Anyone selling zoas?

[jasonandsarah]

I apologize if I insulted you but the fact remains that I'm still going to consider total cost on any purchase, frag plus shipping. There are very few non rare items that aren't available at more than one supplier. I have mutiple suppliers bookmarked with the shipping costs listed for each and I'll always look at their stock first if they have low cost shipping or free shipping at a low purchase total. Do you buy your air filters for your home at walmart or go to the AC supplier in your area? Cost. Who spends more unless there's a marked difference in quality of product and quality can only be determined by the buyer as to acceptable or not.

Quality of frags isn't the question all though it is important to me and it seems we have different views on quality.
As far as pieces being available at all suppliers that's not really true. Ever gone into a Lfs and found a rock full of pink kraks for 50$? I know kinda rare how about utter chaos? Retailers still charging 40$-50$ a polyp sometimes even though they're not as "rare" anymore.
A lot of these pieces your talking about are coming directly from the ocean and aren't aquacultured pieces. This could be problematic for a number of reasons. Also aquacultured pieces are more likely to survive, keep there colors and adjust faster. Lots of zoas taken directly from the ocean cam develop problems like white spot or just slowly recede and melt away.
Buying pieces that have been grown in someone's tank has many benefits including survivability.
Not everyone has a Lfs that sells rocks covered in zoas for 50$, I know I dont. Most people know what it takes to grow out beautiful pieces and also know how expensive this hobby can be.
I do agree that overall cost is important and only ask that people view the overall price and not just the shipping cost. I've worked very hard to get where I am and try to be fair with my prices (charging way less then I paid) and like I said I could easily make my shipping charges lower but upping the prices of my frags but in almost all cases that's gonna cost the buyer more money not less.
You didn't offend me really I just don't like newer people getting the wrong idea. It's very easy for a new person to read your post and leave this thread thinking that shipping should never cost more then 40$ and if they're charging more then their making a profit on shipping. Witch to most people that would be the same as being cheated or swindled.
I've gotten more people asking to buy frags in the past couple days then I can handle so I think most people know all this and don't mind paying "actual" shipping cost when the frags being offered are fairly priced.
Unfortunately Walmart hasn't opened up their frag section "YET" maybe soon... Lol [emoji12]

 

[jasonandsarah]

Wow that came out way longer then I thought! Sorry lol

 

[colsoscar120]

How do I post on here anyone?

 

[jasonandsarah]

How do I post on here anyone?

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/203712/
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[Mike628]

I agree with jasonandsarah because shipping varies from state to state. I looked on reefs2go for the $9.99 perfect pair which is the mandarin goby with 500 copepods. And the shipping to my area was $59.99 so as stated before shipping varies from state to state.

 

[Harold Green]

Jason, I've had saltwater tanks forty years ago and reef tanks for thirty years. I've gone from undergravel filters to wet dry, to plenums to sumps. From small air driven skimmers to large venturie. I've watched the hobby progress until people no longer feel like they can keep a tank without two thousand dollars of electronics. But just like with the cichlids I don't feel the lastest hot coral is worth the high dollar cost and I'm perfectly happy shopping around for the best price. The last purchase I made was from Harry's frags. He tank raises all the corals he sells, they're well encrusted and he offers free shipping if you purchase five or more frags. True they're not high dollar zoa's but I have an sps tank. As far as the high end corals my lfs had a nice rock with an entire colony of darth mauls that they wanted $100 for and they apologized for the cost but they had to pay more for it than they normally do for other frags. At another lfs I purchased a really nice cornbread chalice and a brown with green polyps monti cap for less than $20 each so I hold my on line buying for those corals that I can't find locally. There's nothing wrong with growing and selling high end corals but I think the average hobbiest could put that money to better use on acquiring some quite colorful and faster growing corals that aren't near so expensive. Most of the best looking display tanks I've seen are filled with large table and staghorn corals and many of them are available for a very resonable price. You have to face the fact that no matter what you have in your display tank the average visitor to your home is only interested in the scene you've created in the tank. The wouldn't know the difference between a high end zoa and a common button polyp. Aquascaping is always going to be more important than aquiring that very rare frag. I do have to agree with you that I wasn't aware that shipping costs varied that much. It seems strange to me that shipping from florida to texas costs three times what shipping from some of the norther states cost. At any rate I'm still going to take shipping costs into consideration any time I buy online because frankly frag costs are very similar except for the few dealers that obviously mark things up to twice what others are selling the same product for. I guess I'm a cheap old ******* but I come from a time when most people lived very frugally and I refuse to try and go one step better than my neighbor. By the way my lfs also carries rocks with over a dozen blue or red mushrooms for $50 and I've seen the individual mushrooms selling online for $10 to $20. If you live in the middle of nowhere you pay what you feel you can afford but if you live near a large city then shop around.

 

[hig789]

Unless you are looking at the super rare/popular pieces, most sellers on here are really good about throwing in extra frags for you if you are buying quit a few frags from them to help offset the shipping cost for you.

I just got a very nice zoa frag pack from a seller on here for $150 shipped. He was looking to clear some space put on his frag rack and I was looking for a bunch of high color frags. So it was a win for both of use.

Personally I wouldn't be willing to order a single frag from someone and pay the $50 for the overnight shipping but that's just me. I'm not really into the rare zoas, but some people are, just not my thing. I'd rather wait till someone has multiple frags I want before ordering. Sorry if I repeated my self. Haha

 

[jasonandsarah]

Jason, I've had saltwater tanks forty years ago and reef tanks for thirty years. I've gone from undergravel filters to wet dry, to plenums to sumps. From small air driven skimmers to large venturie. I've watched the hobby progress until people no longer feel like they can keep a tank without two thousand dollars of electronics. But just like with the cichlids I don't feel the lastest hot coral is worth the high dollar cost and I'm perfectly happy shopping around for the best price. The last purchase I made was from Harry's frags. He tank raises all the corals he sells, they're well encrusted and he offers free shipping if you purchase five or more frags. True they're not high dollar zoa's but I have an sps tank. As far as the high end corals my lfs had a nice rock with an entire colony of darth mauls that they wanted $100 for and they apologized for the cost but they had to pay more for it than they normally do for other frags. At another lfs I purchased a really nice cornbread chalice and a brown with green polyps monti cap for less than $20 each so I hold my on line buying for those corals that I can't find locally. There's nothing wrong with growing and selling high end corals but I think the average hobbiest could put that money to better use on acquiring some quite colorful and faster growing corals that aren't near so expensive. Most of the best looking display tanks I've seen are filled with large table and staghorn corals and many of them are available for a very resonable price. You have to face the fact that no matter what you have in your display tank the average visitor to your home is only interested in the scene you've created in the tank. The wouldn't know the difference between a high end zoa and a common button polyp. Aquascaping is always going to be more important than aquiring that very rare frag. I do have to agree with you that I wasn't aware that shipping costs varied that much. It seems strange to me that shipping from florida to texas costs three times what shipping from some of the norther states cost. At any rate I'm still going to take shipping costs into consideration any time I buy online because frankly frag costs are very similar except for the few dealers that obviously mark things up to twice what others are selling the same product for. I guess I'm a cheap old ******* but I come from a time when most people lived very frugally and I refuse to try and go one step better than my neighbor. By the way my lfs also carries rocks with over a dozen blue or red mushrooms for $50 and I've seen the individual mushrooms selling online for $10 to $20. If you live in the middle of nowhere you pay what you feel you can afford but if you live near a large city then shop around.

I get and understand what your saying and was really only trying to comment on the shipping prices. Believe me I hate paying high shipping prices from retailers especially! But when it comes to hobbyists it's different imo, I mean especially if someone is already selling frags cheaper than most it's kinda hard for them to also pay all or even half your shipping.
As far as rare corals go that's where the old saying comes in "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"... I love Acros and am a sucker for beautiful sps of any kind. But I will definitely look around before I buy because I'm not going to pay 300$ for a little twig! I've done fairly well at finding my pieces and a lot of the time I get those 300$ pieces for 50$-75$ and I'm really happy with that because I know once I grow it out lots of people will want it because I will try to sell it at a fair price.
Do I get tempted by jawbreaker and bounce mushrooms? Yes but so far my tank doesn't have one. Do i drool when i see fox flame acro's? Yes but I'll get one at a good price eventually.

Unless you are looking at the super rare/popular pieces, most sellers on here are really good about throwing in extra frags for you if you are buying quit a few frags from them to help offset the shipping cost for you.

I just got a very nice zoa frag pack from a seller on here for $150 shipped. He was looking to clear some space put on his frag rack and I was looking for a bunch of high color frags. So it was a win for both of use.

Personally I wouldn't be willing to order a single frag from someone and pay the $50 for the overnight shipping but that's just me. I'm not really into the rare zoas, but some people are, just not my thing. I'd rather wait till someone has multiple frags I want before ordering. Sorry if I repeated my self. Haha

Yup that's what I try to do, give a freebie to help offset the price of shipping.
I love zoas but I don't buy the crazy high priced ones until the price comes down. I have a nice collection of "last years" Zoanthiads! Lol even bigger collection of the year befores.

 

[hig789]

Yup that's what I try to do, give a freebie to help offset the price of shipping.
I love zoas but I don't buy the crazy high priced ones until the price comes down. I have a nice collection of "last years" Zoanthiads! Lol even bigger collection of the year befores.

Haha. I guess that's what mine are too. Guess it fits with me though. Almost all my clothes come from TJ Maxx and stores like that.

When it comes to zoas I just like the bright colored ones. Don't care if they are popular or not. I really would prefer for them to not be popular really.

 

[jan4scuba]

Hi, I'm looking for small to mid size Zoa colonies. Not frags but on rocks. They don't have to be the fanciest just good color and healthy. I'm building a Zoa and mushroom tank. I love north of NYC and would be willing to drive 5p or so miles. Does anyone have anything like this. Need 3 or 4 to start.