Why buy from an online store vs hobbiest?

[coralbeauties]

I’ll support the stores first, there the ones who make this hobby possible in the first place with out them, we wouldn’t have the livestock we do in most parts of the world.

also, a lot of people in this hobby have become shady and in it for the money, if I see a coral for a good deal, I’ll go inspect it in person before saying I want it, most times if it’s a good deal ( like way cheaper then retail) there’s usually something wrong with it, or it’s a totally different coral. Or other times, it’s cheaper to buy from a LFS then another reefer, since they think there stuffs worth it’s weight in gold.

so many reasons to support the stores that make the hobby great

In our area there arent any stores to buy corals from. What they do sell is chop and hack corals just to turn a quick dime. If you want anything higher end you have to buy from a hobbyist or online.

If we had a feedback thing going on here, I’d be more inclined to buy here than the big name fellas

In the marketplace section there is a thread to post feedback. Also many times a buyer will post in a sales thread about their experience with the seller in the thread. Just do a search of that persons screen name and you will find a wealth of information as to what type of person they are by their posts and threads.
Jeff

 

[RJKain-777]

In our area there arent any stores to buy corals from. What they do sell is chop and hack corals just to turn a quick dime. If you want anything higher end you have to buy from a hobbyist or online.

In the marketplace section there is a thread to post feedback. Also many times a buyer will post in a sales thread about their experience with the seller in the thread. Just do a search of that persons screen name and you will find a wealth of information as to what type of person they are by their posts and threads.
Jeff

Most hobbiest here chop and hack coral to flip. But our stores and online are pretty good

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I’d almost prefer to buy from here or a local hobbiest. Though no locals will guarantee your coral will survive. I did buy from WWC and when a frag didn’t open with in 10 days I got credit for it. And now weeks ( a month and a half maybe two months later) that darn Zoa is starting to open (it’s no dead till it melts!)

I just bought a Goni from a guy on here and it’s beautiful! Opened up fully within a hour of being in tank (I am now obsessed with it)

I don’t trust online retailers as much. The photoshop like crazy and you can only hope to get a true WYSIWYG
A picture of my Goni included for y’all pleasure and a shout out to @LIreefguy

 

[coralbeauties]

Most hobbiest here chop and hack coral to flip. But our stores and online are pretty good

You are correct that many of us do cut corals to sell. Many are purchased and grown from a little frag, grown and cut with the purpose to resell and also collect. What I meant is our local shops are buying wholesale collected corals and cutting to sell. This was discussed with many opinions in this thread.

Chop Shop Thread

Good morning, I have requested that the thread that I started regarding Chop Shops be deleted. I feel that some of the information was misconstrued, and don't want any hard feeling between people when that was not the intention at all. Please note that this request was by me only and was not...

www.reef2reef.com

Jeff

 

[LIreefguy]

I’d almost prefer to buy from here or a local hobbiest. Though no locals will guarantee your coral will survive. I did buy from WWC and when a frag didn’t open with in 10 days I got credit for it. And now weeks ( a month and a half maybe two months later) that darn Zoa is starting to open (it’s no dead till it melts!)

I just bought a Goni from a guy on here and it’s beautiful! Opened up fully within a hour of being in tank (I am now obsessed with it)

I don’t trust online retailers as much. The photoshop like crazy and you can only hope to get a true WYSIWYG
A picture of my Goni included for y’all pleasure and a shout out to @LIreefguy

Thank you for the kind Words

 

[Espino963]

Do you got more of those gonis? I need some more in my garden

 

[Specific Ocean]

In our area there arent any stores to buy corals from. What they do sell is chop and hack corals just to turn a quick dime. If you want anything higher end you have to buy from a hobbyist or online.

In the marketplace section there is a thread to post feedback. Also many times a buyer will post in a sales thread about their experience with the seller in the thread. Just do a search of that persons screen name and you will find a wealth of information as to what type of person they are by their posts and threads.
Jeff

seems like a bit much to do when I could tap their profile and get all I need.

 

[RJKain-777]

You are correct that many of us do cut corals to sell. Many are purchased and grown from a little frag, grown and cut with the purpose to resell and also collect. What I meant is our local shops are buying wholesale collected corals and cutting to sell. This was discussed with many opinions in this thread.

Chop Shop Thread

Good morning, I have requested that the thread that I started regarding Chop Shops be deleted. I feel that some of the information was misconstrued, and don't want any hard feeling between people when that was not the intention at all. Please note that this request was by me only and was not...

www.reef2reef.com

Jeff

I know exactly what your mean, and that’s exactly what I’m referring too. There’s a group of local reefers, who buy corals from only venders, soon as they get it , chop it up and re sell it. How do I know? I’ve done group buys with them to save on shipping.

 

[LegendaryCG]

I’d expect prices to be about 1/2 the online price if I’m buying from a reefer. What I typical see is people wanting as much as the stores or more than the smaller shops and significantly more for Shipping.

 

[stephj03]

IMO its primarily a gap in photo skills between hobbyists and big vendors.

Any shop referred to by their 3-4 letter initials spends a lot of time and effort getting really advanced pics of every high end wysiwyg frag. And on cut to order pieces advanced colony pics are the norm.

When I say advanced, I mean shot at an angle (often in macro) that optimizes size and color rendering. Usually it's on the line of misleading IMO.

But when a hobbyist sees those images I think it more strongly triggers impulse sales vs the photos an avg hobbyist or smaller vendor can reliably provide. Especially for wysiwyg.

Right now there's a lot of fine detail that separates $80 frags from $500 frags and the big shops are more reliable at showcasing those fine details in their pics.

 

[BamboozleBean]

I actually spoke with my LFS about this. Major companies have massive stocks, usually good reputations and a premium name behind them. World Wide Corals could slap WWC before any coral and double it in price as well as take excellent photos of it. It’s easy and reassuring to plug your credit card numbers in and know you’ll have something at your doorsteps in the next few days. Unless a hobbyist has something really unique or at an amazing price, they can’t really compete.

 

[kartrsu]

After starting with online purchases, I am now much more inclined to buy from hobbyists, especially local ones. You can never trust online photos. Hard to truly know how a coral is going to look in your tank until you see it in person. I’m in my torch craze right now and my online purchases have been subpar. You can’t tell how healthy the tissue is down the skeleton from a top down photo and if the coloration is overly saturated or not. It’s upsetting to think you got a good deal during Black Friday to find out you overspent for something you could find cheaper locally. Despite all these live sales and clear outs, I have turned my impulse buying behavior off. I participate to get a sense of what I like and the price and then I patiently hunt here. Thank you R2R for offering a better alternative.

 

[El Grunto]

Most good known sellers in classified section has DOA guaranteed. But i agree that it would be a bad investment buying from someone who doesnt guarantee DOA

Some shops have really good policies. WWC has sent replacements for any frags that had pests with no questions asked and no additional shipping charges. ASD guaranteed replacements for some corals when UPS decided to send them to KY instead of WA where I live. Even agreed to replace a scoly that died 1.5 weeks after arriving 3 days late. Most sellers on this forum cover only DOA within 2 hours of delivery. And that's IF they have a DOA policy. I've seen plenty of sellers that don't. There are some super nice corals to be had at great prices for sure though.

Personally, I haven't bought anything from other members because it seems 3/4 of the posts are local only and a bunch of others are for frag packs that are mostly stuff I either don't want or don't currently have the skills to keep alive.

 

[blasterman]

I've had good luck with small time sellers, ebay, etc. Most are linked to small reef shops. I try to trade with them as much as possible. Never had a problem.

The big, high profile online shops charge stupid prices for things the part time guy often sells for 1/4 the price.

I said this is another recent thread, but if you watch the YouTube channels on the big high profile shops they have massive over head which explains why they want $60 for a head of xenia or green implosion paly. Screw that. They rely on high markup for smaller items.

What I miss are the regional frag swaps which pandemic has shut down. The big ones have everything imaginable for crazy prices.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

IMO its primarily a gap in photo skills between hobbyists and big vendors.

Any shop referred to by their 3-4 letter initials spends a lot of time and effort getting really advanced pics of every high end wysiwyg frag. And on cut to order pieces advanced colony pics are the norm.

When I say advanced, I mean shot at an angle (often in macro) that optimizes size and color rendering. Usually it's on the line of misleading IMO.

But when a hobbyist sees those images I think it more strongly triggers impulse sales vs the photos an avg hobbyist or smaller vendor can reliably provide. Especially for wysiwyg.

Right now there's a lot of fine detail that separates $80 frags from $500 frags and the big shops are more reliable at showcasing those fine details in their pics.

Some shops definitely photo shop. I can take some amazing pictures of Zoa. A few bought online and not hit the same coloration that they show online. They over saturate photos adjust balances and such. BUT at the same time something that looks one way in my tank may not look the same way in your just due to your lighting and my lighting. This is from my personal experience.

 

[Waynerock]

I support local first and foremost but...they all closed this year so I am stuck with online. It stinks especially since I have a lot of things I need to sell and don’t want to ship and would love to get rid of local. I post things but no one close to me wants to buy

 

[Perry]

Local is the way to go, you might be surprised how many reefers live in the same town as you. Granted, being near Orlando Florida doesn't hurt That said, I am yet to pay retail for any of my gems. I price 1/2 retail when I sell, I carry less overhead, and only have hobbyist costs. To me, lineage is second in line to how a coral looks, in some cases, the high-end stuff, like tenuis, looks average under my t5 setup. Whereas a basic coral glows, I guess it's determined by the look you are after.

 

[Doctorgori]

I use a single source for my online purchases. Not that others are just as good or better, but with AEFW, and other assorted pest, I can at least narrow down the source.
Just leveraging known risk vs unknown risk

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I think most of us that are selling coral will take care of a coral loss that happens within a couple of days. I feel that shipping stress and harsh dips are the main cause of coral loss in the first few days. My buddy @SweetReefOH has tested a lot of different dips and feels bayer is by far the most effective and gentle on corals. Ask a seller ahead of time how he would handle this situation. Shipping stress is a given and some corals are much more sensitive to it then others.
Jeff

I agree with this 100%!

 

[Jmp998]

As above, pests. I try to order only from established vendors with a heavy investment in aquaculture. I assume these vendors are highly motivated to maintain as pest-free of a system as possible. If I order from assorted hobbyists, I feel like the chance of pests is higher. A few years ago I bought a local hobbyist frag of clove polyps-and several days later noticed tiny aiptasia between the polyps. I removed the frag but it was too late. I saved a few dollars on that frag but ended up spending a year trying to put kalk paste on aiptasia with limited success. I eventually bought over $200 in aiptasia-eating nudibranchs to eradicate the aiptasia. I do still dip, but dipping is not perfect and is ineffective on aiptasia.