Frag or not?

[MIchael10101]

I'm considering selling 1 of 2 large hammer coral clusters. Once of them has about 45 heads, and the other about 25. I can take a couple to my local LFS and get 50% in store credit or 33% in cash. I was thinking that it might be better financially to sell one as a whole cluster. But should I price based on 10/head or upcharge/downcharge because it's a group? These aren't highly sought after hammers and I would expect to pay but 15-20 for a head from a LFS.

 

[Ron Reefman]

In my experience I found large coral colonies, like a group of 25 or 45 heads, don't sell easy in the open market like through a club or Craigslist. Most people are looking for cheap frags. An LFS may have some customers that would be willing to pay for a big colony, but they aren't going to pay the per head price that a frag with 2 to 5 heads would sell for. Especially if it's not an exotic or a really colorful specimen.

But that's just my personal experience, your mileage may differ!

 

[LiveWire]

Any particular reason you are wanting to sell your prized Hammer? If it were in my tank and doing very well there I would just keep it there ;Happy

 

[jda]

Unless the stuff is super-rare and able for somebody else to chop it up, colonies are worth pennies of what you can get it you frag stuff yourself. Ron is right - people want cheap frags. Also, most people have smaller tanks or don't have room for larger colonies.

For example, a run-of-the-mill hammer might sell for $10-15 for a single a head, but a 50-100 head colony might sell for $60 to 100... and you probably need a retail shop to sell it.

The only exception to this is if you know people with commercial accounts, huge tanks and no patience... like restaurants or dentist's offices. I have had them pay me well for colonies of Acropora before in the 12" (basketball) size range. Very high end stuff can also command a good dollar for large sizes, but it is linear and not usually exponential.