I won't knock capitalism and someone being able to make ludicrous margins from "ordinary" stuff. If someone pays it that is their problem. It's not disingenuous if you have a nice picture and a high price. There are a lot of other factors at play, though:
The reality is that the market isn't "actually" as exciting as the hobby thinks it is. There are, as a rough generalization, 100 different species that end up getting imported, and there are a few different morphs of most of them, but there is not "1" super rare multicolored acro in the wild and someone was lucky enough to find that "1." The "ultra" graded ones might trickle in, but when "Retailer A" names his ultra find "Acro A" and then "Retailer B" gets literally the exact same coral and names it "Acro B" we have a problem. This happens over and over and over. It's laughable when you think about it.
For example, how many "green and pink" Acropora Millepora varieties do you think there are that are presently "named" in the industry? Dozens? How many "actually" different, genetically diverse, examples do you think there really are?
To phrase it another way, if we look at exporters in Indonesia, there are many of them, but they are diving the same reefs (or within miles of each other), at each locale (Bali, Jakarta, etc.). If two different wholesalers each find an orange hued A. Millepora they might each export 100 a year, so those 200 pieces (hypothetical numbers) went to 200 different retailers/chop shops/hobbyists "in the game", whatever. They might ALL be the same actual genetic specimen, or there might be several different ones, but there are not 200 total unique genetic specimens here on our end, not even close.
The overlap of named corals has reached critical mass for me, personally. I've been doing this 20 years now and have been in both the hobby and industry (I've worked in aquaculture, for retailers, etc...and now work in international exports in another industry) and I can tell you that the hobbyist market is based primarily on a facade. "Retailer A" with his "Acro A" is charging $100/inch and "Retailer F" has no name because he isn't an "sps guy" (or lacks the marketing savvy to pull off what Retailer A is doing) and chops his up for $30/chunk at his fish store because he's still making 300% profit, but these two corals are literally the same. Now, of course, the only way you can "guarantee" you are getting "Acro A" is to buy it from "Retailer A" or someone with lineage, but there's a good chance you could find the "exact" same specimen with some hunting and some luck.
Not to pick on one species, but multicolored A. Tenuis are really "hot" right now. You see all sorts of trade names out there (Walt Disney, etc.). But these are coming in as maricultured chunks and there are hundreds coming in. The "market" value is artificially inflated. Worse yet, many retailers are chop shopping these and there is a serious misperception as to what the customer is really getting (people seem to think these frags are tank raised from an original secret single colony or something....absolutely laughable). It's a maricultured tenuis and the collector/exporter is sitting on 300 more! But that won't stop certain people from making their huge margins while the supply is artificially constrained and demand is high.....and truly....good for them.
The other disconcerting issue has already been mentioned, which is when someone takes something that already has a trade name and just gives it another name. This happens over and over again.
At least there was honesty in the game when Tyree was at the top. He would say, "this came from ____ and we are calling it ____." That's pretty much all out the window now.
To give proper deference to the situation I don't want to discredit the fact that there are a handful of genetic "freaks." Take the original "Purple Monster." It is/was truly a unique specimen, though they did "rediscover" it and are importing more (from Solomon Islands). There are others in that category, but if you add up all of the top marketing savvy retailers (again, I don't name names) and their total collective specimen list there are not actually "hundreds" of genetic freak corals, more like a couple handfuls. Many of these can be found with ease by getting a box or two out of Indo or Australia (depending what species you are looking for).
So there it is. This all might sound a little cynical, but people need to hear it. I love that these marketing savvy guys are pulling this off; my hat is off to them.
Improving the hobby should be the main goal, though. The hobby would truly be improved with a different direction that supports species identification and locale/collection points that ship with each specimen.
I would much rather have an "A. Lokani, purple morph, Marau Sound reef, Solomon Islands, 1999" than a "Purple Monster." That is my hope for the industry....someday.
