Calling out all vendors... Ultra Rare Super Toxic Holy Garbage...

[brandon429]

@Variant

truly good link for sure, that's a savory color set on that brain coral

I would never ever pay $295 for that, or even $110. I would pay sixty tops, just my assessment.

but lets say I was dead set on getting that exact strain which admittedly I've never seen before till your link example.


is it possible to find that same type for $100 anywhere? if not, the heinous overpricing seems legit. I think it lands squarely on the first dude to mark it up and the first customer to click send, with solely those two persons causing the entire issue. if there isn't another place to get it for sixty bucks instead, I now blame the first person to click send on the $295. lol.

 

[brandon429]

I'm also very angry to the guy in 2022 Jan who agreed to pay $13 a pound for a steak--I'm very angry you agreed to that and started a price chain change that will never retrograde. rascals.

 

[joefishtank]

I sometimes find rare or exotic strains of decent colonies for I want to flip that colony prices, but I don't have the money and space to buy colonies and hold onto them like a coral vendor would. I do youtube as an extra hobby so when my channel gets to that level I'll see what I can do when it comes to overpriced coral no promises thoughNice Fish Tank. This is my favorite eye candy I saw at a store:

How much would that be marked up? I have low experience when it comes to things I can’t afford?

I got this for a steep discount because it is receding how much would you pay wysiwyg or per head? Eventually it will heal or I’m not worth buying coral from.

 

[brandon429]

the hammer coral would sell for about $250 in austin area

the lobo/acan/mussid whatever that is would be about that much as well, maybe $180 due to slight recession around the corallite but not a big deal. for sure any feeding of that directly will regrow it in about three years back to the edge.

 

[Jekyl]

I'm also very angry to the guy in 2022 Jan who agreed to pay $13 a pound for a steak--I'm very angry you agreed to that and started a price chain change that will never retrograde. rascals.

My favorite food is crab legs. Doubled in price as of late.

 

[Superlightman]

Maybe the solution could be to make a list of acceptable price range for different coral species and boycott every vendor's outside the range,this list we should send it to all reefers we know. It would also help newcomer in the hobby to not be misled.If thousands of reefers joined the movement in a few months, the prices would go done

 

[Falreef]

Yes, across the board in this hobby they are pricing things out. But still it seems people will pay. So they won’t stop.

 

[FlyinAg]

I'm also very angry to the guy in 2022 Jan who agreed to pay $13 a pound for a steak--I'm very angry you agreed to that and started a price chain change that will never retrograde. rascals.

My favorite food is crab legs. Doubled in price as of late.

No joke! Hard pass on crab legs this week. Thankfully brisket prices have been coming out of the stratosphere. Not sure who was paying $9.99 a pound for a 15 pound brisket, but someone was...

 

[Jekyl]

No joke! Hard pass on crab legs this week. Thankfully brisket prices have been coming out of the stratosphere. Not sure who was paying $9.99 a pound for a 15 pound brisket, but someone was...

Lol, the "colossal golden king crab" legs that were up FOR SALE were $40lb for new years. Same thing 3 years ago was $17.

 

[joefishtank]

Dungeoness crab are 11.99 a pound live at the supermarket lobster 17.99 if I remember correctly. I would rather try fishing for them with a drop net. If I don’t catch then I have to buy. We got rock crabs dungeoness crab and spiny lobster here in socal. Off a pier the cold doesn’t bother me as much cuz it’s a fishing trip. I might go cuz I thought about it…

 

[dansyr]

King and snow crabs have at least a bit of a reason for price changes with the parts of the fishery being closed this year.

But I hear you with respect to solely marketing-based coral valuations. It makes me sad that marketing is the emphasis rather than a coral's inherent appeal to the buyer and its taxonomic or geographic identity. Thanks for making this thread. It feels like an impossible task to balance (and probably is), but it's nice knowing that these names irritate some other folks too.

 

[Asagi]

Kindly post an example. I’d like to see what is considered expensive theeeese dayssss.

 

[paintman]

You forgot Navaho White. It's the most popular interior white paint color.

Yes but not for a ceiling. I bet if they made a can that said North American Social justice Navajho White Benjamin Moore wcould get another $20 a gallon.

 

[Amphibious Wallet]

As someone that has only set foot in a marine LFS in the last year and has yet to buy anything reef-related (too many projects, no drive or money), it took me a good day or two to realize I'd seen this kind of marketing system before.

It might be somewhat American, though, as my local marine stores kinda just call a spade a spade. The cleaner and 'upmarket' store does the colour naming thing, but no turbo encabulators about it. Here's a picture of the coral, this is what we've happened to name it, there you go.

 

[amygetsalife]

Seems like this is the second stage of "educate yourself beforehand" the first being to educate yourself enough to keep things alive and thriving.

Educate yourself to know what your buying and if it is worth it to you. Got enough income that paying $200+ is nothing to you, congrats.

I am a small business owner in a different hobby industry. I can't imagine the costs of these coral farms. There's another way to use the term "hobby business" and it's certainly not comparing apples to apples if you are comparing pricing of legit full time businesses with at least two employees to that of a hobby reefer selling as a side hustle. Sales tax, insurance, stupid employee mistakes that could kill your inventory, proper payroll, health insurance, retirement, rent, utilities (that has got to be crazy), waste disposal, etc. And loading of all those products and livestock, especially wysiwyg, into a point of sale/website takes a ton of time!

If there's a market that will bear what seems to be high pricing, it's good business to aim for those prices. Love of the hobby/industry does not create a profitable business. If a business owner says they aren't in it for a decent return on investment of time and money or paycheck, they are either lying or they truly are running a hobby business in a hobby industry. I know plenty of independent small retailers who swear they are running a profitable business....but actually can't pay themselves.

A business doesn't owe you affordability.

They also can't price themselves out of the market.

I do think these live sales play into a kind of purchasing feeding frenzy...leading to over paying for something that wasn't carefully planned.

As for me,

 

[joefishtank]

I bought a dying goniopora colony for $20 #reef #bonanza

The description in my last #short was a joke.

youtube.com

I payed $20 for a $120 goni. I'll let you guys know if I catch any crabs if i go fishing. I don't understand what that has to do with anything but I'll bite.

 

[littlebigreef]

Nothing like ginning up a little vitriol directed at online venders right? They’re about as sympathetic a group as the airlines, members of congress or lawyers.

We’ve long crossed the rubicon when it comes to names being a useful tool for identifying specific strains of corals. The mashed up names we now get are indeed a nightmarish and annoying mad libs from hell itself.

Further, it is down right insulting to everyone’s intelligence when you visit a live sale and see an outwardly bogus ‘reg’ price and then are presented a ‘discounted’ price that’s generally well above *market rate.

*market is subjective - for the sake of argument call it a reasonable price considering location, condition, presentation and size.

This is no new gripe.

However, no one is ‘getting priced out of the hobby’ and we’re ‘not being robbed blind.’ What’s more, the OP’s speculating on potential earnings from live sales is a bad joke. You can throw out a self serving number like $112k, you can say it’s happening 12-20 times a year but it’s all speculation and doesn’t account for all the costs associated with running a legitimate business.

The truth is that no one is getting rich growing and selling coral because the overhead has ballooned in recent years and the market has tightened so much because everyone and their mom now sells corals. So while it’s easy to imagine greedy venders rubbing their hands together over their huge pile of money that’s not the reality for most small business owners.

For example, I do web dev for a lfs and they pay more for two in-store supporting apps than for the monthly Shopify fee. Everything is nickel and diming for an online sales channel and that's a tiny example. Factor in the slowing economy, inflation, etc and many of these outfits are just trying to maintain and survive.

So while it can be fun to drum up a little hate for some of the egregious excesses we see in the hobby it’s ultimately all noise and little meaning.

In short, we get to chose if and how we engage in this 100% disposable income hobby. You don’t want to pay a premium for exclusivity or optimum conditioning? Not a problem- you can still get great stuff. You wanna grow and work your trade network? Rock on- that’s how I built much of my collection. But, just don’t call it greed when someone wants to be compensated for their time, effort and money they put into aquaculturing something.

 

[brandon429]

by 54 seconds i nearly puked of laughter, at 1:09 I did.

 

[t5Nitro]

As consumers, we set the prices collectively. There still Are rare corals. We wouldn't know it because now, EVERYTHING is "rare"

Super, Ultra, and Rainbow have lost All meaning in this context. A rainbow ACAN used to mean something. Now it means it's an acan with more than one color. This is just silly

Run of the mill, green on green torches are not $150/head corals because you call it ULTRA.

I'm still on the lookout for some the original corals that nobody offers up any more. Sapphire blue mille. Leng sy cap, Tricolor vailda, purple monster, red planet.. etc.

Anyone have these in central WI area I'd like to grab some of these rare birds, lol.

 

[Nonya]

Kindly post an example. I’d like to see what is considered expensive theeeese dayssss.

Bounce mushrooms. Ridiculous prices for something nobody wanted just a few years ago.