... That isn't sustainable. I could understand growing a mother colony and harvesting from it but to just be a chop shop is stupid.

When I saw the WYSIWYG of a popular wholesaler I was shocked how many fresh frags they made.

 

[moatdaddy]

sorry i should have been more specific, buying from Indonesia, Fiji, Vietnam, and other importers has not seen a huge spike in prices, google then email them. they will send you a price list. This is based on me pulling those list five years ago and reviewing them to current prices. Australia has increased due to more tightening of Cites. Once here in the country i have to agree, your paying more for less as someone shopping around again since being out of the game for a few years.

As far as a certain few ebay sellers there is a huge spike for those desired hard to find corals. At least you can find them easier now, just with a high price tag.

 

[steallife904]

blows my mind how some acans for example can be a fortune online and it some stores. the same ones I got for like 20 bucks at a reef show or local... then again even some of the locals seem to think they have gold! But to me the sps are crazy, a 1/2 in frag for 100 bucks.... makes no sense.

 

[Mark426]

There is always "that guy" who will pay anything to be the first one to have something others dont and sellers who are glad to take advantage of that dummy. Dont be "that guy".

While I think that many of the everyday corals are way overpriced I also think many of us forget the insane costs of doing business anymore.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

It's called coral pimping, price gouging, outright lying and it's killing the hobby.

 

[hogfanreefer]

The worst to me is 1/2" freshly cut acropora that sell for hundreds of dollars. I refuse to buy even well priced corals from suppliers that do that, no matter how pretty they are.

 

[thegrun]

I totally disagree. First off, if someone is willing to pay $500 for a piece of coral it obviously is worth that much to that particular person, it's simple supply/demand economics. I'm not willing to pay that much for a coral, but as long as there are enough people willing to then the coral IS worth $500. The bigger issue is are these prices "killing the hobby", I would say no, just the opposite, it is providing a greater variety of corals available to us all. It is ridiculously expensive to travel to some of the most remote regions of the world to get permits, collect, transport and then grow out new and beautiful corals. If the collectors cannot recuperate their expenses by charging a premium for these difficult to acquire corals then no one will go to the time, trouble and expense to bring them back to us.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

The worst to me is 1/2" freshly cut acropora that sell for hundreds of dollars. I refuse to buy even well priced corals from suppliers that do that, no matter how pretty they are.

I agree 100 %

I haven't purchased a single coral from any LFS or online vendor in over 8 years. I along with 9 other mature and like-minded reefers have been growing and sharing with each other some of the most stunning corals we aquire and pay exactly what we paid back in 2003 before the pimping and gouging started. Often we trade or give corals away for nothing.

Mucho

 

[hogfanreefer]

I totally disagree. First off, if someone is willing to pay $500 for a piece of coral it obviously is worth that much to that particular person, it's simple supply/demand economics. I'm not willing to pay that much for a coral, but as long as there are enough people willing to then the coral IS worth $500. The bigger issue is are these prices "killing the hobby", I would say no, just the opposite, it is providing a greater variety of corals available to us all. It is ridiculously expensive to travel to some of the most remote regions of the world to get permits, collect, transport and then grow out new and beautiful corals. If the collectors cannot recuperate their expenses by charging a premium for these difficult to acquire corals then no one will go to the time, trouble and expense to bring them back to us.

Great point, I actually agree with that too thegrun. But so many operate chop shops where they take a beautiful colony and cut it in to 1/2" pieces, glue them on a plug and call it aquaculture. I'm sure they are selling them but I wonder who is buying from them. Is it experienced hobbyists or newbies? It would be interesting to know.

I'm more than willing to pay premium price for a 3" frag that's well healed and encrusting the plug. That coral has a great chance at surviving and flourishing. There are vendors that operate this way. Those are the ones I buy from.

 

[MidwesternTexan]

We basically trade amoung the local reefer in our area, sometimes buy, usually trade.

I"m trading some sps today- some he doesn't have, for some I don't have.
I have traded many colonies frags to my fav. LFS for store credit!

I've never bought a coral online in 5 years, never had one shipped to me.
None of my coral came from the ocean/reef directly-
all grown from frags, etc.
I have a thread on this site with lots of pics of my coral- 5 years in the hobby.

Essentially I agree about the overly ridiculous prices sometimes.