Just Curious--Have "Live Sales" Hit Their Limit?

[PacificEastAquaculture]

I've never done a live sale and don't plan to, just curious. I've been watching a few recently. It appears to me as I click through the items offered that most don't sell.

With games, check-ins, unrelated banter, it seems that corals are almost an after thought.

Years ago there was the occasional live sale. Obviously, now there's one or more every weekend and some week days.

Have they run their course? Is it over saturation of the number of events? Are the deals no longer there? Are you just tired of it all?

Seriously, just curious. I've got no dog in the fight.

 

[billyocean]

I've never done a live sale and don't plan to, just curious. I've been watching a few recently. It appears to me as I click through the items offered that most don't sell.

With games, check-ins, unrelated banter, it seems that corals are almost an after thought.

Years ago there was the occasional live sale. Obviously, now there's one or more every weekend and some week days.

Have they run their course? Is it over saturation of the number of events? Are the deals no longer there? Are you just tired of it all?

Seriously, just curious. I've got no dog in the fight.

SBB Corals sales are the jam and sell out or get pretty close every time. We play around in the thread. If that's not your thing then all the corals are posted on the website. In the thread GCs and $5 drops go down...legit drops not just stuff you don't want anyways. Next sale is February 9th if you want to check it out. They drop the remaining corals in price each day after the initial day of the sale. Again, all of this is available on the site if the shenanigans of the R2R aren't your thing. They just hand out tons of GCs at random in the thread so it behooves you to be in it..but not a necessity.

Edit...they have great deals.

 

[AquaDaniel]

Economy is definitely one reason. Moreover, there’re so many live sales - which makes you realize the prices in the live sale should be the normal price of those corals. Also old hobbyists should have generally stocked up their tanks, so unless you have a new tank, there’s too much motivation to buy a lot of corals. The marketplace is another competitor to those live sales. Corals are the kind of goods that you can sell again once they grow and split. I’m actually surprised to see so many people buying corals everyday.

 

[argiBK]

I guess it’s a number of things, for me…

1) I don’t want to dedicate an entire day to constantly hitting refresh in the offchance of scoring something I’ve been in search of, even if I’m solely focused on that one thing. It’s a waste of time and energy.

2) If I am searching for something specific, my time/energy is better spent searching local or finding specialists online (which I did for my gigantea anemones) who I know will provide quality livestock.

3) There are enough local reefers (on this board’s marketplace or my local board) who sell the very same frags, at similar or cheaper prices, and those frags/fish happen to be larger and reach my tank with far less risk of loss because of transport time.

4) Lots of OFS have gone to the auction model, something I also don’t like doing. Beyond that, there are so many livestock OFS, that you’re nearly guaranteed to find what you’re looking for, unless it’s incredibly rare (and rare, means going to reason #2).

 

[tautog83]

$300 walt disneys and $1300 tenuis frags are great deals? Lol

 

[argiBK]

$300 walt disneys and $1300 tenuis frags are great deals? Lol

If you’re paying $300 for a WD these days, that’s your fault. lol

 

[tautog83]

Oo not me i was quoting the other guy who said sbb had great deals and a quick glance on the site thats what i saw. I wouldnt take a walt disney if YOU gave me $20 and the frag lol

 

[Cthulukelele]

Live sales in general feel kinda stressful and predatory. Any flash sale designed around fueling FOMO bothers me.

 

[argiBK]

Thought of more reasons…

5) The frag market is just so incredibly saturated with vendors these days, there’s no shortage of OFS. When there’s an abundance of options, you’re going to gravitate towards spending your money (esp. in a recession economy) with businesses you trust.

6) When a rando OFS (you may or may not have ever heard of) holds a live sale, and that Saturday, there may be 2 or 3 live sales happening, it really diminishes the value of that sale. Like, I don’t even care when WWC holds live sales anymore b/c of the above 2 reasons.

I will say, I do enjoy Jason Fox’s WYSIWYG sales, because I trust the quality of his livestock and he updates his WYSIWYG stock frequently.

 

[billyocean]

Oo not me i was quoting the other guy who said sbb had great deals and a quick glance on the site thats what i saw. I wouldnt take a walt disney if YOU gave me $20 and the frag lol

Umm yeah...what's on the site has nothing to do with the live sale pricing sir. Check out the sale and decide for yourself..it's the only sale I do anymore. Furthermore, anyone that participates in one comes back for the next one. They have a 10 day guarantee as well so your not limited to DOA. Most other live sales are just that....other live sales and not for me.

 

[Battlecorals]

This is where I was already at 5 years ago. lol. its way crazier now even if you ask me.

Batman Apathy

Well, I don’t know if there’s a genuinely polite way to do this. However I'll try my best, and I am in no way trying to pick on any one specific vendor at all here. In fact, I have been waiting to post this till we had a week without one, so it didn't look like I was aiming at any one in...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[billyocean]

This is where I was already at 5 years ago. lol. its way crazier now even if you ask me.

Batman Apathy

Well, I don’t know if there’s a genuinely polite way to do this. However I'll try my best, and I am in no way trying to pick on any one specific vendor at all here. In fact, I have been waiting to post this till we had a week without one, so it didn't look like I was aiming at any one in...

www.reef2reef.com

BC is the other legit option IMO. But I wouldn't really categorize BC as a "live sale" so to speak, just a nice across the board pricing cut which is great

 

[tautog83]

Stock tenuis pics

 

[shakacuz]

i’ve previously fallen victim to the live sale hype… currently have been sourcing more local reefers who sell corals or just buy from others here on r2r to capitalize on actual sales or deals..

personally for me, live sales no longer serve a purpose of buying “cheap” corals, but more as a gimmick to attract new hobbyists who have little knowledge of where prices should be to be “fair” or a deal. i could understand with inflation or the hype of certain corals would make vendors more likely to raise prices to increase their profits, but prices nowadays are ridiculous!

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

This is where I was already at 5 years ago. lol. its way crazier now even if you ask me.

Batman Apathy

Well, I don’t know if there’s a genuinely polite way to do this. However I'll try my best, and I am in no way trying to pick on any one specific vendor at all here. In fact, I have been waiting to post this till we had a week without one, so it didn't look like I was aiming at any one in...

www.reef2reef.com

Agree. It seems now that many if not most don't sell much of the items they post.

I've never embraced the collector coral idea, along with the name game and so-called "lineage". Live Sales, ebay sales, designer names, etc make corals a commodity.

Just me, I still am like a new hobbyist, I marvel at every coral and the details. I love the joy I experienced in the 1960s when I'd go to a LFS and the owner was a hobbyist and loved what they were doing. Seems now that it is almost not about the animals.

 

[billyocean]

Stock tenuis pics

Looks legit to me.

 

[billyocean]

Stock tenuis pics

Stock pic

A month later

I agree that a lot of vendors misrepresent. I'm simply just showing a vendor that does it right...that's all..not trying to argue or anything about it. I'm not affiliated with them in anyway other than I like their coral.

 

[pandaparties]

Second SBB, made away with two ny Knicks, a huge bicolor hammy, and about 15 acro frags, 3 acro colonies for around 400 last sale. They are the only live sale I'll do anymore

 

[OrchidMiss]

I literally just posted this on a live sale.
Not only does it seem like the vendors are either too busy or too lazy to personally participate in their own sales on top of feeling way more impersonal.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I also just want to see corals under whites. Not blue tinted whites. No whites with 4 actinic t5s above then. WHITES. Why havent we pushed harder having sale photos and tank photos under normal reef lighting the way it's going to be viewed 95% of the time?