Just ranting here

[Lebowski_]

My LFS is selling butt-ugly Zoas for $40 a plug and Blood Shrimp for $85 CAD.

They have a 0.5” finger leather from $25.

what the heck

I know prices have gone up but dang even softie frags are expensive now?

Just ranting….softies used to be safe but now Zoas and Toadstools may as well be rare Acros.

Ok I feel better now

 

[DIYreefer]

A sucka born every minute. I dont known how that particular vendor makes cash for anything with the stratospheric prices.

They probably cover the entire shipment if they only sell one fish, and there is always someone out there with deep enough pockets to buy one. The rest they can sell at a "discount" and it's all profit.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Ok so I just checked out riptide, thank you, go check out their wysiwyg section, very impressed

 

[jmatt]

I was in the market so I took a look at an online vendor that advertises here and the photos looked great. The place was a few hours away but I decided I'd go take a look in person. I figured I was heading to a professional coral farm.

The place was a filthy single car garage filled with absolutely filthy tanks that you could barely see into. I'm new and stupid and having come all that way, I bought some stuff. The owner was a nice enough guy and I felt a little 'on the spot'.

When I dipped all kinds of things, including bristleworms, came running out. Even after they were in the tank I found more bworms.

While I was there I asked if he had some kind of farm facility and was told yes... but it was closed at the moment. If I had to guess I'd say the online pics were uh, borrowed from another site. But the online presentation was in no way representative of what I walked into. So, caveat emptor.

 

[Lebowski_]

My grandparents were missionaries in China when the revolution happened. I can still remember Grandma saying that the first thing that happened was that the utilities were nationalized. Then any enemies of the state would have their water and electricity (if they had them?) disconnected and they were left without water or power.

I think about that lesson of grandma’s when I hear discussions about Carbon Credits, Green Energy, and vaccination status driving the hordes of modern Americans into a new closed society where a school teacher has more freedom to teach my grandchildren than their parents do. Meanwhile, folks are still busy watching their screens for the next directive.

dang this thread really has some wild twists and turns

 

[ninjamyst]

Ok so I just checked out riptide, thank you, go check out their wysiwyg section, very impressed

Yea, they are local to me and I visited their farm a couple of times. Great guys and beautiful corals. I highly recommend their zoas, acans, and gonis.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I was in the market so I took a look at an online vendor that advertises here and the photos looked great. The place was a few hours away but I decided I'd go take a look in person. I figured I was heading to a professional coral farm.

The place was a filthy single car garage filled with absolutely filthy tanks that you could barely see into. I'm new and stupid and having come all that way, I bought some stuff. The owner was a nice enough guy and I felt a little 'on the spot'.

When I dipped all kinds of things, including bristleworms, came running out. Even after they were in the tank I found more bworms.

While I was there I asked if he had some kind of farm facility and was told yes... but it was closed at the moment. If I had to guess I'd say the online pics were uh, borrowed from another site. But the online presentation was in no way representative of what I walked into. So, caveat emptor.

What's wrong with bristleworms??

 

[TCseh]

My LFS is selling butt-ugly Zoas for $40 a plug and Blood Shrimp for $85 CAD.

They have a 0.5” finger leather from $25.

what the heck

I know prices have gone up but dang even softie frags are expensive now?

Just ranting….softies used to be safe but now Zoas and Toadstools may as well be rare Acros.

Ok I feel better now

Same with my shops. I can't find any local reef clubs or frag swaps either. So I'm kinda screwed.

 

[GarrettT]

The consumer decides what a coral and fish are worth not the producer. People need to stop faulting companies for simply running a business. Who’s to say something is overpriced when people are buying it? I don’t like how lucrative this industry has become, but we are the ones to blame, not companies. “We” as in YOU guys. Not me…. I’m still old school lol

 

[Fishy888]

The consumer decides what a coral and fish are worth not the producer. People need to stop faulting companies for simply running a business. Who’s to say something is overpriced when people are buying it? I don’t like how lucrative this industry has become, but we are the ones to blame, not companies. “We” as in YOU guys. Not me…. I’m still old school lol

Me either!

 

[TCseh]

The consumer decides what a coral and fish are worth not the producer. People need to stop faulting companies for simply running a business. Who’s to say something is overpriced when people are buying it? I don’t like how lucrative this industry has become, but we are the ones to blame, not companies. “We” as in YOU guys. Not me…. I’m still old school lol

The reason people get angry is because the consumer believes the prices are brought up due to trickery. There are tons of new people being fooled everyday on photoshopped pictures and fancy names.
All the smart ones just have to follow suite because there is nowhere else to go.

 

[fishybizzness]

IF.YOU.DONT.LIKE.THE.PRICE. AND.THINK.ITS.TOO.EXPENSIVE.DONT.BUY.IT!

 

[threebuoys]

I believe vendors have every right to charge whatever they wish for their merchandise. What confounds me is that people are willing to pay the prices. I cannot understand why anyone is willing to spend $500 or $1000 or $1500 for a frag the size of a silver dollar or smaller. Who are the people who do this? Are the corals advertised at these prices actually ever sold? Or, are these exorbitantly priced corals just teasers to lure customers into believing that $50 for a one or two polyp Zoa is a good deal? Why would anyone buy a $1000 coral sight unseen on-line knowing that the warranty is probably less than 4 hours?

I don't have the advantage of a nearby fish store or a local club for a source. So, just about everything I have was purchased on-line. Perhaps if I had a 500+ gallon tank, $1000 for a coral would be a minor expense in the overall scheme of things. Nevertheless, I'm not willing to spend more than $50 on a frag as a matter of principle, not because I can't afford it. I wonder if any of the vendors are sophisticated enough to conduct a basic market analysis to determine the cost/price/volume ratios that result in the best profit margins, or is the demand so great they can sell every piece of coral they get their hands on, regardless of price?

 

[CasperOe]

I have seen this a lot browsing around the deep, dark internet! The hobby is still fairly small in the UK though so we do not suffer from the same issues regarding coral- and fish prices, but sadly we don't have the same selection either.

It seems though that vendors are taking the tick because of the popularity some times which is not okay.. Have been lucky with my LFS- and it helps that we are long time customers. Prices are reasonable and livestock always top class.

 

[kenjung]

I think the price is fare with everything else inflated coral price will do the same. Big name vendor that sell encrusted frag is better than fresh cut. What hurt in the coral pricing is when a tank is not ready for the expensive and money is wasted within a few week. When a frag took off price is not so bad.

Look around there are vendor and individual seller here with good price, I bought a nice encrusted frag of Home wrecker for 200, it's healthy and growing no money wasted.

 

[DIYreefer]

It used to be a better deal to buy online than in store. That has changed, imo. I suggest only buying online when it is the only option. There are also more vendors and businesses now because a lot of wholesalers no longer require a physical store for a retail account.

Unless you live in Orlando, it seems to me that the main reason to buy from an online vendor is if you're looking for specific pieces. It seems to me that most LFSs tend to focus on the "bread and butter", and not the more designer-esque corals.

 

[MichaelReefer]

I could never justify spending hundreds on coral. I stick with the easy to get, cheaper stuff. I love the hobby and all but man these companies are price gouging.

 

[cwerner]

I'm relatively new to the hobby, but it sure seems to me that a lot of these designer corals are just the cheap, generic ones renamed to make them more expensive. It's one thing when a coral is expensive because they require extensive care and certain, specific water conditions must be met for them to be healthy. It's another when someone takes a green slimer and labels it "Toxxic WEED Acropora" and instead of being able to charge 15 bucks for it now its a 150 dollar frag.

 

[Reefer Matt]

Unless you live in Orlando, it seems to me that the main reason to buy from an online vendor is if you're looking for specific pieces. It seems to me that most LFSs tend to focus on the "bread and butter", and not the more designer-esque corals.

I agree. I believe that is the case mostly because lfs cannot afford to sit on a $300 frag, etc., as they must move inventory to pay their bills. Online sellers typically are selling from their homes, or have much lower overhead and can afford to wait for the high end buyer to come along.

 

[DIYreefer]

Prices are crazy. Unfortunately, this has routinely been a topic of discussion for many years, it's definitely not a new phenomenon and itt won't be going away anytime soon, that's for sure.

I'm not a wealthy man but I have the vast majority of the higher end corals that I want. The key for me has been to avoid retail sellers completely and exclusively buy from other hobbyists. Not only have I found FAR better deals, but the chances of acquiring pests are greatly diminished as well (which is another topic altogether).

99% of the 100+ different coral variants that I currently keep were purchased here on r2r in the classifieds (I have 2 leathers that I've kept for many, many years), all for a fraction of what I would have paid had I bought them from vendors. Granted, I have to be patient and wait until a thread pops up with the tri-fecta of qualifications that I have set. It has to be a coral(s) that I want, a price I like, and from a seller with a proven track record of providing a good buying experience to their customers.

This is one of the ways I combat the ever growing expense of keeping a reef tank, especially one with higher end corals.