Most of this has already been posted. But in order of importance:
1) A good LFS if you have one. Rarely have I paid anything that would be even close to what the fleabay photoshoppers ask, and all very, very nice (but unnamed) corals.
ebay is not what it use to be. This is how the game is played. The polyp pimps will post 1 to 10 polyps on there. The prettier the colors the least polyps they'll post. They will then take what the polyp sells for in an "auction", then use that "auction" price to justify selling it to everyone else. If you don't want to pay their price, they'll say "hey I'll just post it on the auction and somebody else will". Then you feel compelled now to buy it or lose out. This is part of the hype game most will never even see coming. Often they will have a friend bidding up the price or even buying it just to set the price high for everyone else to see.
2) Local reefer's club. This is easily the best option. Most of us have things that outgrow our tanks and give them away for free.
So true, I have given away as much if not more than I've sold. You just have to find the right group to hang with or get to know.
3) Direct import - I noted this a while back, but folks like Mitch at livestockusa.org will sell you a whole box of maricultured acroporas from Bali and other areas for about $45 a colony (and baseball sized colonies at that).
4) If you must order from websites, then Pacific East Aquaculture is one of the better sources, and has been in business for almost as long as the reefing hobby has been around. LiveAquaria and their sister site Diver's Den has gone downhill a bit since Petco bought them up (mainly in their ability to white-blanace a photo), but there are tons of whole rocks covered by nice zoas that sell for $50 - $100. A recent one that I've become aware of is Austin Aquafarms. Their stock has been diminished substantially after they got a good bit of publicity from BRS, but there are still multiple 1-2" frags of various acroporas that are $15 - $30 if that's your thing.
And this is just a cursory list. There are others out there. The specific actions that I'd suggest to prevent being taken is to:
1) Never buy corals off of fleabay. The transient nature of the listings seems to encourage over-hyping and photoshopping.
Agreed.
2) Avoid buying corals with cute names unless it's something that really appeals to you, and it's cheap.
I wouldn't buy anything named and never under 10 polyps per purchase as it relates to zoas and palys and never buy single mushrooms as they will have been hacked and glud as well. I can give you a dozen reasons why, but I will find a link to a thread I posted years ago. I'll try and find it tonight. But think about this.......ever wondered why your new mushroom detached, bleached or went downhill after a week or even died? What about your acro frag that turned white, brown, black or developed RTN? What about your zoa polyp you purchased with your entire check and it too perished or began to literally collapse or detach? There's a reason for all of this. Ask me why if you're curious.
Stay away from per polyp zoa or paly sales and anything on a fresh white plug.
Probably the most important:
3) Learn to recognize photoshopping. It's not too tough - anything that absolutely glows off of your computer monitor or phone is likely to be faked, and blue or purple eggcrate is also a dead giveaway.
