this is going to sound bad, but some of the best bargains on the planet are in the saltwater aquarium used market. When people want out, they want OUT. I could call cleaning/repairing/tlc a “side business”, that’s what I tell my wife anyway when I come home with more stuff
I think a lot of folks don’t understand, and think this is a long term relationship where Ryan gets to fill his reefing wish list.
I do the same. Ironically, its Ryan and his crew, promoting all this unnecessary gear that drives so many people out of reefing, selling their gear for pennies on the dollar. They get sold on the idea you have a problem, like cyano, you need Trident, an algae scrubber and a roller-mat to fix the problems in your reef tank, when you just needed to read Julian Sprungs book and learn the basics.
I mean that’s obvious lol. This is the US. But that doesn’t mean that the 3 reef companies involved aren’t using that greed to also further their own individual goals for the hobby. Bertrams goals are bertrams goals, and certainly there will be decisions that affect the companies and consumers involve. But this isn’t some sky Is falling event like a lot of people are shouting. There will certainly be a mix of good and bad that comes from this.I work in this VC and PE industry and have worked with companies like Bertram. Nothing wrong with what they are doing..they are making money. But if you think this is about futhering the hobby..I most respectfully request you to have your head check (trying to be funny, not insulative). There is are major reasons these M&A are happening right now...1) expected tax rates going up across the board 2) expected capital gains rates going up on the wealthy 3) low interest rates which help with valuations. These are all factors that go into these types of decisions when a company like Bertram get involved and Bertram making the moves that they made over the last year. This is not some altruistic event. This is about good old fashioned green.
You actually can influence folks to change their mind — my first industry is creative but rn I work within politics, and what we do is influence campaigns
I said it before and I 'll say it again, you cant change a person's mind and it is tilting at windmiills to debate in the hopes of doing so. I'm out.
This is actually why I began to worry about what I’d gotten into w/setting up a tank. I bought everything through MD b/c they’d been around forever and then literally not even a year later they were acquired. Then the hits just keep on coming. I’m like oh no. And you do feel like you’re always being sold some kind of snake oil or gear you just don’t need. That kind of thing is a huge turnoff to me. I have been enjoying my tank, so I’ll stick w/it, but will def not be lead to buy a bunch of stuff I don’t need.
Did they mention in your class that companies like Standard Oil mass producing kerosene is what saved the whales from extinction?
Man, I get that. The emails and adds from ALL the shops kill me with my techy love. Just remember back in the day we all did it with jugs of water, some cobbled RO system, salt, some form of light, and at the very least filter pads. My most successful (imo but also much more mature than any of my current tanks) reef was just 20% water changes weekly, under a halide, with a powerful return, and filter pads.
Probably in the lobby after being on TANKED
