Coral vendors, help us buy from you.

[AZMSGT]

Open letter to Vendors, please add your feelings & thoughts.

Coral vendors,

I visit your web sites looking to buy corals. I see maybe 20-130 corals available for purchase. Half or more say sold out. Then low and behold you have enough coral to do some Flash sale of 800-1200 corals on a Friday, Saturday or a Sunday.

Let me just say, the above scenario is worn out. Buyers want to be able to buy what you have when you have it.

1. If an item is sold out, remove it from your website. I’m sure the Web Sales software allows for an item to remove it’s self when sold. We don’t care that you don’t have that anymore. We came to your web site to look at what we can buy, not what we can’t buy.

2. If you have enough product to have a 800-1200 sale and only list 40 on your website you are failing those of us that can’t make your sales. You are doing a huge disservice to your regular customers by not providing them with product regularly.

3. Pictures, (beating a dead horse) please take realistic photos with realistic photo processing. Corals are beautiful in their natural state.

We/I want to buy your products, really, so help us buy from you. If you can do these sales you can have more product on your websites.

Thanks,

 

[GlassMunky]

But why would they list Coral A on the website for $40 when during the live sale it will sell for $50 or more cause people are basically gambling.
I think that’s the main reason you see this going on

 

[AZMSGT]

But why would they list Coral A on the website for $40 when during the live sale it will sell for $50 or more cause people are basically gambling.
I think that’s the main reason you see this going on

We all know Live sales are actually not sales. They hike prices... blah, blah blah. My point is they really would make allot of sales if they would just list corals on the websites they already are using.

 

[homer1475]

Sell 800 corals in a few hours, or wait for weeks for those same corals to sell, and possibly not sell at all.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

 

[PSU4ME]

I'm sure there are pros and cons to each but I will agree with the OP.....I've gone looking at sites that people have recommended, with a Credit Card ready to catch fire, only to find out most of everything was sold out. I'm not sure the reason (no stock or live sale) but i will say its a little difficult to by. To each his own though.

 

[GlassMunky]

Sell 800 corals in a few hours, or wait for weeks for those same corals to sell, and possibly not sell at all.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Exactly. Especially if they get over retail on any of them

 

[Billdogg]

I have participated in a couple live sales. I find them to be frustrating to say the least. Between the whole hurry up and buy NOW thing, and the fact that what I saw on my screen wasn't what I received (perhaps the same frag but without the post processing in PS) it just is not worth it. I don't find it unreasonable to think that when it is a WYSIWYG sale the frag should be, well, WYSIWYG! I won't bother in the future. All it has done is make me even more convinced that if I want to actually buy what I see I have to be there in person. I'll stick to my trusted LFS and local swaps.

 

[sde1500]

WYSIWYG items marked "sold" on vendors websites drives me nuts. If your entire business is based online, you should be competent enough to clear out sold listings.

 

[homer1475]

Why remove it from the site?

Haven't you ever seen a coral(that was sold out), only to come back several times to check the vendors website to see if it was instock?

It gets the website "foot traffic", so to speak.

I know I have done this several times with @Battlecorals website

 

[sde1500]

Why remove it from the site?

Haven't you ever seen a coral(that was sold out), only to come back several times to check the vendors website to see if it was instock?

Not really no.

I know I have done this several times with @Battlecorals website

His is different, its stock items, not wysiwyg. So that makes sense, you check if certain corals are in or out of stock. But most of these vendors aren't growing stock items. They are chopping up imported coral. So 9 times out of 10 that coral won't show up on their site again.

 

[AmaleeC]

I'm sure there are pros and cons to each but I will agree with the OP.....I've gone looking at sites that people have recommended, with a Credit Card ready to catch fire, only to find out most of everything was sold out. I'm not sure the reason (no stock or live sale) but i will say its a little difficult to by. To each his own though.

I know from a BUSINESS standpoint, it makes sense to do things like live sales. But as a customer, I go with the OP as well. I HATE having to compete. Id rather spend the extra $10, or $15 in getting an item I actually want than being outbid the last 5 seconds of the listing. And like another user said, the WYSIWYG should truly be WYSIWYG! I’m tired of these doctored photos. The corals posted should NOT be different colors and different shades than the ones you receive.

 

[AmaleeC]

Haven't you ever seen a coral(that was sold out), only to come back several times to check the vendors website to see if it was instock?

Sorry, but I hate this too. Having to check back in all the time for what I want sucks. It may seem unrealistic especially when looking for more rare corals. But I’d rather keep looking at other sites so I can buy what I want right away instead of waiting for my Favourite vendor to have what I want.

 

[homer1475]

Why is it there are new threads about no one liking live sales every week, yet when one is going on, 99% of the forums are participating?

I think that says something. Just pointing out the obvious.

 

[AZMSGT]

Why remove it from the site?

Haven't you ever seen a coral(that was sold out), only to come back several times to check the vendors website to see if it was instock?

It gets the website "foot traffic", so to speak.

I know I have done this several times with @Battlecorals website

Nope, if it’s sold out it doesn’t do anything for me. As a matter of fact, if a vendor has more sold out than available I remove them from my possible vendor list. They see zero traffic from me.

 

[AZMSGT]

Why is it there are new threads about no one liking live sales every week, yet when one is going on, 99% of the forums are participating?

I think that says something. Just pointing out the obvious.

The Forums advertise them, not participate.
This thread really isn’t intended to kill live sales. It’s intended to have more product available to those of us that don’t or can’t do live sales.

 

[Deschutes541]

If you don't like live sales then don't participate. If you are upset how certain venders manipulate pictures, then stick with your LFS and frag swaps. That's what I do.

I don't necessarily disagree with you but they're a business. Of course they're going to take every advantage they can.

 

[PSU4ME]

If you don't like live sales then don't participate. If you are upset how certain venders manipulate pictures, then stick with your LFS and frag swaps. That's what I do.

I don't necessarily disagree with you but they're a business. Of course they're going to take every advantage they can.

I think this thread can be used as feedback for vendors......they can certainly take it or leave it but i think its valid information for them to hear........some people, whose money and support they want, don't like their business model.

 

[WhiteTailFish]

I'm new to the hobby but I think what OP is saying makes sense. There is a place for auction style sales but most people don't want to buy that way all the time.

 

[DaneGer21]

Why is it there are new threads about no one liking live sales every week, yet when one is going on, 99% of the forums are participating?

I think that says something. Just pointing out the obvious.

I must be in that 1%. Live sales are stupid. Some people have lives and can’t sit in front of their computer/phone waiting...for hours. I stay away, I’d rather get what I really want than making a spur of the moment decision.

 

[Highgrade]

The Forums advertise them, not participate.
This thread really isn’t intended to kill live sales. It’s intended to have more product available to those of us that don’t or can’t do live sales.

100% agree. Live sales continue to push me away. If I participate in a sale I'd prefer everything drop at once or in blocks on the hour.

With live sales vendors are counting on those impulse buys. In most cases people are hoping to score a good deal on $1,5,10 corals. Snipers usually snag these up quickly and most vendors claim there will be plenty to go around which is completely false. If you look at the length of the sale you may get 1 of these low priced corals every hour or every other hour. Usually they're corals that people often give away for free such as GSP, green or red monti caps or ugly zoas. Out of the entire sale you may see 1 or 2 cheap pieces that would be worth buying. Those are usually dropped at the beginning of the sale to string people on to stick around for the entire length of the sale. Also the freebie coral or prize giveaways is more incentive for people to participate.

It is hard for me to participate in these sales anymore since my time is worth more rather then spend an entire day or weekend chasing corals. The deals are usually not that great and nowadays vendors seem to mix up corals with the 1000s of corals they have. Meaning when I purchase a coral from a live sale and take a screen shot to document what I'm getting, once it arrives its completely a different piece. Might be the same species but doesn't have the same shape, form, color or size as the one I purchased online. I bring this up to vendors often as false advertising and they usually come back and say well we have duplicates of the same pieces. They darn sure are not identical duplicates but more or less back up pieces usually not photographed since they're not in the best shape. I get this is in the event they're are to make up for duplicate sales. I'd rather them be upfront and say we don't have that exact piece so we can provide you another alike piece or a refund before shipping.

More and more vendors continue to do different types of sales. Which seems to be related to feedback and experiences such as their servers crashing from all the site traffic, etc... Also seems a lot of these vendors are playing off one another's sales trying to have flash sales before the other one or during the same time frames as other vendors live sales. In an attempt to get your money first. Just seems odd that certain vendors will have a scheduled/announced sale and automatically you will see 2-3 other vendors have a live sale about the same time with only a day or two's notice. Talk about dog eat dog.

Lately vendors are also using Instagram and Facebook to have sales which rely on those platforms to support the majority of the traffic until a suspected buyer clicks on a link to redirect them to the actual site to check out for a particular item. Usually by the time you click the link the item is gone. I understand vendors are looking for a bigger audience and to divert some of the traffic from their sites. Not to mention most folks these days cannot put down their phones and get away from social media. So who knows maybe it helps them sell the corals faster or at least for more money. I can't believe the prices listed for some of the stuff I've seen. Especially the outrageous Tenuis prices these days.

Hopefully some vendors can see our concerns and improve things for future sales