Matt,
Hear me out. By your logic, we should let someone else pay the premium, and then buy it from them for less, when they finally have grown out enough to sell. Fair enough. You fully expect a hobbyist, who did pay the premium, and spent a year or so growing that piece out to sell it to you for much less that what they paid; assuming that they are actually selling what they say they are selling. Which is a topic for a whole other discussion. I get it man. I really do. It's relatively easy to seek out "collectible" frags from hobbyist who are willing to make a little extra cash fragging stuff they have grown out. It's also likely that they won't be asking as much as what they paid even. Hobbyist are not business entities, and therefore have little to no expenses by comparison. I was that hobbyist for many years before going all in. Trust me I get it very well, I took advantage of it myself, often scouring the RC classifieds for anything interesting, as opposed to shopping on vendors sites. Guilty and then some.
The flaw is that you're arguing to circumvent the vendor, who is responsible for bringing new coral to the market. If everyone thought as you did, your well of hobbyist suppliers, including your regarded LFS would get dried up pretty quickly, and the thrill of the hunt would fade exponentially, as would enthusiasm. People really want to see new coral, because we inevitably get bored by the same old stuff. This is ultimately what drives the hobby in a lot of ways. See that as a good thing or bad, it is an absolute, and if we remove vendors from the equation, what we are left with is a flea market; hobbyists, trading and selling among hobbyists. Nothing new, people simply selling what they already have. The good news about that scenario, is that in time prices would fall to almost nothing as saturation took hold, but eventually we'd all have the same stuff. Of course I'm sensationalizing a bit here and maybe even a little bit facetious, but I mean no offense in any way, and I hope you see the point I'm trying to make.
I mean I'm with you Matt. I totally get frugality and the want and desire to pay the absolute least amount possible for something, but vilifying the vendors that are the very source of the corals you yourself seek out second hand, is only self defeating at best. Your presumption that buying from vendors will "always" cost you more is simply not true. I can't speak for all vendors and will readily admit that pricing has gotten out of control, but over the years, to address a point you made specifically, I've personally given away free, thousands of dollars worth of PC rainbow, Pink Lemonade, Red Dragon, bah bah bah bah blah, and the list goes on and on. I hope that some day, you'll consider giving me a chance and have me put pack together for you. With any luck you'll be sincerely surprised, refreshed even and maybe enlightened a little, by what you receive, for the money you've spent. Believe me man, I am on your side here.
I'd be more than happy to help you troubleshoot your system and see if we can get to the bottom of any quirks or issues that may be present. Please feel free to shoot me a PM anytime and we can bounce some ideas around. If it's the real ASD, I promise we can get that thing pretty. I sincerely apologize for attacking your LFS. That was a cheap shot to be sure.
