Coral Pricing

[briz]

Its only worth what someone is willing to spend

 

[Sikryd]

Here is another thing to consider. I have close friends who run business of this type and we forget how many fish and corals that actually die either in transit to them or in their stores. We forget about all the lighting, salt, and maintenance it takes to keep coral alive long term much less short term after a 22-40hr transit to them with no guarantee that the coral will live. Did you know that most of the time if coral or fish die in transit, the buyer eats it.

A $5 wholesale leather coral may have actually cost $20 when you factor in shipping, absorbed deaths, and maintenance. Even after that they have to make a profit because they have to live too.

SOME of these vendors are making a KILLING. Wholesale cost on just about any wild sps - $20-$60 - cut it up into 10 pieces or more for $150 1/2" = $1500+

I'm not lying - I'M JEALOUS!!!

If there wasn't already too many coral farmers and vendors, I'd have a coral company - you can guarantee that!

 

[benny z]

i have not seen many wild colonies that you could get an honest 10 frags from that live. usually when you chop a wild piece, you'll maybe get 3 or 4 frags of it tops that end up healthy and live. ime anyway. plus even at wholesale these days most colonies are costing $45+. it all comes back to factoring overhead. to think anyone is making $1500 off of fragging a colony is ludicrous imo. only a select few can pull that off with lps...

 

[Sikryd]

i have not seen many wild colonies that you could get an honest 10 frags from that live. usually when you chop a wild piece, you'll maybe get 3 or 4 frags of it tops that end up healthy and live. ime anyway. plus even at wholesale these days most colonies are costing $45+. it all comes back to factoring overhead. to think anyone is making $1500 off of fragging a colony is ludicrous imo. only a select few can pull that off with lps...

Who said they had to live!

As long as they arrive alive is all that matters to some vendors.

 

[revhtree]

Off topic but I don't know why the word "off" was filtered. Hmm...

OFF off test

 

[benny z]

Off topic but I don't know why the word "off" was filtered. Hmm...

OFF off test

yeah - very odd. it's not filtered in the quote. :shrug

 

[ddiver]

Funny I've seen many vendors viewing the thread
But none have chimed in..

 

[TritonsGarden]

Edited

 

[ddiver]

Thanks for that Jack..

 

[am07f]

Another thing to consider is that you just cant get these chalice's as full large colonies. Our only options are to purchase a small eye and grow it out ourselves. When i first began i always told myself i would never pay so much for something the size of my pinkynail.

BUT....yesterday i payed 100 for a bazooka joe frag, why becuase i think its a beautiful coral and my only chance of having one of my own is by putting the money down and waiting.

tritons Gardener makes a good point. There is so much overhead involved. BUT...the guys who do this out of their house, out of their own tank can afford to give fellow reefers a break. I know a guy who buys a chalice for 150 from my LFS and then sells each eye for $50-100 to people out in Ohio who dont have the best choices. A bright yellow chalice frag looks great for $150, but here in miami i see a whole colony all the time for $200.

 

[dieselab]

i have not seen many wild colonies that you could get an honest 10 frags from that live. usually when you chop a wild piece, you'll maybe get 3 or 4 frags of it tops that end up healthy and live. ime anyway. plus even at wholesale these days most colonies are costing $45+. it all comes back to factoring overhead. to think anyone is making $1500 off of fragging a colony is ludicrous imo. only a select few can pull that off with lps...

The new trend is to chop up 3-4 wild colonies into 10-15 frag packs and selling them for $200-300 a pack. That's easily $1500 or so for each wild colony after it's all said and done.