Has Supply Exceeded Demand?

[Js.Aqua.Project]

I'm always offering free local pick ups for anything in my tanks, I'm tired of throwing coral away it's hard to give coral away sometimes I have frag racks that are overgrown and coral I neglect to trim just because it's hard to trow coral out! HINT HINT!

Makes me wonder where you are in FL...lol

So many comments here are spot on with how I sometimes feel about our hobby. So many of our fellow enthusiasts want that "high end" named coral that they will pass up that free frag from a friends tank.

I don't frag often but will give away or trade frags with local club members or students.

I also have quite a few frags that I've acquired as well that were from fellow hobbyists that had overgrown tanks and don't like throwing away corals. Hard to pass up a freebie if I have the room.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

Havent bought a coral in several years. Have traded plenty.
todays Prices do seem too high to me for a lot of things

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Makes me wonder where you are in FL...lol

So many comments here are spot on with how I sometimes feel about our hobby. So many of our fellow enthusiasts want that "high end" named coral that they will pass up that free frag from a friends tank.

I don't frag often but will give away or trade frags with local club members or students.

I also have quite a few frags that I've acquired as well that were from fellow hobbyists that had overgrown tanks and don't like throwing away corals. Hard to pass up a freebie if I have the room.

pinellas county area

 

[PeterErc]

Makes me wonder where you are in FL...lol

So many comments here are spot on with how I sometimes feel about our hobby. So many of our fellow enthusiasts want that "high end" named coral that they will pass up that free frag from a friends tank.

I don't frag often but will give away or trade frags with local club members or students.

I also have quite a few frags that I've acquired as well that were from fellow hobbyists that had overgrown tanks and don't like throwing away corals. Hard to pass up a freebie if I have the room.

Local Club? Haven’t seen one of those in a while or been to a local frag swap. Guess I need a FB account and permission to join the elitists. We went to Macna after Indo shut down. That was a sad event
and turned me off. Pretty much got out of the hobby after that. Sold off the frag system and let the tank just grow out. Whatever lived okay, whatever didn’t okay. A few years of that and I wanted to sell tank but Mrs wouldn’t let me.
Recently got the idea to do it again, been an uphill battle this time. Lesson learned, next time throw everything out and start fresh.
Went to look what was going on in the local forums, huh, how did that work out.

Luckily I brought a lot of what survived to the LFS I had been dealing with for a long time. Re established the relationship and have had a supply of frags to start over with. The LFS is one of the only ones still around in the area that is decent.
Now it’s trying to get along. A lot has changed, some better, some worse. I don’t have to understand it or like it. It is what it is, make the best of it. For the record, it’s disappointing. Can I change it? No.
I can continue not to participate in the BS and keep it a fun hobby, different but fun.

 

[saltnut]

Are there any local clubs or groups that have frag swaps near Central Florida? Orlando Reef Caretakers Association was great years ago, but they don't have meeting anymore that I know of.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

pinellas county area

Dude, I'm in Tampa all the time, and some of my closest friends live in Tampa Palms and they just got into reefing.

 

[doubleshot00]

Unless your into sps or Euphyllia there isn’t much money to be made. Its wild to me what some of these vendors and homegrowers want for a tiny frag that they just broke off and glued to a plug.

Homegrowers that try to sell for the same price as a store are the biggest clowns imo. Your not a business bro.

I have found some fair priced homegrowers on here though so im really only complaining about my local guys.

 

[Opus]

Are there any local clubs or groups that have frag swaps near Central Florida? Orlando Reef Caretakers Association was great years ago, but they don't have meeting anymore that I know of.

Even at the frag swaps, I would estimate 75% of the coral are still brought in from wholesalers.

 

[Derrick0580]

I do miss the days where you see a nice acro at a friends place and then *boom* before you know it they have it fragged and on a grow out plug for you LOL

This happens for me and my local friends all the time. Mainly so if something happens to our tanks we can get back stuff we lost.

 

[John K]

Free frags were once the norm. Spread the hobby, reduce impact on the natural reefs, enjoying the hobby for the fun of it, help a friend…

Now everyone seems to want to cash in. It’s been happening for a long time, getting ridiculous now. Around here, lots of frag racks with high prices and not much actually selling.

Time for a major market correction in my opinion.

 

[Derrick0580]

I think a lot of the issue with hobbyists selling their stuff at a higher cost is due to the fact they themselves are paying more initially for the frags they bought. Some of my more expensive stuff I charge more for until I’ve recouped the initial cost, but like most corals that are sought after, the demand drops off.

 

[jda]

We have 5 million people in the Colorado Front Range with a good amount of hobbyists and there appear to be more sellers than buyers. Some hobbyists want to sell for the same money as a retail store, then their stuff sits and sits and prices get marked down, down, down and down. I don't know of any retail stores that can make it on sales alone - maintenance accounts are a good portion of all of their business. IMO, this hobby is on the verge of a large downturn. All of the signs from previous sell-offs are there. I would love to be wrong.

I used to advertise and give stuff away for free on the local board, but I got sick of seeing that stuff turn up for sale on the marketplace later that day. Now, everybody has to pay a little bit unless I know them. I still don't charge much. Usually I sell and donate the money to a local org that does reef tanks in classrooms, MANSA, or the like. I really don't want the money, but I also don't want people taking advantage of my generosity.

Most of the better hobbyists in town all like to trade - this is a good way to go, IMO.

 

[albano]

I used to advertise and give stuff away for free on the local board, but I got sick of seeing that stuff turn up for sale on the marketplace later that day. Now, everybody has to pay a little bit unless I know them. I still don't charge much. Usually I sell and donate the money to a local org that does reef tanks in classrooms, MANSA, or the like. I really don't want the money, but I also don't want people taking advantage of my generosity.

Most of the better hobbyists in town all like to trade - this is a good way to go, IMO.

It’s amazing how some people can ruin it for others!
Quick way to take the fun out of the hobby.

 

[kevgib67]

I sold, to a member on here, a torch and frogspawn frags for less than 1/4 of what I paid. I gave a local new reefer, just starting out, a different torch and frogspawn frags. To both I told them if anything happened to mine I would want the same deal for a frag. Late last Winter I had my first bjd experience and was not prepared ( I currently have everything for a KFC dip). Both gave back a frags, one for a small fee and another for free. It’s kinda like making an investment and everyone is happy.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Dude, I'm in Tampa all the time, and some of my closest friends live in Tampa Palms and they just got into reefing.

I'm usually around (pm me ) look at the last couple pages of my build threads for coral selection, I have a good bit of frags but I can make up something and let it heal.

I can take up close pictures of specific corals.

spread the love for r2r members, Keep it local

 

[Tyler Flynn]

Where I live, the closest saltwater store is a 45 minute drive. I was actually thinking about starting something of my own for this reason.

45 minutes would be a dream distance. I’m 2.5 hours from the closest stores

 

[DIYreefer]

I sold, to a member on here, a torch and frogspawn frags for less than 1/4 of what I paid. I gave a local new reefer, just starting out, a different torch and frogspawn frags. To both I told them if anything happened to mine I would want the same deal for a frag. Late last Winter I had my first bjd experience and was not prepared ( I currently have everything for a KFC dip). Both gave back a frags, one for a small fee and another for free. It’s kinda like making an investment and everyone is happy.

This is basically how I ended up with more than one system. There aren't a ton of reefers in my area, much less reefers that I would trust with banking nicer corals. So rather than trading, I have fragged almost everything in my display tank and have back ups growing in my frag/grow out system.

 

[kevgib67]

Very smart, if I had time and the room I think I would do the same.

 

[littlebigreef]

Over the course of some 25+ years I’ve seen the ebbs and flows of money in the hobby. In the early to mid aughts the introduction of LEDs lowered the biggest barrier to entry into the hobby- halides and chillers. It became possible and less cost prohibitive to do smaller reef tanks. During the Great Recession it was tough, people weren’t paying a premium for coral, fish, or much of anything. The introduction of branded coral in the late aughts and teens led to naming and marketing that really drove growth in the hobby through the late teens. This hit a fever pitch headed into and during the pandemic. People were speculating on coral as if it were NFTs or Crypto. Ok, fine. But, you also had a shift in mentality, no longer were people trying to grow out larger colonies to fill out displays. Rather, you see a shift away from displays and towards frag tanks when folks realized a reef tank didn’t have to be a money pit. Money, and the expectation of compensation fundamentally changes a relationship with a thing. Now there’s a large contingent of people that grow stuff with the expectation that they’re going to get more than just the satisfaction of sustained success (which is, admittedly fleeting in this hobby). In the background you’ve had people trading, preserving legacy strains, making their monthly nut to cover costs, etc as they always have.

I’d say in the last 18-20 months you’ve seen valuation turned on its head as new ‘must have’ strains are quickly devalued due to abundance. Center piece corals (think unique chunky lps) are selling for eye watering prices, and stuff like OG bounces are subject to shrink-flation. Where as $300 would have once bought you a respectable specimen now it gets you a booger. The rub is that this is entirely a disposable income hobby and due to economic conditions there’s fewer people coming on board and more folks getting out. Coupled with the ease of setting up a Shopify site, eBay account or one of the dozen smaller sales platforms a day of reckoning is coming… is it worth the time and effort to be a garage seller? If money is a person’s main motivating factor it’s going to come to a point where the answer is ‘no.’

 

[Falreef]

Supply is building because the pricing became outrageous. The hype and always influencing to buy, bid, auction, made a lot of people money at the expense of the hobbyists. It had to make a swing. It became absurd. Bordering on exploitive behavior governed by greed.