How realistic for a normal reefer to sell corals online?

[ShrimpDemolisher]

Recently I've been thinking about selling coral frags to make some beer $$. My preferred platform is Ebay as I'm also selling other stuff on there. I can do local but none of my LFS wants to throw $$ at me. They only accept donation. I'm just a normal reefer with common/easy-to-find corals at the moment. I'm not trying to compete with others either. So how easy/doable/realistic is it in my situation? If you're also doing the same thing, how do you pack the corals? How much do you charge for shipping? And how much money do you earn a month?

 

[Jon Warner]

It seems that hobbyist sellers here on R2R do quite well... eBay is super competitive.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Recently I've been thinking about selling coral frags to make some beer $$. My preferred platform is Ebay as I'm also selling other stuff on there. I can do local but none of my LFS wants to throw $$ at me. They only accept donation. I'm just a normal reefer with common/easy-to-find corals at the moment. I'm not trying to compete with others either. So how easy/doable/realistic is it in my situation? If you're also doing the same thing, how do you pack the corals? How much do you charge for shipping? And how much money do you earn a month?

With online selling comes shipping and shipping costs, packaging.....etc. I've sold to only Local hobbyists and have avoided shipping and related costs involved.

 

[Tamberav]

Ebay has a fee and such... at least if you sell on these forums you only get hit with the paypal transaction fee.

You would need to research how to pack properly as that is important. If you have ever ordered corals online from a good vender, that gives a good idea. Winter is coming and so is holidays which make shipping more difficult. It may be something you want to re-visit in spring.

Shipping fees have likely gone up but I usually see around 40-50 dollars overnight.

I see a lot of people sell on local facebook tbh. You can not sell animals/corals there but you can post a pic and say "PM for details" to get around that.

 

[ShrimpDemolisher]

I see. Thanks everyone! I'll see if I can sell to local hobbyists.

 

[Ksull72487]

Big thing here is. Many corals today wind up as frags from one reefer to another or a store. It’s very realistic to sell corals. They can go with out light for awhile. COVID has made getting them harder and certain bans. Many of them probably come from Hobbyists tanks to begin with. The stores have suppliers. And it’s not always a big one sometimes it’s someone’s living room or basement lol.