Most of the vendors on eBay will not charge $40 for every coral. Some of them will have a structure where if you win the first one, the shipping is $40. Win a second one that ships at the same time will be $3 more. Win a third and they'll add another $3. In this example, 3 pieces are shipped for $46. Then it doesn't seem so bad. I have made purchases with a few vendors that will allow you to not ship for up to a week so you can continue to bid on other corals. I have also win bids and then made purchases from the vendor on items that are not on eBay to help reduce the cost. What I mean is they have items they haven't put on eBay that can be added to the order.
As Reefs-A-Lot states, buy WYSIWYG. Be sure to scroll down when you open a bid site. Some vendors will show the colony and the lower down it will state "This auction is for 3 polyps of this colony" Know what you are bidding on. I love it and continue to look at 5 different vendors almost every night.