Locals...

[Chelsey]

Here's a nice rant for you

I'm not sure if it's just around here, but it seems like local people frequently expect you to practically give stuff away, even LE pieces. Sure, I'll give good friends a deal or give stuff away for free (usually the latter of the two) but for random Joe off the street, I'm sorry, but if you want the stuff bad enough you'll pay current market value.

[/rant]

 

[Raptor]

LOL there too huh. No way around it. I just ignore them.

 

[Teeka]

Here too.

 

[Russellaqua]

I think it's the nature of any expensive hobby or industry. Mainly it stems from two factors I believe: 1) it's well known to the average hobbyist that many places severely overcharge for items, and 2) hobbyists don't know how much things cost retailers. It certainly happens a lot in Maine.

 

[Zoanuts]

OOOMY!!! Our middle name is free shipping, toss in, Can you, will yaZoanuts.com LOL

 

[surfn]

i also agree, its like that here too. although i see it from a slightly different perspective.

recently, our local club put on a huge reef frag sale this past december. in which me and 2 other people donated a TON of nice LE zoas/lps/sps. and for $20/raffle ticket, which guaranteed you to pick 1 frag. so lots of people got ridiculously nice corals for $20/each (oregon tort, sunset monti, rainbow aussie acans, duncans, purple deaths etc.), and after that for a couple of months it seemed like allot of people expected us to sell these really nice corals for around $20/each whenever they asked.

now, to me its not really about trying to recoup the money i paid for them, as i'm not in the hobby for the money. i believe more so about being fair to all the people who buy from me locally so they are all getting the same cheap deal. i will normally charge just under market value if i sell online, and about half of market value to locals. but sometimes thats obviously not good enough if you've already spoiled them once.

but to me, the thing that grinds my gears the most is that people seem to think regardless of the money, that we should just give up frags of these corals at every meet once our "colony" has grown past the 1" mark. they have no idea the great lengths it took to even find this coral available, b/c for me.......i don't purchase from those big expensive online stores. all of my corals have come from other hobbyists, and i have done all the leg work to track down those corals and arrange the shipping or the trade to get them.

and believe me, the trading part is ALLOT of work, and it still costs allot of money to ship things across country. so IMO i feel that at least when i sell some of these awesome frags locally, the great lengths i've gone to find them have gone very under appreciated.

i have worked my way up over several years in order to have such nice corals to be able to trade for other insanely nice corals. and it seems allot of people don't understand if you want to be able to do this, you gotta buy into the game with some sort of expensive coral to start out with. they just don't fall in your lap for free.

if you want to be able to trade for nice corals, you gota have nice corals to begin with.


ok....rant over.

 

[143gadgets]

i also agree, its like that here too. although i see it from a slightly different perspective.

recently, our local club put on a huge reef frag sale this past december. in which me and 2 other people donated a TON of nice LE zoas/lps/sps. and for $20/raffle ticket, which guaranteed you to pick 1 frag. so lots of people got ridiculously nice corals for $20/each (oregon tort, sunset monti, rainbow aussie acans, duncans, purple deaths etc.), and after that for a couple of months it seemed like allot of people expected us to sell these really nice corals for around $20/each whenever they asked.

now, to me its not really about trying to recoup the money i paid for them, as i'm not in the hobby for the money. i believe more so about being fair to all the people who buy from me locally so they are all getting the same cheap deal. i will normally charge just under market value if i sell online, and about half of market value to locals. but sometimes thats obviously not good enough if you've already spoiled them once.

but to me, the thing that grinds my gears the most is that people seem to think regardless of the money, that we should just give up frags of these corals at every meet once our "colony" has grown past the 1" mark. they have no idea the great lengths it took to even find this coral available, b/c for me.......i don't purchase from those big expensive online stores. all of my corals have come from other hobbyists, and i have done all the leg work to track down those corals and arrange the shipping or the trade to get them.

and believe me, the trading part is ALLOT of work, and it still costs allot of money to ship things across country. so IMO i feel that at least when i sell some of these awesome frags locally, the great lengths i've gone to find them have gone very under appreciated.

i have worked my way up over several years in order to have such nice corals to be able to trade for other insanely nice corals. and it seems allot of people don't understand if you want to be able to do this, you gotta buy into the game with some sort of expensive coral to start out with. they just don't fall in your lap for free.

if you want to be able to trade for nice corals, you gota have nice corals to begin with.


ok....rant over.

AGREED!!! It's the same here.

 

[rocko918]

It's not just you!, it happens all the time here. It happen to me so many times i don't invite people from our local club over anymore. I meet them at a lfs. This way i don't have to deal with "can i get a frag of that". The one that pushed it over the edge was when i moved a bunch of small frags to a nano and let someone pick from there. After he asked about pretty much all of them he says "what else do you want to give me" After i already gave him 2 free frags and he was only buying one for 10 bucks.

I only have over a select few people.

It kinda sucks because i would rather share my experience with people but it got so bad i just stopped letting people come over.

 

[chadfarmer]

I have gave stuff away in the past for free and have always seen it for sale later

thats the reason I rarely give anything for free

I have sold colonys of sps for 25.00 and never fails 5-6 month later I see them for sale for 50-60 each

the LE stuff (I rarely sell local)

 

[surfn]

I have gave stuff away in the past for free and have always seen it for sale later

thats the reason I rarely give anything for free

I have sold colonys of sps for 25.00 and never fails 5-6 month later I see them for sale for 50-60 each

the LE stuff (I rarely sell local)

good point. i only give stuff away to those that i know won't try to resell.

and i do try to limit how much LE stuff i spread around locally, only really try to spread around about 1 to 2 frags just in case something happens to mine.

 

[turbois300]

Interesting responses folks. There always seems to be a lot of pent up frusteration on these boards (not just R2R). Why is that. Not to derail the rant. I'd be ticked if I ha dsomething for sale for 100 and some jackleg came in acting like I owed him something and said I'll give you $60 for it.

On the flip side.....if I'm going to spend $250+ for coral. I don't think that 3 or 4 half polyp frags of LE ME WHOO HE WXYZ that JoeSmoe just hacked the crap out of and haven't even healed yet, is hardly a viable thing to try and sell.....even if some will buy it.. That is what brings all the negative I think...at least from the buyers perspective. You get burned once and suddenly everyone that sells coral owes you something....again just an observation.

I haven't ever personally boought a "frag pack", I want the whole colony... I like to see the stuff without a 100mm Macro lens. ANd I like these forums but the leeches have to go. I buy coral for me! Not for you!!! Someone posts a nice frag they hav egotten and immediately it's "put me in line for a frag!!!!!" Not hey nice coral where can I get my own..... see now I'm ranting too!!! Yeah!!!!

But you retailers don't take any guff from these swine!! You all have to make money....it is business!!

 

[Burks]

I like to give stuff away but on one condition. They have to first grow the frag out, frag it, give it to someone else, and then they can do what they please with it (sell, trade, etc).

 

[revhtree]

Sorry but I am the first one in line for new frags. See I have stuff people want and usually they will frag for stuff to trade. BTW you seem to have a little pent up frustration yourself! LOL!

BTW I usually say nice frag then put me in line, but sometimes it's just put me in line.

 

[turbois300]

You could say that with oil topping $130 a barrel today. I think that this hobby and pretty much every hobby and necessity are going to go through the ringer here soon. This is getting rediculous!!

I'm totally cool with the whole fragging concept and the value it provides to the hobby. There are somethings that just aren't available or are highly desireable and therefore its get in line and wait...just like the Ferrari I just bought....not, but It's all good.

At the collector level some things are worth the wait or the prying for a frag. Nice avatar by the way.