i think the best thing we can do is just keep these "vent" forums open. This stuff won't change overnight, in this economy people see this as a get rich scheme so it will be awhile until some prices drop. I JUST got into reef tanks and i really wish i didn't. People don't even seem to care . . . its almost sickening. i've seen people give away the texas trash palys to new b's but never anything remotely close to anything of value, noone wants to help out they just want to make money, i'm still a young guy and this behavior bothers me. I think zoas are aging me haha :hmm2:
Utter Chaos or?
- Thread starter Friday Night
- Start date
isseym328
Premium Member
You know with $200 you can buy a whole colony of exotic sps? Even the super nice Aussie ones.
I was actually able to obtain a small colony of this before I knew what it was. If anyone is interested I got a few polyps for sale at price wayyy lower than $200. Maybe this will get the price down faster. haha.
I was actually able to obtain a small colony of this before I knew what it was. If anyone is interested I got a few polyps for sale at price wayyy lower than $200. Maybe this will get the price down faster. haha.
DanRhomberg
New member
:spin3:
Well said VW....
one of the biggest things that hooked me in the beggining was how I was welcomed with open arms by other hobbiest, even though I didnt know anything and had LOTS of questions. Local reefers even said " Hey Dan, Welcome. Here, take a frag to help get you started".... I was blown away!!!
Since that time I've Seen a little different side of things, but the majority are here to promote the hobbie at the lowest cost possible.
I'm still getting started and I've already given away 3 frags to help people out when their tank crashes, or I get a good deal, or whatever.....
I feel it will come back my way as I've seen in the beggining, and hope to continue to do so.
I'm very happy I've found this hobbie(min 3 hours a day for the past 4 months!!!:spin3
and hope to see it continue by people like you reguardless of the price gougers. I'll do my part and just wont contribute to buying things with unreal prices no matter how much I want a certin Item.
I saw your post on the other thread danrhomberg and i dont think you were out of line. Its an open forum and if they dont like your opinion, well Tough. I would pay that price for a decent colony but never for one polyp. All these colors have been coming in for years and now through the internet and hype, the prices have skyrocketed. Its sad, that's why i only buy from LFS or trade with true hobbyists.
And Mucho, I sit everyday with my nose on the glass of my tank to view the polyps
I totally agree with you and friday night. I just recently started the forum thing, after being in the hobby over 10 years, and have seen both amazing tanks and very disturbing trends of selling by hype. They do it in the Lps and Sps side also but not as bad as this. "Here let me sell you this blue blade of grass to start your lawn with, it will spread quick if it doesn't die or turn back to green because i photo shopped it to begin with."
Thanks for the vent thread Friday, responsible reefers can stick together and support each other.
Well said VW....
one of the biggest things that hooked me in the beggining was how I was welcomed with open arms by other hobbiest, even though I didnt know anything and had LOTS of questions. Local reefers even said " Hey Dan, Welcome. Here, take a frag to help get you started".... I was blown away!!!
Since that time I've Seen a little different side of things, but the majority are here to promote the hobbie at the lowest cost possible.
I'm still getting started and I've already given away 3 frags to help people out when their tank crashes, or I get a good deal, or whatever.....
I feel it will come back my way as I've seen in the beggining, and hope to continue to do so.
I'm very happy I've found this hobbie(min 3 hours a day for the past 4 months!!!:spin3
and hope to see it continue by people like you reguardless of the price gougers. I'll do my part and just wont contribute to buying things with unreal prices no matter how much I want a certin Item.
jefathome
New member
Um... While I know that this isnt big enough for a federal indictment, isn't that a classic example of price fixing?
jefathome
New member
You would think that if people (you) started to sell at a more resonable price then others would have to follow... "Hey, why spend $1000 for this when I can buy it for $10 over here.." and then those charging $1000 realize that they have to lower the price to compete...
Well it doesn't work that way unfortunately. I tried this with some Valentines Day Massacre polyps. I was charging $5 for 4 heads... People would actively buy from another person on this forum for the EXACT same strain for a much higher price. Almost like they felt that the value they got out of the piece is proportional to what they paid for it.
:thumbdown
i wished all the sellers on here thought the same way as most of you guys i really like some of the even $50 polyps but cant bring myself to pay that for one polyp frags that grow quicker than most other types of coral out there which should eventually make them less "rare" right?
It looks like the street price of Purple Hornets is finally coming down. A reefer doesn't have to look to had to find multi polyp frags between $35-$50 per polyp. Granted I think that is still high when you take into account how small a Purple Hornet is. Funny thing is though the single polyp online sellers still think they are sitting on gold and are around the $85 -$100 mark. From what I have seen it looks like Red Hornets grow like weeds...let's see how long the online stores keep the $195 single polyps selling. As for this Utter Chaos polyp...really ...are you kidding me....give my 8 yr old daughter 5 minutes with PhotoShop and she can make anything look good. The sellers own picture speaks volumes about what is really going on....HYPE ...alot of HYPE over something that really isn't all that good looking in real life......seems with enough HYPE and a big ticket price you can get most anyone to empty their bank account.
its so bad, and i'm so wrapped up in this "HYPE" i'm scared to buy ANYTHING thats not selling for what people are charging. Case in point i got 3 polyps purple hornets for 90, another guy was selling 5 for 50, i almost didn't get them because they weren't STREET prices. I tell everyone that my goal in the zoanthids, is to buy whats pretty and don't get ripped off. The newest scam here in michigan is the pretty pennies are rastas kick, I told the dude listen if its not 30 to 40 a polyp most people KNOW its not true rastas. Its bad prices dictate our daily lives :thumbdown
DanRhomberg
New member
This is a better representation of them:
with no photoshop and under 400w radiums.
These things are s-i-c-k!!!! There is no doubt about that but it's insane the prices they charged...
Isseym328, PM me a price if as you said it would be WAYYYYY lower.
If I can get them at a realistic price I'll grow them out and sell or trade at $5 pp with a min 5 col. just to throw a wrench in the works on principal alone.
haha wow. Its silly that some people are so caught up in the "name brand" zoas that think paying the big bucks makes them somehow cooler or whatever. Honestly, I really like zoas and palys, but theres no way I would (or could afford :lol2
pay 200 dollars PP for one.haha wow. Its silly that some people are so caught up in the "name brand" zoas that think paying the big bucks makes them somehow cooler or whatever. Honestly, I really like zoas and palys, but theres no way I would (or could afford :lol2
lucky for you they are now selling at a reasonable $100 pp:spin1:
Friday Night
New member
This is a better representation of them:
with no photoshop and under 400w radiums.
Dont get me wrong its an awsome find and zoa props to the founder... but when it comes to names/price I could care less if it was Tyree JF LE the milkman, postman, the dude who pumps my gas #3 curly frys and a diet coke.. who cares... i find now a days it all about bragging rights..... like having the newest video game on the block when you were 12 give it time.. it will drop..
jrb_dakine
Member
Seriously, If someone sells this for $195 pp and someone buys it at that price and is just fine paying that price, why should we really care? Anyone who collects high end zoas and palys can afford it ( I hope)! Would I pay that price, of course not, but I'm fine admiring what others have and share on this forum.
Well, not really. You see the problem is when one person sells it for that price, everyone else sees this and they follow suit. That's how the problem was created. A few people got together and started naming them and calling them rare, and they weren't. Then the hype followed with big introductions and macro pics with macro lens pressed against the glass with ultra actinic lighting on 1 and 2 polyp frags to show the stunning details in them, and here we are. Trust me, you don't see those details sitting in front of your tank, you see them with your face pressed against the glass all day when you are viewing them. "Man who press face against glass all day to view zoas, have flat face and nose at night".
Zoas are not like sps, favia, scolys, clam etc, which take months or years to grow enough to even frag let alone have a mother colony. Zoas and palys can pop a polyp out overnight, there's absolutely no justification other than greed to sell them at these prices. Then one the LFS and OLS see these prices, what do you think they are going to do? Again, that's how we got here.
It's been discussed and debated here and on every other sight. We all aren't going to agree as you and I don't. What I can appreciate is that you and I can discuss it like real men and be clean and respectful about it without fighting like little kids. Much respect.
All I'm saying is that these prices have driven a lot of newbies and mature reefers out of the hobby. Zoa reefing has been replaced with zoa retailing, it's just that simple. Demand is not setting the price,..............DAH-MAN is.
Mucho Reef
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If you pastor a church some day, I will gladly join my brother. I enjoyed that sermon you just preached !!
The thing that bugs me the most about the whole single polyp frag thing is that you read so many stories about single polyps dying on people. I sometimes wonder if that helps keep the "rarity" and the resulting pricing of this high end polyps up. Kind of an artifical "rarity" of sort.
I agree and this is true. Do you know that are excessively fragged can perish in transit or shortly after they arrive? If a friend frags and sends me something, I insist on having them held for at least 72 hours before being shipped. The longer the better.
Regarding rarity, most of what I'm seeing isn't rare, a very small percenatge is. For example, and I hate saying this but I have to for the purpose of this statement. Are you aware of all of the HORNETS being discussed and sold for off the wall amounts of money? Do you know the red, blue and purple version have been around for over 10 years? There was a time when nobody wanted them. These polyps aren't new or rare. Then somebody gave them a name, flooded them with actinics, bought a digital camera....and chi ching....here we are. They aren't rare at all, but you are made to believe that. I was at a LFS about 2 years ago in East Lansing, Michigan. I had a kid come up to me who was there buying some zoas. While looking in the tanks there, he whispered to me that he had some very rare zoanthids at home he wanted to frag and sell. I inquired and he said they were just like the ones in the pictures he showed me. He told me they were ultra rare. I ask how old he was and he replied, "17". I ask how long had he been a reefer. His reply, "6 months". Within 6 months of purchasing his first tank ever, he knew what was and wasn't rare. I politely corrected him and said, "those polyps you have really aren't rare you know", he assured me they were. I told him that I usually give those polyps away. He said, "REALLY", I said, "yes". I ask who told him they were rare, and before he could answer, his brother walked up and said, "he tells everyone that so they can buy them" .
We have gone from Limited Edition, to Lineage, to hype, to rarity, to single polyp sales. See it for yourself below.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1342178&highlight=lineage
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1272388&highlight=lineage
ADVIL
Regarding rarity, most of what I'm seeing isn't rare, a very small percenatge is. For example, and I hate saying this but I have to for the purpose of this statement. Are you aware of all of the HORNETS being discussed and sold for off the wall amounts of money? Do you know the red, blue and purple version have been around for over 10 years? There was a time when nobody wanted them. These polyps aren't new or rare. Then somebody gave them a name, flooded them with actinics, bought a digital camera....and chi ching....here we are. They aren't rare at all, but you are made to believe that. I was at a LFS about 2 years ago in East Lansing, Michigan. I had a kid come up to me who was there buying some zoas. While looking in the tanks there, he whispered to me that he had some very rare zoanthids at home he wanted to frag and sell. I inquired and he said they were just like the ones in the pictures he showed me. He told me they were ultra rare. I ask how old he was and he replied, "17". I ask how long had he been a reefer. His reply, "6 months". Within 6 months of purchasing his first tank ever, he knew what was and wasn't rare. I politely corrected him and said, "those polyps you have really aren't rare you know", he assured me they were. I told him that I usually give those polyps away. He said, "REALLY", I said, "yes". I ask who told him they were rare, and before he could answer, his brother walked up and said, "he tells everyone that so they can buy them" .
We have gone from Limited Edition, to Lineage, to hype, to rarity, to single polyp sales. See it for yourself below.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1342178&highlight=lineage
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1272388&highlight=lineage
ADVIL
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