Torch coral prices

[Wildreefs]

How is it some vendors have a single head torch for $1,200, name along the lines of “tiger” where on the import sheet, they are less than $100? You wonder why exporters raised their prices, they saw the robbery occurring state side .

 

[blaxsun]

What's the dilemma here exactly?

 

[GK3]

How is it some vendors have a single head torch for $1,200, name along the lines of “tiger” where on the import sheet, they are less than $100? You wonder why exporters raised their prices, they saw the robbery occurring state side .

Not sure robbery is a fair word. I liken it to capitalism. They set it to a price, if no one bought it would go down. Someone is out there paying that price.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I agree on as long as people are will to pay these prices. They are there to make money.
I myself not will to pay the prices nowadays, so I just buy cheaper stuff.

 

[ninjamyst]

Cuz we hobbyists let vendor scam us. Look at the prices during these so call "live sales". $50 for a tiny frag of common corals. And yet all the sheeps hang out in the live sale thread all day trying to out buy each other. We have no one to blame for high prices but ourselves.

You want prices to come down? Start slamming sponsors here and on social media on their ridiculous prices. Stand up for your hard earn money.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Lots of wide world suckers lookin for that skittle. Taste the rainbow.

 

[Wildreefs]

Cuz we hobbyists let vendor scam us. Look at the prices during these so call "live sales". $50 for a tiny frag of common corals. And yet all the sheeps hang out in the live sale thread all day trying to out buy each other. We have no one to blame for high prices but ourselves.

You want prices to come down? Start slamming sponsors here and on social media on their ridiculous prices. Stand up for your hard earn money.

This is what I was getting at. We’ve allowed so many people who have 1 year experience in the hobby turn this into a side hustle, drug like business if you would. Literally imports on Sunday, are being sold two days later for 10x the amount. But hey at least they got it out of the shipping water from 48 hr flight, nice enough to do that I suppose . That’s easily worth a thousand bucks for their time .

 

[Wildreefs]

What's the dilemma here exactly?

If you’re fine with a coral, marked 12 times up, after being in the country for a mere two days, then that’s why these sellers exist.

Want to grow stuff out and say it’s used to captivity and took time, chance and effort? Ok. Want to spend 1400 on a “tiger torch”, frag, when the colony is on Jakartas coral page for $300, which is then hacked up into 10 pieces and sold two days later? The used to be called chop shops, people knew and you paid accordingly. Not it’s hack and gouge . Hobby has really gone down hill since the 90s. An open brain cost you $60 then, now you spend $350 on same thing, oh and don’t forget to upgrade those lights to a g19 when they roll them out every 3 years . Ditch the names and give me a light isn’t sold like an iPhone

 

[blaxsun]

If you’re fine with a coral, marked 12 times up, after being in the country for a mere two days, then that’s why these sellers exist.

Want to grow stuff out and say it’s used to captivity and took time, chance and effort? Ok. Want to spend 1400 on a “tiger torch”, frag, when the colony is on Jakartas coral page for $300, which is then hacked up into 10 pieces and sold two days later? The used to be called chop shops, people knew and you paid accordingly. Not it’s hack and gouge . Hobby has really gone down hill since the 90s. An open brain cost you $60 then, now you spend $350 on same thing, oh and don’t forget to upgrade those lights to a g19 when they roll them out every 3 years . Ditch the names and give me a light isn’t sold like an iPhone

Bit too rich for my tank, I'm afraid.

 

[aggrofish]

Cuz we hobbyists let vendor scam us. Look at the prices during these so call "live sales". $50 for a tiny frag of common corals. And yet all the sheeps hang out in the live sale thread all day trying to out buy each other. We have no one to blame for high prices but ourselves.

You want prices to come down? Start slamming sponsors here and on social media on their ridiculous prices. Stand up for your hard earn money.

Online vendors are hilarious. They mark something up before marking it down 40%. Funny thing is the 40% off price is still more than most places. Some of the prices they list are just laughable. But I want to know where this price list is?

 

[vtecintegra]

The hobby is starting to suck from a financial perspective. I would recommend fresh water at this point. It's approaching $10k for a nice 120g if you want the cool stuff like Radions, MPs, and a Reef Octopus skimmer. 10 desirable corals can be well over $1k. It's like every entity selling anything is hellbent on pricing the hobby out of existence.

 

[polyppal]

Torches at crack prices!

If you saw that world wide suckers live sale this weekend, they were selling common low-med end torches at (above) premium prices (mislabeling many of them) - and dummies were gobbling them up for 2-400$... because it had WW... in the name (although I noticed the second day after I mentioned the pricing they got a bit more reasonable).

I brought this out in the live sale and got roasted by the WW fanboys I was trying to inform were getting ripped off during this 'sale'... If they want to waste their money instead of shopping around - more power to em.

As long as there's ignorant hype-beasts willing to pay 200-400% more for a 'brand name' corals, were gonna have this issue. Imagine how the hobby would take off if selfish people weren't trying to capitalize on everyone - I fight the machine by offering local hobbyists good deals on higher end frags. Short of opening a LFS I think thats the best thing we hobbyists can do to bring the hobby to a more realistic/moral price point - disrupt the online pricing and don't be greedy towards local hobbyists.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

How is it some vendors have a single head torch for $1,200, name along the lines of “tiger” where on the import sheet, they are less than $100? You wonder why exporters raised their prices, they saw the robbery occurring state side .

How many wild caught import torch colonies you brought in fresh off the plane?

1/3 of them die in a few weeks.

90% are not remarkable. They have a warehouse and overhead ... If you get the best of 1000 imported colonies... What's it worth?

Capitalism works. If it's over priced, it doesn't sell. If it's out of your price range and wrong, that doesn't mean there's something Intrinsically Wrong.

 

[charles7]

The salt in this thread is over 1.029 but anyways. Im newer, i guess people like me are the gullible ones. Its an easy correlation between expensive = better, colorful, rare. Although these “designer” corals that are expensive hold their value among even some of the older hobbyists that i trade with.

I look at it on the side of, i buy this (of course i look all over to make sure its the lowest price i can find for this coral) and its an investment that i can grow, frag, and trade of other corals i want. This is coming from a person in the part of my state where reefing isnt big or mildly big at all… its hard to find people to talk to and especially trade with.

I also breed and sell crested geckos, the same thing is happening in that hobby as well. Except its worst than reefing. Trust me a little over a thousand vs 5k-10k geckos…. Yeah. Tell me about it. I have way more in geckos but its been earning my money back and funding my other hobbies. I honestly believe its normal at this point and its just how things will be, so my advice is dig in if you can because at least you can trade or sell locally. Cant say that about most hobbies

 

[Wildreefs]

How many wild caught import torch colonies you brought in fresh off the plane?

1/3 of them die in a few weeks.

90% are not remarkable. They have a warehouse and overhead ... If you get the best of 1000 imported colonies... What's it worth?

Capitalism works. If it's over priced, it doesn't sell. If it's out of your price range and wrong, that doesn't mean there's something Intrinsically Wrong.

Lolololol how about except warehouses it’s there townhouse garage?

if 1/3 die, then why charge an arm and a leg for something that’s been out of the bag in this country for less than 3 days?

same with these captive bred fish, a bunch of them got together and said why undercut everyone including yourself, we get these regals in for $80, let’s all agree to mark them up 700% because it’s the new thing and people are suckers.

 

[Duncan62]

I agree on as long as people are will to pay these prices. They are there to make money.
I myself not will to pay the prices nowadays, so I just buy cheaper stuff.

Just buy little ones and grow your own. I've got 3 rastas I paid 19 bucks for that'll be worth a grand in maybe 18 months plus they look cool. A big nice torch shouldn't be cheap.

 

[Hooz]

Torch prices are getting out of control, and people are getting pretty liberal with the names. How many different "Holy Grails" are there now? And they range in price from $250/head to $1k/head? How do you "prove" that fancy lineage? If you lined up 5 different "Holy Grails", could you pick them out by name without someone telling you?

I just get the ones I like when I find them at reasonable prices. I guess even "reasonable" varies from person to person, though.

I just won an eBay auction this weekend for a simple, not flashy "Pearl Tipped Green Torch". It's a nice looking (albeit plain) torch, and I couldn't pass it up for $37, since I already had a box coming (and had paid shipping) from the same guy.

 

[Wildreefs]

Just buy little ones and grow your own. I've got 3 rastas I paid 19 bucks for that'll be worth a grand in maybe 18 months plus they look cool. A big nice torch shouldn't be cheap.

When is a fragged one head torch a nice big torch?

 

[David Groos]

Coral prices are a lot like what is happening to the video game industry. People by a ps5 or rtx 3070 then mark it up. But in that industry Sony and Nvidia recognize the problem and are trying new ways to stop the gouging. It isn’t about what people are willing to pay now. That’s short sighted, instead Sony and Nvidia realize they need to add people to the market. If you have a limited number of people in the hobby instead of making it accessible, the hobby won’t be able to last.
Having been in the hobby since the 90’s I think it is hilarious that most designer corals need to be viewed at 20+k to even tell they are designer. At 10k most corals look brownish pink anyway.

 

[sumtingbig]

Great thread! It has become such a joke. I used to sell like a 3 to 5 pound rock covered in softies for 39.99 Now they want that for 2 polyps and throw some fancy name on it. If we all stop feeding them our hard earned $$$ they would choke on there electric bill and prices would come down. At this point i wish i had done discus and rays