Tips for buying from other hobbyists: What do you look for?

[Ocean’s Piece]

Cost. Is it worth the risk for potential hitchhikers or should I go to the store where it'll be virtually zero pests. Sometimes though, some corals and fish hobbyists offer are significantly cheaper than the store and are hard deals to pass up.

 

[Derrick0580]

Cost. Is it worth the risk for potential hitchhikers or should I go to the store where it'll be virtually zero pests. Sometimes though, some corals and fish hobbyists offer are significantly cheaper than the store and are hard deals to pass up.

My lfs doesn’t dip their corals, I’d almost feel safer getting frags from a hobbyist than a store because chance are they have done their due diligence and dipped the coral or at least had it long enough if there were hitch hikers they would know about them.

 

[SPS2020]

I have purchased a number of corals from R2R members. I'll look at their history, how long have they been a member, number of posts, check feedback from other members, etc. Pictures with of the frag and mother colony are very helpful in determining whether I'll purchase. So far, three or four different members have provided good, honest acropora frags. Today, I saw another member with some really nice frags for sale with detailed pics, great prices and good feedback from other R2R members. A $200 frag can be had for half of that price after it has been propagated by fellow reefers. Do your research and you can get some really good deals.

 

[DarkReefer]

Never have purchased from another reefer, not saying I never would though but I've just not been in/around any reefers local to me that I've been involved with.
Probably wouldn't buy from a random unless they really had something that stood out to me.