Luke Schnabel
I like corals...
Being that this is a reef forum in which users share their experiences with one another, I though I would share with you my experience with the Administrator of LEAR. I attended the LEAR frag swap in 2015 and used a site called “reef trader” to reserve some coral for pickup/payment on the day of the swap. Since then I started my own frag tank so sell corals at local swaps using reef trader. I’ve used reef trader to buy and now sell some of my frags. Another local reef club, C-Sea held a frag swap a few months ago. I also bought and sold frags using reef trader. However, this swap the administrators of C-Sea worked out a deal with a friend of theirs (Also my personal friend) who is a store owner to use reef trader as well instead of opening up a booth. Said friend gave me his pictures of coral and what he wanted and I happily posted them on reef trader for him.
Fast forward and the LEAR frag swap is about a month out so I began posting my corals from my frag tank to sell again. I received a message from the president of LEAR stating “Its been brought to my attention that your selling corals for an unpaid vendor. Remove listings or you will be banned from reef trader and LEAR frag swap”… Over much debate explaining how I am not selling coral for a vendor and the “said Vendor” only had arrangements to sell with a different club, the president of the LEAR frag swap “Erik” became very ill tempered and unpleasant. No matter what I said or tried to find ways to explain and prove myself he already had the preconceived notion that I was selling coral through reef trader for a vendor. Which is against their rules that you cannot sell coral using reef trader if you own a store without paying fees even though you don’t have a booth.
I continued to convey my message but Erik’s reply was simply: "Don't get sh*tty with me or ill ban you" and “Your banned from the frag swap and will be escorted out of the building if attended” and “Don’t waste your time, we don’t care” I thought the purpose of a frag swap was for fellow hobbyist to share, trade, sell, provide knowledge and generally have fun. It seems to me that all that has been lost at LEAR.
Fast forward and the LEAR frag swap is about a month out so I began posting my corals from my frag tank to sell again. I received a message from the president of LEAR stating “Its been brought to my attention that your selling corals for an unpaid vendor. Remove listings or you will be banned from reef trader and LEAR frag swap”… Over much debate explaining how I am not selling coral for a vendor and the “said Vendor” only had arrangements to sell with a different club, the president of the LEAR frag swap “Erik” became very ill tempered and unpleasant. No matter what I said or tried to find ways to explain and prove myself he already had the preconceived notion that I was selling coral through reef trader for a vendor. Which is against their rules that you cannot sell coral using reef trader if you own a store without paying fees even though you don’t have a booth.
I continued to convey my message but Erik’s reply was simply: "Don't get sh*tty with me or ill ban you" and “Your banned from the frag swap and will be escorted out of the building if attended” and “Don’t waste your time, we don’t care” I thought the purpose of a frag swap was for fellow hobbyist to share, trade, sell, provide knowledge and generally have fun. It seems to me that all that has been lost at LEAR.
