These coral prices are starting to push me out the hobby

Zeal

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To be fair, they are selling corals for $199 because people are paying that much. They wouldn't be in business if they weren't. Seems like you may have wiggle room to increase your own prices!
Nobody is going to pay $200 for a single Illuminati polyp.
 

Zeal

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They'll pay $199 though ;)
GIF by Identity
 

OcellarisClown

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I am the photographer for TSA and part of their online sales team. If you had any issues with any frags you received from us, please let us know. We are always very willing to do what is needed to make a customer happy.

As far as the Vivids insanity price, we look at the market when we price corals. When it's priced we look at the size of other sellers and price. I searched for a vivid insanity frag you mentioned but can not find any. The best I could find is a small one for $400 on sale. The one on the site is easily over 1.5".

We use no filters when taking pics and pics are not in all blue. I could use a filter like 95% of the other vendors but we prefer to sell frags close to what you actually receive so you are not disappointed.

We also have a wide range of prices for coral, with some as low as $15.

Again if you have any issues please reach out to us and we will make it right.
The frags all arrived healthy with some minimal tissue necrosis due to shipping stress on a few frags, however they’ve all lost their vibrant colorations upon arrival.

I understand that color loss is common with shipping and as they readjust to my tank parameters but upon receiving frags from other vendors and reefers from R2R, their frags have been able to maintain their coloration, polyp extension, and health upon arrival while the frags ive received from TSA just aren’t as vibrant in my tank as time passes.
I’ve had to remove half of the frags since they had either undergone STN or just wasn’t thriving as well. (Lack of PE, polyp bailout, intense browning or color loss)

Maybe it’s just my tank parameters that are to blame, but I guess my tank just isn’t suited for TSA frags unfortunately.

Obviously other reefers on here shouldn’t compare local reefer frag prices to frag prices set by vendors or business since y’all have financial quotas, service costs, other business factors that attribute to the prices, but with the amount that I’ve spent on frags I am personally disappointed since it’s not the fault of the company but just the fact that my tank parameters aren’t fit for TSA frags for some odd reason.

I’m more than happy to spend $600-700 on a single tenuis frag if it’s able to maintain its quality/coloration so the prices isnt an issue for me personally, however it does become an issue if several if not all the frags don’t maintain their expected quality especially after spending $1,237.87.

I’m well aware that there’s nothing to be done since none of the frags were DOA, but I hope my experience doesn’t dissuade other reefers from buying from you guys.
 
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Frostblitz20

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Be like me only but during sales. I got a WWC Illuminati zoa which is normally 100$ for one head for only 38$ for 4 heads. I plan to grow this sucker and frag off heads for 15$ a head hopefully end result is more people will have access to it thus driving the prices down.
 
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Jawfishracing

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I buy my corals from a few local frag grower. Their prices for the simple stuff is resonable. I'm not in the latest high end fad. I buy what I like. Couldn't care if it's not the high dollar stuff.

I'm not a coral collector. I can't afford that hobby. I'm just concentrating on being a reefer.
 

happyhourhero

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My strategy:

SPS: Battleboxes and Fraghouse (great prices when on sale)

Others: POTO and other (non WWC) have great prices during live sales and you don’t have to write a script to frantically refresh the page. Corals are loaded to sites and you can browse the avail corals as the sale goes on.

Local reef club. Search fb for your city/county/region and reef and you prob have something. Can get great prices and will find some gems.

WWC eBay is ok sometimes but the days of great deals seem to be behind IMO. I’ve tracked a few that stayed under $10 and then in the last 5 seconds went to over 75 for mid tier acros.
 

DaneGer21

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I don’t think I’ve purchased a coral from an actual vendor(minus a local frag swap where vendors join) in probably 10+yrs. I honestly don’t think I would have stuck around back in 2008 if prices were the same as today. Since then, it’s either been frag swaps(includes locals), or people on this or the “other” forum.

I guess if you have the cash then cool, but I don’t like to pay just to pay so I can say I have “X” corals…to each their own!
 

REEFTIDE

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If you've never checked out our site, we probably have hundreds of frags under $100 lol. Not sure what you collect but we sell lots of zoas, lps, encrusters etc we just don't do much if any SPS.
Screen Shot 2021-08-10 at 11.53.02 AM.png


This is just a tiny cross section of the cheapest ones but the people that joined us this weekend for our sale enjoyed 50+ freebies or $5/$10 frags. Generally, if you look you'll find some amazing deals from most vendors unfortunately when you shop with larger vendors you're also competing with hundreds of others for it though.
 

NoahLikesFish

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Is it just me or are these coral prices getting ridiculous. I’m really starting to think about shutting my tank down. I mean almost every coral is 100 dollars or more on these websites.
keep sessile inverts like sponges and things, cheaper and they dont need miniature nuclear reactors over their tanks
 

Bribo12

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Charging more than $5-10 for gsp should be a crime…I’ve ordered from several sites during live sales and gotten decent deals. $5-10 Duncan’s, acans, decent zoas, etc and different acros for $30-40. Frag swaps and hobbyists though are usually your best bet for a little nicer stuff at cheaper prices.
 

fishface NJ

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In my area you have to pay in order to get anything from club members. You can post on their forums, but any frag exchange/giveaway/trade/sell is only for paid members. Complete BS. I'm calling you out Bay Area Reefers Club
Our club does the same thing. The reason we do is to run the website, use the money to buy items to raffle at the meetings, etc. It helps to keep it active.
 

fishybizzness

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Two sayings come to mind.
1. There's a sucker born every minute.
2. A fool and his money are soon parted.
 

Opes

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What gets me is the stuff like torches that you see in literally every shop and on-line retailer marked rare and $250 a head. If they are so rare how are they literally everywhere you look? Especially something like bombproof LPS that is extremely easy to grow. I mostly stick to buying and trading with local reefers.
 

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