Has Supply Exceeded Demand?

[Reefer Matt]

I was thinking about reefing today and how easy it has become to grow coral out for fragging. It seems more and more Reefers are starting coral fragging businesses these days.

I know not everyone shares the same success, but I think those that stick with it will eventually become successful.

With that said, do you think that the coral frag market is oversaturated, balanced, or not enough?

 

[Lemons]

In my neck of the woods ive seen a few new coral shops open up. But they seem to never last too long.

Usually they over expand and their quality goes from someone who truly loves these animals to someone who just sees growning and swimming dollar bills :/

 

[albano]

In my neck of the woods ive seen a few new coral shops open up. But they seem to never last too long.

to someone who just sees growing and swimming dollar bills :/

You got that right. In the ‘old days’ you could always get a free frag from anyone’s tank!

 

[Lemons]

You got that right. In the ‘old days’ you could always get a free frag from anyone’s tank!

I do miss the days where you see a nice acro at a friends place and then *boom* before you know it they have it fragged and on a grow out plug for you LOL

 

[Beefyreefy]

I can assure you no business succeeds easily. There was a brief moment in time where coral sellers that hit the internet via social media had some rapid success, but that wave is over. Remember Coral Dudes? Lol. It can certainly be a high risk business at that, most of us can’t even keep our home tanks from crashing at some point let alone a whole business full of tanks.

 

[Opus]

I was thinking about reefing today and how easy it has become to grow coral out for fragging. It seems more and more Reefers are starting coral fragging businesses these days.

I know not everyone shares the same success, but I think those that stick with it will eventually become successful.

With that said, do you think that the coral frag market is oversaturated, balanced, or not enough?

Can't speak for the entire country, but in my area I would say no. Everyone in my area that sells on a regular basis is just a chop shop, they are growing out very few of their own frags.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I was thinking about reefing today and how easy it has become to grow coral out for fragging. It seems more and more Reefers are starting coral fragging businesses these days.

I know not everyone shares the same success, but I think those that stick with it will eventually become successful.

With that said, do you think that the coral frag market is oversaturated, balanced, or not enough?

You bring up a good point. With the current cost of coral frags, you'd think supply was down. But I think supply is way up, but for some reason price doesn't follow.

There's so many reasons why this might be.

When people buy a $150 frag 2 years ago they tend to sell them for the same price if not more when they're ready to frag.

Either that, or they conduct a quick search and see what the going price for the coral is on a popular retail site and set the price accordingly.

And then there's the buyers skepticism about purchasing from a 'nobody' and getting what's advertised. Or any assurance that the frag is pest free.

That seems to force people to seek out the big name farmers and pay their overhead in the purchase price.

Then you have people that see a cheap price on a coral that is being sold for 3x more at a popular website and think, there's something shady going on.

Couple all that with zero continuity in the hobby. New hobbyists don't have a clue that a $150 coral is overpriced and don't think twice, thus driving up cost.

There's no oversight, people can charge what they want, and capitalize on the fact that most hobbyist are clueless.

 

[MnFish1]

You bring up a good point. With the current cost of coral frags, you'd think supply was down. But I think supply is way up, but for some reason price doesn't follow.

There's so many reasons why this might be.

When people buy a $150 frag 2 years ago they tend to sell them for the same price if not more when they're ready to frag.

Either that, or they conduct a quick search and see what the going price for the coral is on a popular retail site and set the price accordingly.

And then there's the buyers skepticism about purchasing from a 'nobody' and getting what's advertised. Or any assurance that the frag is pest free.

That seems to force people to seek out the big name farmers and pay their overhead in the purchase price.

Then you have people that see a cheap price on a coral that is being sold for 3x more at a popular website and think, there's something shady going on.

Couple all that with zero continuity in the hobby. New hobbyists don't have a clue that a $150 coral is overpriced and don't think twice, thus driving up cost.

There's no oversight, people can charge what they want, and capitalize on the fact that most hobbyist are clueless.

I think it's also because though the number of frags has increased - people keep renaming every variant - so even though the number is up, the "rare" types are not.

I also think there are a lot of frags out there being sold that end up dying in tanks - that we don't hear about.

 

[merkmerk73]

I think we're just seeing competition drive hyper specialization

You can't make serious money off of widespread, easily propagated, easily cared for corals like GSP

So the successful sellers are specializing in new variants, grafts, etc.

Jason over at SPSFrags.com has really nice looking acros. TSA, Tidal Gardens, and WWC will often have really nice looking Montipora

We will probably start seeing more and more designer corals too - grafting, maybe even genetic modification.

 

[albano]

I do miss the days where you see a nice acro at a friends place and then *boom* before you know it they have it fragged and on a grow out plug for you LOL

Absolutely… and you’d immediately invite them to stop by your home to return the favor!

 

[Reefer Matt]

I do miss the days where you see a nice acro at a friends place and then *boom* before you know it they have it fragged and on a grow out plug for you LOL

Yup, that used to happen a lot with me as well. But now I can't even give coral away in my area because so many people already have frag tanks full of coral, or it is not the expensive "high end" stuff they want.

 

[PeterErc]

It depends
You can fill up a tank quickly for cheap if you don’t have to have the latest and greatest. What do people do with all the Hollywood Stunner? Xenia gets flush down the toilet. A LFS has corals they can’t give away. Transport the same corals to a LFS in another state and they will sell out as long as they haven’t invaded tanks in that area.

I don’t play the game. It costs the same to grow out a 10$ frag as it does to grow out an ultra rare wing ding bing bang. I will not pay top dollar for a frag. I am not in the position now, but I rarely sold coral to an individual. I would give away more than I sold and to see someone grinning from ear to ear is worth more than a couple extra bucks in my pocket.

It also comes down to keeping up with the Joneses and having the latest and greatest. I feel bad for new people starting out in the hobby. Especially a young kid whose parents work hard for what little they have. All you need to keep a tank is light, water, live rock, and flow. Yet thousands can be spent before biological filtration is understood and don’t understand why the king ding a king frag died.

Okay I’m done, Iol, I think

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I feel that where I am is over-saturated with home fraggers, but they all sell the exact same stuff, the red monti caps, candy canes, duncans, gsp, red and blue mushrooms...

The few that sell the stylish acro's want the exact same price as the LFS.

But still I look, because once in a blue moon I can find that guy willing to sell a $200 coral for $50. Thats really the only kind of deal that I'm interested in.

 

[DistressedDamsel]

I was thinking about reefing today and how easy it has become to grow coral out for fragging. It seems more and more Reefers are starting coral fragging businesses these days.

I know not everyone shares the same success, but I think those that stick with it will eventually become successful.

With that said, do you think that the coral frag market is oversaturated, balanced, or not enough?

Where I live, the closest saltwater store is a 45 minute drive. I was actually thinking about starting something of my own for this reason.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

You got that right. In the ‘old days’ you could always get a free frag from anyone’s tank!

I'm always offering free local pick ups for anything in my tanks, I'm tired of throwing coral away it's hard to give coral away sometimes I have frag racks that are overgrown and coral I neglect to trim just because it's hard to trow coral out! HINT HINT!

 

[Spartan76]

I would view this as a positive thing except that the proliferation of small coral farms doesn't seem to be driving prices down. Its would be great idea to see co-ops develop where a handful of local growers could band together, divide responsibility for stock and then work together. That should drop overhead and hopefully translate into lower prices. But maybe it is just plain old greed that keeps prices high... In Europe good size colonies routinely sell for what a 1 inch frag costs here - and their utility costs are higher.

 

[albano]

I would give away more than I sold and to see someone grinning from ear to ear is worth more than a couple extra bucks in my pocket.

my kind of guy! … I got a frag for you!

 

[IntrinsicReef]

I would guess this depends on location. A few good growers can saturate the demand in an area pretty quick. At that point they would need to advertise nationally, invest in efficiency upgrades and shipping logistics to compete on a national scale. The national sellers are going to have more expenses. I have a suspicion we are on the back end of the covid era demand and price spike. The really high prices seem to mostly follow fads that create extreme demand. There will always be higher prices for colorful slowing growing corals, but I think the name game has more to do with the extreme demand pricing.

 

[BryznNguyen]

It depends
You can fill up a tank quickly for cheap if you don’t have to have the latest and greatest. What do people do with all the Hollywood Stunner? Xenia gets flush down the toilet. A LFS has corals they can’t give away. Transport the same corals to a LFS in another state and they will sell out as long as they haven’t invaded tanks in that area.

I don’t play the game. It costs the same to grow out a 10$ frag as it does to grow out an ultra rare wing ding bing bang. I will not pay top dollar for a frag. I am not in the position now, but I rarely sold coral to an individual. I would give away more than I sold and to see someone grinning from ear to ear is worth more than a couple extra bucks in my pocket.

It also comes down to keeping up with the Joneses and having the latest and greatest. I feel bad for new people starting out in the hobby. Especially a young kid whose parents work hard for what little they have. All you need to keep a tank is light, water, live rock, and flow. Yet thousands can be spent before biological filtration is understood and don’t understand why the king ding a king frag died.

Okay I’m done, Iol, I think

That last paragraph is relatable, I started out halfway through college its super rare when I go trade corals/buy/sell that I will met someone around my age ~23 and I think a lot of it has to deal with the prices that some of these corals go and theres no way for a broke student to afford that lol unless they just go with a softie tank

 

[edd59]

Absolutely… and you’d immediately invite them to stop by your home to return the favor!

this is old school, one hand washes the other. the way i operated my whole life. us old timers are way out numbered by the younger crowd who go by all for me none for you.