Expensive SPS frags

[Troylee]

I did it back in the day and was always disappointed.. now I like to gamble on wild brown turds and let them unwrap “color up” in my tank into something beautiful. I have a few high end pieces but only cause of trades…

 

[Matt L]

I did it back in the day and was always disappointed.. now I like to gamble on wild brown turds and let them unwrap “color up” in my tank into something beautiful. I have a few high end pieces but only cause of trades…

Some turds do turn into unicorns. My favorite thing to do too.

 

[spsick]

“High end” makes me lol. I hope the buyer and seller are high!

It bums me out that a hobby of sharing passion and beautiful animals turned I to a business model of shipping tiny pieces of coral across the country. It’s a monumental waste of resources IMO but hey it’s 2023!

 

[Lavey29]

Some will dine at McDonald's today and some will dine at Nobu

 

[JohnNYC8]

I did it back in the day and was always disappointed.. now I like to gamble on wild brown turds and let them unwrap “color up” in my tank into something beautiful. I have a few high end pieces but only cause of trades…

This gets to the heart of the risk commercial coral farms take when they want to introduce new pieces. If they buy a bunch of wild acros, deal with exotic pests in quarantine, and end up with 95% ugly/basic coral they take a hit. If one piece turns out to be a show stopper and someone is willing to pay $400 for a 1" frag then the economics work.

It's like pharmaceutical development, the drug itself doesn't cost $3,000 a dose, it's the R&D and time that got them there that adds up.

If we look at it this way, we should celebrate the people who spend $400 on a 1" frag because they help to evolve the industry.

 

[buruskeee]

$300 for an investment that will likely not pay off for 2 years.... I can make more than that on a swing trade in a week... Much less of a risk.

I know a couple people that have tons of experience and can blow their tanks out in 18 months. One made 150k in 4 months and the selling online and the other 100k in a year selling cheap locally with nothing more than their big DT and 50g frag tank for healing the fresh cuts. Minimal equipment too - just a calx and skimmer and fuge - no socks or anything or coral food. All ecotech power heads though and top brand tank blanketing LEDs

We’re talking frags to massive colonies every 2 years. It’s crazy stuff.

 

[Troylee]

This gets to the heart of the risk commercial coral farms take when they want to introduce new pieces. If they buy a bunch of wild acros, deal with exotic pests in quarantine, and end up with 95% ugly/basic coral they take a hit. If one piece turns out to be a show stopper and someone is willing to pay $400 for a 1" frag then the economics work.

It's like pharmaceutical development, the drug itself doesn't cost $3,000 a dose, it's the R&D and time that got them there that adds up.

If we look at it this way, we should celebrate the people who spend $400 on a 1" frag because they help to evolve the industry.

While this is true for some vendors “not many” most are chop shops and turn and burn! I don’t see many average acros being released or sold.. it seems every stick comes with big money any more lol..

 

[JohnNYC8]

While this is true for some vendors “not many” most are chop shops and turn and burn! I don’t see many average acros being released or sold.. it seems every stick comes with big money any more lol..

Exactly, it's easier to buy a pretty acro from a sterile tank, take a better picture, give it a cartoon name, and make $400 for a tiny piece of it. It's a great business model.

 

[Troylee]

Exactly, it's easier to buy a pretty acro from a sterile tank, take a better picture, give it a cartoon name, and make $400 for a tiny piece of it. It's a great business model.

What I’m saying is that’s normally not the case.. they get a colony in chop it the first day and start flipping it.. I’ve seen some crazy sticks fresh out the ocean that don’t keep their color in captivity.

 

[JohnNYC8]

What I’m saying is that’s normally not the case.. they get a colony in chop it the first day and start flipping it.. I’ve seen some crazy sticks fresh out the ocean that don’t keep their color in captivity.

Ah ok, sorry I misunderstood. That's really laying the risk on the buyer.

 

[Alexraptor]

Honestly I felt regrets just recently, paying $35 for a freshly glued SSC "twig". :p

I spent $15 on a small/mid sized WYSIWYG Efflo colony last, year. It arrived like this:


And now it's coloring up to this, and i've even split it in two:


Best value purchase EVER!

In short, I could never in my life imagine paying for so called "expensive" frags of any sort. Give me boring browned out colonies, with unrealized potential, any day!

 

[Matt L]

This gets to the heart of the risk commercial coral farms take when they want to introduce new pieces. If they buy a bunch of wild acros, deal with exotic pests in quarantine, and end up with 95% ugly/basic coral they take a hit. If one piece turns out to be a show stopper and someone is willing to pay $400 for a 1" frag then the economics work.

It's like pharmaceutical development, the drug itself doesn't cost $3,000 a dose, it's the R&D and time that got them there that adds up.

If we look at it this way, we should celebrate the people who spend $400 on a 1" frag because they help to evolve the industry.

Absolutely. It just takes a few years for the price to come down. For instance, Walt Disney acro frags are often $100 or less now in my area. But, there are still some people reaching for the stars sometimes.

 

[Sabellafella]

Don't know about you guys buy I chop all of my stuff off the plugs. Normally always freshly cut for me. Little over a year growth.

whats nice is even though i spent alot on the frag. That colony got me over 20k worth of trades.

 

[Troylee]

My last purchase was $100 for all 3 of these.. know today as mother colonies but back in the day as large frags lol..
red dragon
Ora Hawkins
Bill murray..

 

[Tahiti]

If you go on WWC website you'll see frags that are like 1/2" for almost $500 :astonished-face:

 

[Troylee]

Honestly I felt regrets just recently, paying $35 for a freshly glued SSC "twig". :p

I spent $15 on a small/mid sized WYSIWYG Efflo colony last, year. It arrived like this:


And now it's coloring up to this, and i've even split it in two:


Best value purchase EVER!

In short, I could never in my life imagine paying for so called "expensive" frags of any sort. Give me boring browned out colonies, with unrealized potential, any day!

It’s prolly colored up because you split it.. the original picture shows multiple coral boring spinoid worm that wreaks havoc on sticks and takes them pretty much out eventually.

 

[DJF]

My last purchase was $100 for all 3 of these.. know today as mother colonies but back in the day as large frags lol..
red dragon
Ora Hawkins
Bill murray..

Bill Murray is a good example of a fast grower with nice color. With as fast as it grows and still captures around 100 a frag (retail) you can get some good money/credit. Its price has also come down as more reefers have success with it. For profit- the best coral you can have is the one everyone else doesn’t.

 

[PeterErc]

I bought a 100$ blasto colony long before the coral ban. It would be easy 100 a polyp now, anyway , it died. That was the most I ever spent on one piece.

I started over after neglecting the tank for a year or three. It’s not so easy with out all the trading power I once had. I bought a few frag packs and get hooked up from LFS. These 5 frags retail would be $480, cherry bomb, pink Cadillac, Harvey wallbanger, four loco and aqua delight. I know the four loco and wallbanger are not going to look like on TSA website,
Still not much to look at, and I like some of the Mari frags better so far

 

[Mr. Roboto]

If you go on WWC website you'll see frags that are like 1/2" for almost $500 :astonished-face:

That's really what spawned me to scribble this, this morning

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Absolutely. It just takes a few years for the price to come down.

Then they go right back up years later for no reason other than TicTok made em cool like Ephilias.