Coral auctions

JonPhillips · Jan 25, 2018

Can someone walk me through how these work exactly?

Are there good deals/bad deals?

Good companies/bad companies?

I’ve been seeing several linked on twitter and was curious if anyone frequented them?

Best method to pay, etc.?

Tallison · Jan 25, 2018

World Wode corals is a great seller who does eBay auctions. The deals obviously depend on what is getting bid up but I've found some great deals below their price point. PayPal is always the best method of payment

JonPhillips · Jan 25, 2018

Tallison said:
World Wode corals is a great seller who does eBay auctions. The deals obviously depend on what is getting bid up but I've found some great deals below their price point. PayPal is always the best method of payment

Cool. eBay. Have always been sketched out by them for some reason. I always see myself getting outbid by a robot somehow. And a PayPal account too. Haha!

Tallison · Jan 25, 2018

Yeah but I only buy from trusted vendors on eBay . The trick with eBay is to bid in the last 20 secs with your maximum you're willing to spend, eBay will take whatever beats the next lowest bid

JonPhillips · Jan 25, 2018

Tallison said:
Yeah but I only buy from trusted vendors on eBay . The trick with eBay is to bid in the last 20 secs with your maximum you're willing to spend, eBay will take whatever beats the next lowest bid

Lol. Get a cup of coco and wait it out haha

miyags · Jan 25, 2018

I think there's a lot of shill bidding on Ebay. I've been beat out by a buck,only to see the same coral a month later backup for auction. To many non payers, going on in my opinion.

JonPhillips · Jan 25, 2018

miyags said:
I think there's a lot of shill bidding on Ebay. I've been beat out by a buck,only to see the same coral a month later backup for auction. To many non payers, going on in my opinion.

Sounds pretty typical. I just imagine internet bots everywhere.

themcnertney · Jan 25, 2018

Tidal Gardens holds a live sale on YouTube. The idea is you watch the live YouTube video (maybe 3 hours long or so) during that video each coral gets a number and a price, then you go to the website where you purchase the coral based on which number you want from the video. You can blindly just buy a coral from that list but if you want to know what you are buying, you will need to watch the video. Hope this makes sense.

HiddenUser · Jan 25, 2018

WWC on Ebay has been flawless. I saw what some frags went for on eBay then checked the WWC site to see what they would normally go for. There can be some pretty good deals. Also depends on how many people are bidding at any given point.

The nice thing is that you can see the names of the coral on ebay ahead of time and research what the retail price would be on the WWC site. From there you can make the decision on how much you want to spend...then like the sniping begin!

Many of the same frags are auctioned, but they're not the same as the previous auction, ie you would probably see a frag of Toxic Slimer in one auction, then a different Toxic Slimer frag in another auction. A lot of them look like so I have no idea how you would know if they were the exact same thing.

JonPhillips · Jan 25, 2018

Dan McNertney said:
Tidal Gardens holds a live sale on YouTube. The idea is you watch the live YouTube video (maybe 3 hours long or so) during that video each coral gets a number and a price, then you go to the website where you purchase the coral based on which number you want from the video. You can blindly just buy a coral from that list but if you want to know what you are buying, you will need to watch the video. Hope this makes sense.

That actually sounds like fun!

JonPhillips · Jan 25, 2018

ChukeeR said:
WWC on Ebay has been flawless. I saw what some frags went for on eBay then checked the WWC site to see what they would normally go for. There can be some pretty good deals. Also depends on how many people are bidding at any given point.

The nice thing is that you can see the names of the coral on ebay ahead of time and research what the retail price would be on the WWC site. From there you can make the decision on how much you want to spend...then like the sniping begin!

Many of the same frags are auctioned, but they're not the same as the previous auction, ie you would probably see a frag of Toxic Slimer in one auction, then a different Toxic Slimer frag in another auction. A lot of them look like so I have no idea how you would know if they were the exact same thing.

Heck yes!

themcnertney · Jan 25, 2018

JonPhillips said:
That actually sounds like fun!

https://www.tidalgardens.com/coral/live-sale.html
https://www.tidalgardens.com/live-sale-faq-shipping

VP616 · Jan 26, 2018

If you're on Facebook, there are several legit coral auction groups that you can join. Search and simply request to join the group. There's even a group that lists vendors to stay away from. Vendors and hobbyists alike put their inventory up for auction quite often and you can definitely score some really good deals, if you are quick enough to bid high. PM me and I can point you in the general direction, depending on what you are looking for.

As far as payment, PayPal is king. Payment via PayPal using credit cards, if you can, so you can file a charge back with your credit company in the event something goes wrong in the deal (don't abuse that privilege). NEVER send payment as "Friends and Family" through PayPal, UNLESS you really are a friend of the vendor or you've done enough business with them to fully trust them (even then, most reputable vendors will never ask to send payment via F&F). This way, you're covered somewhat via PayPal's buyer protection agreement, if you do not receive the product you paid for.

JonPhillips · Jan 26, 2018

VP616 said:
If you're on Facebook, there are several legit coral auction groups that you can join. Search and simply request to join the group. There's even a group that lists vendors to stay away from. Vendors and hobbyists alike put their inventory up for auction quite often and you can definitely score some really good deals, if you are quick enough to bid high. PM me and I can point you in the general direction, depending on what you are looking for.

As far as payment, PayPal is king. Payment via PayPal using credit cards, if you can, so you can file a charge back with your credit company in the event something goes wrong in the deal (don't abuse that privilege). NEVER send payment as "Friends and Family" through PayPal, UNLESS you really are a friend of the vendor or you've done enough business with them to fully trust them (even then, most reputable vendors will never ask to send payment via F&F). This way, you're covered somewhat via PayPal's buyer protection agreement, if you do not receive the product you paid for.

Banging.

Jeepguy242 · Jan 26, 2018

Aqua sd. Vendor here. Awesome corals an fast shipping

Battle corals. Never used them but also a vendor here and awesome reputation

World wide corals. Well known and awesome reputation

Cherry corals. Another well known with awesome reputation

Bryn · Jan 28, 2018

Jeepguy242 said:
Aqua sd. Vendor here. Awesome corals an fast shipping

Battle corals. Never used them but also a vendor here and awesome reputation

World wide corals. Well known and awesome reputation

Cherry corals. Another well known with awesome reputation

Aqua SD has ebay sales that end on Thursday, and weekend sales starting at 4:00pm PST. The weekend sale they list on reef2reef and you just email in your order, each picture has a number and a price. Each weekend sale does not have a time limit, I have gone back a week or two in their sales and still been able to get the odd piece, not all I wanted but some. Communication with this company has been very good, and helpful. I find their website to be limited in the selection, I'm guessing due to how much they sell, and lack of time to keep pictures of everything. So would suggest looking at their weekend sales for an idea of what they have and price.

Have also done a great sale with ReefersDirect This is different to Aqua SD in that it starts with pictures of corals being posted, you click on the link which takes you to the company website, you added to your cart and checkout and pay for it, then go back to the auction. It is fast fun/frustrating as you think you have the coral of your dreams to find that someone else beat you by a millisecond. ReefersDirect do not have sales as often.

Shipping and packaging from the two company's I have mentioned have been great, the nod would go to Aqua SD as they add a heat pack inside the cooler on top of the peanuts

, while ReefersDirect had the heat packs on the outside the cooler

. ReefersDirect has the nod by a nose when it came to frags on plugs. They put an X through the bottom of a Solo pill cup, a small cup, and push the stem down through the X and place in a bag with water. While Aqua SD did the same with an X but through the side of a bag and rapped that around the frag and placed in a bag with water.

Hope some of this helps.