Should I bother with buying from this guy?

[eggplantparrot]

Hi y'all,

Today I come to you with a dilema. Here's the situation:

I live in Toronto Canada, which reduces available livestock quite a bit comparing to the US.

I just finished up the process of revamping my 5G AIO into a Rock Flower Anemone only tank, and am trying to stock it now. my plan is to skip all of the normal common/boring ones and get mostly Ultra grade nems.

being that livestock availability is not great, I have only collected 5 nems so far, 3 of which I would consider high grade. All 3 of those have been chance finds in my LFS.

I have since found a Kijiji ad (basically craigslist) from a guy with lots of high end corals for sale, and he has an ad for rock flower nems.

All of his ads use SUPER heavy blues only for pictures, making it nigh impossible to get an idea of what the corals/nems actually would look like if I don't run only blues.

example pic

I asked for whiter spectrum pictures from him, but here are what I received:

don't know about y'all but these aint what I had in mind lol.

I asked again nicely for whiter pics but he replied with bit of a doozy:

I have never seen my RFAs closing up due to a shortchange in lighting, so that's a bit confusing. I believe he sells from his home, so it's not like he has a constant stream of customers lining up to see these in person, so what does that not being able to sell even mean??

he has said to let him know which ones I want (including corals I was inquiring about) and he will bring to his garage so I can see them before I purchase, but how would I be able to choose if I can't really tell what they would look like until I got there.

going to his place would mean an 80km round trip, which I am hesitant with if I knew exactly what I'm getting, so this situation doesn't sit well with me.

this turned out to be more of a rant, but I guess my question is, would you guys be comfortable dealing with a seller and deal like this?

 

[Deezill]

if your gut is saying no then don't chance it. I too have never seen RFA's close with short change light.

 

[Mical]

Pass on it...

 

[Jon Fishman]

I don’t even know what he’s asking for them, but based on how shady he is, I’d bet 2 things:

1) He’s charging shop prices..... way over home hobbyist prices.

2) He probably is a member of R2R amongst others.

 

[Fish_Sticks]

That gold torch pic is total bs, and heavily photoshopped - laughably obvious

 

[eggplantparrot]

I envy you all of the online stores in the US lol.

my favourite place with RFAs closed and changed owners ealier this year to someone on the other side of the country.

guess you can say I'm a bit desperate for nems

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Eh I would be the guy to say go for it.

 

[eggplantparrot]

I don’t even know what he’s asking for them, but based on how shady he is, I’d bet 2 things:

1) He’s charging shop prices..... way over home hobbyist prices.

2) He probably is a member of R2R amongst others.

see, one of the reasons I'm even considering this is his prices are good (assuming they are actually higher grade). 50 to 75 Canadian Pesos each depending on color.

 

[ApoIsland]

Depending on prices and shipping costs i would give it a shot and buy 2 or 3 and see what the result is.

 

[eggplantparrot]

Depending on prices and shipping costs i would give it a shot and buy 2 or 3 and see what the result is.

my plan was to go in person and maybe pick up a gold torch too.

maybe I should just eenie meenie miney moe a few and just pass on them if I don't like. would be a big waste of gas and time though.

 

[PicassoClown04]

you said the dude was selling them on what is essentially criagslist, does that mean he’s local? If so, ask if it would be possible to go look at them yourself (with all of the proper PPE). If he says no, I’d pass. Too much risk associated with this guy if he refuses to provide the pics you ask for

 

[Deezill]

Depending on prices and shipping costs i would give it a shot and buy 2 or 3 and see what the result is.

The torch is photoshopped don't do it. save your money.

 

[Jon Fishman]

see, one of the reasons I'm even considering this is his prices are good (assuming they are actually higher grade). 50 to 75 Canadian Pesos each depending on color.

MAYBE go check out the RFAs in person...... Wouldn’t pay more than $40 for that torch

 

[eggplantparrot]

you said the dude was selling them on what is essentially criagslist, does that mean he’s local? If so, ask if it would be possible to go look at them yourself (with all of the proper PPE). If he says no, I’d pass. Too much risk associated with this guy if he refuses to provide the pics you ask for

it's an 80km round trip and I don't like driving. he will only bring the ones I ask for into his garage to look at. it would just really suck if they all end up looking crap and I waste time/gas lol.

 

[eggplantparrot]

MAYBE go check out the RFAs in person...... Wouldn’t pay more than $40 for that torch

is that in US$? what is that in Canadian Pesos? like 300? hahaha

40$ per head of gold torch would be my dreamland

 

[jda]

People who don't want to show whites usually means that their corals are crap... not always.

Go with your gut. There are more RFAs out there.

 

[jaxteller007]

Can't sell for 2 or 3 hours? What the heck is this guy running out of his house? I could maybeeeeeeee see a shop say that because they have customers coming in and out, but selling out of your house? Nah man, way too many flags to chance it for me.
That first picture is so photoshopped it should be called a Kardashian.

 

[ApoIsland]

The torch is photoshopped don't do it. save your money.

Beggars shouldn't be choosers. Buy em. Even a slightly less than ultra RFA is cool

 

[Halal Hotdog]

So 80km is 49 miles round trip. I would go see it in person if I were you. 24.5 miles each way is not bad, especially if he has what you want.
Personally I run my tanks white and always request white pictures when acquiring new stuff. For some people it is a huge headache trying to change spectrum then updating all pictures. Get a good podcast and make the trip. You might make a buddy out of it.

 

[ApoIsland]

Can't sell for 2 or 3 hours? What the heck is this guy running out of his house? I could maybeeeeeeee see a shop say that because they have customers coming in and out, but selling out of your house? Nah man, way too many flags to chance it for me.
That first picture is so photoshopped it should be called a Kardashian.

Ya the guy is super sketch and full of BS thats for sure. Although in my younger days i would always go to that same type of person for my recreational drugs and I was usually never disappointed in product.