How do you sell your coral?

[sawdonkey]

One cool aspect of this hobby is that if you do it right and have a little luck, you can offset the cost by selling coral. At some point, you just have to get rid of coral because it grows into other corals and something dies. This is where I’m at. My rack is full (I do mostly SPS) and I need to make more cuts almost weekly.
I’ve noticed that basically nobody is buying SPS coral on my local forum......at least from me. In years past, there were a lot more buyers. That is the only place I try to sell stuff, because I don’t want to ship. I have a series of questions.........

• Do we just not have a lot of users on my local forum?
• Is SPS out of fashion?
• Less people in the hobby in general?
• Are my prices high, or frags too small, or am I just a jerk? I can change the first two. I cut big frags at 1 inch plus, usually with branches. I try to really hook people up without giving away the farm.
• Should I take individual WYSIWYG pics of frags. Not a big deal, but time consuming.
• Should I sell on Facebook (although I heard they’re cracking down on live animal sales)? I’m not on Facebook.
• Should I suck it up and get better at shipping? Then I could sell on Instagram and R2R. I’ve had pretty poor survival rates when I’ve tried shipping in the past (plus, overnight shipping is crazy expensive).
• Do any LFS buy frags in bulk?
  

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

 

[BamboozleBean]

I’m in the Chicago suburbs and I was wondering this too, my LFS will take frags for store credit but it depends on what you’re selling.

 

[vetteguy53081]

One cool aspect of this hobby is that if you do it right and have a little luck, you can offset the cost by selling coral. At some point, you just have to get rid of coral because it grows into other corals and something dies. This is where I’m at. My rack is full (I do mostly SPS) and I need to make more cuts almost weekly.
I’ve noticed that basically nobody is buying SPS coral on my local forum......at least from me. In years past, there were a lot more buyers. That is the only place I try to sell stuff, because I don’t want to ship. I have a series of questions.........

• Do we just not have a lot of users on my local forum?
• Is SPS out of fashion?
• Less people in the hobby in general?
• Are my prices high, or frags too small, or am I just a jerk? I can change the first two. I cut big frags at 1 inch plus, usually with branches. I try to really hook people up without giving away the farm.
• Should I take individual WYSIWYG pics of frags. Not a big deal, but time consuming.
• Should I sell on Facebook (although I heard they’re cracking down on live animal sales)? I’m not on Facebook.
• Should I suck it up and get better at shipping? Then I could sell on Instagram and R2R. I’ve had pretty poor survival rates when I’ve tried shipping in the past (plus, overnight shipping is crazy expensive).
• Do any LFS buy frags in bulk?

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

SHIPPING AND SHIPPING COSTS ARE FACTORS.
Additionally, Price is always a factor, as well as size and type of coral. WYSIWYG always contributes to pieces sold.
I haven't seen your corals but would like to. Send me a Link or post a link so others can see

 

[NanoDJS]

Im in the NY area and it seems that Chicago has alot of reefers and alot of stores , at least from here on the interwebs it appears that way. Maybe everybody was fraggin acro round there , here in ny its zoas/bounce shrooms , I can get anything for cheap like instantly. the SPS sells for 2 for 38 at the stores , I got an encrusted red planet , garf bonsai , and gold mili for like less than 50 bucks a few weeks ago

 

[greenwind82]

You can try shipping using shipon.com. They have discounted ups and fedex rates

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Are you by NYC or upstate NY. I know there are quite a few LFS's in Syracuse. At LFS's you will most likely only receive store credit because in some states they can't buy a live animal from you.

 

[sawdonkey]

SHIPPING AND SHIPPING COSTS ARE FACTORS.
Additionally, Price is always a factor, as well as size and type of coral. WYSIWYG always contributes to pieces sold.
I haven't seen your corals but would like to. Send me a Link or post a link so others can see

This is what I posted to my local forum recently to give you an idea of my prices. Plus, I offer 20% off these prices fairly often. Please don’t consider this a for sale posting, I’m just trying to get an idea if I’m doing something wrong. You can see almost all of these on my build thread.


Two Guys Corals (TGC)Pink Caddy- $40

TGC - Pearly Gates - $50

Battlecorals (BC) Spainbow - $35

Bubblegum Digi - $20

Forest fire digi - $20

Tubbs Mystic Blue Stag - $35

Purple stylo - $20

No name red table (huge frag) - $30

No name red or pink acros $30

No Name Mille - $30

BC Reef Ready Grape Juice - $30

Windy City Reefs Rainbow - $75

Route 66 Merlin’s Staff - $150

Aquaman Monti -$25

Green Psamacora $20

Pale blue digi - $20

Frogspawn - $5 per head

WD - $60

BC Nilbog Resident - $35

Reef Raft Event Horizon -$60

BC Leprechaun in Purgatory - $35

BC unknown purple thingy - $40

BC Xmas - $35

BC Thermans Rainbow -$35

CRT Peachy Delight Millie - $60

 

[motortrendz]

I think your prices are great. So that's not the problem. Lol. Probably would do alot better with wysiwyg pics and unfortunalty doing shipping.

 

[sawdonkey]

You can try shipping using shipon.com. They have discounted ups and fedex rates

Wow, thanks for the heads up on this. I priced overnight priority from Chicago to LA and it reduces the price from about $120 to $50. That’s pretty good. Have you used it?

Plus, I get free insulated packaging because my wife is a microbiologist and they get specimen boxes almost daily. Now....if I could just get coral to survive shipping!

 

[thewalkingdad]

FishofHex has a few videos on how he ships his coral. I would recommend watching them to see what the delta is between what you're doing/not doing and him.

 

[Bob Weigant]

I sell my frags for pennies on the dollar and sometimes they move and sometimes not at all

 

[Daddy-o]

We sell a ton of coral. With 7 reefs running there is always trimming to be done. I also find the greed in the hobby to be a bit of an issue. It is hard for people (especially youngsters) to have a nice reef without breaking the bank. When we decided to sell our frags, our biggest hurdles were:
- Most every other reefer is 30+ minutes away from our house
- I cannot ever seem to get good pictures
- I dont want to ship
So we decided to sell frags cheap - real cheap
I was really surprised at the sheer number of frags that we are able to sell. A lot of people will come and buy 10-20 frags at a time to get their tanks set up. Our single sale record is 36 frags. Some drive almost 2 hours to get here and all leave happy. We are happy to trade frags and have traded for some really nice pieces. We have met a bunch of really nice reefers and we are surely knocking the price of corals down in our area.

Cheers! Mark

 

[1stNoel]

At a glance, sounds like you need to open yourself up to shipping.

You are reducing your potential customer base from the entire US to just the greater Chicago area.

I'd also try shipping some freebie low cost corals to a friend, or offer them to fellow reefers to test your shipping method to others around the US (and start getting your name out there). You'll have to commit some upfront money for freight, but hopefully it's rewarded tenfold once you expand.

And note, most reefers don't buy corals online without seeing a WYSIWYG picture (or, at bare minimum, a mother colony pic).

Hope this helps...

 

[sawdonkey]

At a glance, sounds like you need to open yourself up to shipping.

You are reducing your potential customer base from the entire US to just the greater Chicago area.

I'd also try shipping some freebie low cost corals to a friend, or offer them to fellow reefers to test your shipping method to others around the US (and start getting your name out there). You'll have to commit some upfront money for freight, but hopefully it's rewarded tenfold once you expand.

And note, most reefers don't buy corals online without seeing a WYSIWYG picture (or, at bare minimum, a mother colony pic).

Hope this helps...

Yeah, you’re probably right that I just need to ship. I’m actually pretty decent at shooting corals. I just dont take the time to shoot frags. I’ve always had the “I’m really hooking people up, I don’t want to go out of my way” attitude....because I only sell to locals. Maybe I’ll do some shooting and post up a pack here later today.

I’m not trying to start a business or even make more than I spend in the hobby. I just want to keep some space on my frag racks without straight up giving my corals away.

 

[Daddy-o]

Try sending me a coral pack. I am in California and it would be a good test ;Happy
Cheers! Mark

 

[DanConnor]

Hey Mark- when you say real cheap, do you mean cheaper than sawdonkey's prices up above? They seem pretty decent to me...

 

[Daddy-o]

Hey Mark- when you say real cheap, do you mean cheaper than sawdonkey's prices up above? They seem pretty decent to me...

Dirt Cheap! Here is our for sale list last month:
- Leptostrea - $5
- Forest Fire Digi - $5
- Red Cap Monti- $5
- Idaho Grape Monti - 2 left $5 each
- Rainbow Monti - 1 left - $5
- Chili Pepper Monti - 2 left - $5 each
- Sunset Monti - 2 left - $5 each
- Mystic Sunset Monti - $5 each
- Green Spongode Monti- $5 each
- Setosa - $5 each
- Tropic Thunder - $5 each
- Encrusting green Monti- $5 each
- Walt Disney - $30
- Miyagi tort - $10
- Tri-color Tort - fresh cuts only $5 each
- RR The Vihn - $10 each
- Thin branch green acro - $10
- Cali Tort - $15
- Red Robin Stag- 2 left - $10 each
- Bali Green Slimer - $5
- Copps CalaCali - $5
- Poccilopora - $5
- Bubble Gum Digi - $10
- Birdsnest - $10
- Tyree Ponape Birdsnest - $10each
- Meteor Shower Cyphastrea (regular and Brick Red) - $5
- Space Invader chalice - $10
- War Coral - $5
- Jack o' Lantern Leptosaris - $10
- AppleBerry Montipora - $15
- Space Invader Pectinia - $25
- SniperSPS Pink Dragon Tails ( Hugo Zuniga) - $15 frag
- ATL Strawberry fields Acro - $15 frag

 

[DanConnor]

I'm hopping in my car- see you in 4 days!

 

[Daddy-o]

We will leave the porch light on for you!
But you know, for us this is a hobby. It is not a business. I don't think it should not be about greed! It should be about sharing these beauties that the ocean provides. The little bit of money we get (we trade a lot of corals too) pays for supplies/electricity and nicer corals to make available.
I have a 16 year old son and he loves to frag corals. He puts his phone away drops his guard and we talk for hours. He helps package corals up and gets a big chunk of the sales.
I have a bit of OCD and need to be always doing something. This hobby works for me. With 6 tanks packed to the limits with coral, there is always maint. to be done and if you keep up on the maint. you can produce frags pretty fast.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Hermie]

You could try raising your prices. Many reefers perceive higher value when the price tag goes up.