Maybe the reason in your two years of blowing money, all you did was propagate the myth that these zoas are "RARE".... Maybe it's not that just your zoas are not rare, but NONE of them are that rare.
I think, hard to come by doesn't equal rare.... Especially true with ANY of the corals that people try so hard to get... if they were truely RARE,, nobody would know about them... the reason everyone wants safecrackers is because they ARENT rare and they see them everywhere. PPE's are they rare? NOT in my book.... I bet 80% - 90% of the hardcore collectors that hang out here have them. See here I go again doc, not tearing people down, but trying to educate people that it's a BIG MYTH that these zoas are rare.
These people that are buying RARE corals are either uninformed about where to get them at a fraction of the price or even a trade. If your really serious about becoming the master zoa collector here's my advice.... Lose the word RARE for zoas, save that term for the professionals that actually spend day after day, year after year working in the ocean. It's just like last year with the Lord craze... Not one of those INDO lords were rare in the least bit, yet people lined up and begged to pay $50/polyp in hopes that they would be able to frag it in a few months and get rich. Just like why you paid $400 for a rock with 25 safecrackers, you thought you could make a profit. If you had really just wanted to have them for having them, you wouldn't have fragged them up and sold them to the point that you are claiming you are "running out".
Please don't take this as a personal attack. I am just trying to help educate you. If your goal is to just make a quick buck and then faid away with all the other RARE coral sellers on ebay do. Or you can learn more about these beautiful creatures, get in with the crowd of serious zoa junkies and enjoy the top of the line zoas and keep your money for other things. But like I stated before, you aren't going to gain much respect around here if you want to keep up your current tactics... I am betting that even if you had something that we didn't that we actually wanted, the majority of people aren't going to trade with you becuase they know you are going to take the frag they send you, bust it in half and sell it as some really really RARE coral trying to double your money.
Please don't get me wrong about making money off of this hobby. I think that's fine. I know I have a dedicated frag setup that I would love to turn a profit on. Probably not going to happen though as I like to keep things fair and honest. But I think some things I just will NOT do to turn a buck. When I list frags for sale, I would have to admit, they usually aren't in the "budget coral" section, but I tell it like it is. Whenever I am selling I ALWAYS include a picture of my corals under regular lighting and then a group shot under a flash.
Here is an example of my last frag pack. I think it's ok to link it here because these frags are long gone.. if not, sorry mods, feel free to delete this part.... (Notice that my blues are even blue under the Flash... And I don't have to clasify my greyish zoas as "Sky Blue" becuase they are really blue and not just juiced up with actinics and 20K)
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=750216
Hopefully someday you will realize that what you do on ebay doesn't help the hobby, just propagates myths about rarity and scares people away becuase they think they can never afford the "good stuff". Until that day though I think you will continue to pay $400 for 25 polyps of safe crackers.
<---- smiley face indicating peace
