Alright, now that I have some more time:
(warning - post will be long!)
I don't think it's really all that touchy. You're right though - sponsors do pay extra to have a live sale, and they all have a chance to sign up for them before the year starts.
Also on that note, the moderators here (like myself) are NOT paid. (Admins and those with their names on things are different)
But you do put thoughts in people's heads, by simply suggesting such things. (when in fact, what you were suggesting was completely incorrect!)
I will say, it didn't require several of us posting about it all at once, nor did it really belong in this thread, but enough about that.
There's a pretty constant perception by some users that all mods are on a mission to "protect our sponsors", and that's not true. I'm not paid here - I don't much care to "protect" some business. We just enforce the rules. (Now, you could argue the rules are such to protect sponsors, but that's a different discussion - and I don't believe that to be unequivocally true either)
The rules about feedback threads have been the way they are forever, and it's just the best balance we've been able to find. Put them all in one place, and don't let people "dog pile" onto someone's negativity - but there's nothing that stops them from creating their own feedback thread. Disgruntled people tend to ruin things - and they're always negative about it. The positive "cheerleaders" are minuscule in numbers compared to them.
The average hobbyist only lasts 18 months in this hobby. (hang onto this data point)
Agree twice here, but back to that 18 months point - most aren't around long enough to figure that out. And I also agree with you that it's a cash cow for vendors - it's a tried/true sales model that works. It's all about hype and marketing, as is the whole "name game" of coral XYZ in this industry. People really buy into it. I'll also bet that if were able to construct a poll and only survey those in the hobby longer than 10 years, we'd find only a small minority participate in live sales.
Not all vendors are playing it that way. Some certainly are, but there's so many vendors on the market these days, it's not hard to find selection out there.
There is, and that's really no secret. We've posted about it here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-happens-when-something-is-reported.662252/
And quite honestly, that's long been a model for us of what not to do.
As for my personal thoughts on live sales, I've been in this hobby over a decade, and I've participated in less than a handful of live sales. Mostly, I don't feel it's worth my time commitment to sit there for hours and
hope I can be fast enough. And you have to know the market fairly well, in order to understand if the price is fair. I'd much rather window shop at a few vendors I've always been fond of. I'd even rather participate in eBay auctions, which I have done, but I approach that even a bit different. I set my max bids at what I'd actually be comfortable paying, and pretty much step away from it until the auction closes. If I win, I win, and if not, oh well.
The biggest way I tend to shop is at the trade shows. And after you've been to a few of those, you learn how good the deals can really be. Most online sales are never even close. Especially if you're walking around a trade show with cash, on the last day. Even some of the vendors you see selling on here, having live sales, tend to sell the same stuff much cheaper at the trade shows. And I feel that goes back to the point I tried to make earlier - the live sales target those in the 18 month turnover cycle, and the trade shows tend to draw in those who've been around long enough that they're not going to pay the same price.
The "name game" is a whole other thing in this hobby that can drive someone insane. It's pretty common that several of the same coral gets imported together, and while one vendor may pick it up and slap a fancy name on it with an impressive price tag, you might be able to go down to your LFS and find the same thing, for a fraction of the price. Of course, there are some corals that come into the trade which are truly unique and exclusive to one or two vendors, but that's often not the case. And even in those cases, vendors trade with another, hobbyists grow those corals, and in a few years, that unique, expensive thing has a lot more supply with a fraction of the price tag.
There's a few vendors I rarely buy from at all, simply because their prices seem out of bed to me. Just last year at MACNA, I saved part of spending money and traveled to a local store in the area. I honestly expected their in store prices to be less than their online prices, and I was pretty shocked when I found that to be incorrect. Kudos to them for being able to market as well as they do. I enjoyed browsing, but I left without a thing purchased. And I went back to the show, and spent my cash at a vendor I always do business with at the trade shows - someone who actually has discounted prices at a show (and also someone who does live sales on here).
