Jacked Up SPS prices

[MT. Reefer]

My pet peeve are the ridicules shipping costs. I may want to buy a couple zoas and here comes a $40-$50 shipping charge. I just bought $50 worth of frozen foods from Drs Foster and Smith which weighed 19 lbs and they shipped it overnight air with a shipping cost of $19.99. So why is it that the online coral dealers/ stores have to charge those $40-$50 prices?? And then some of them charge more per frag after the first one. What kind of incentive is that for people to buy more from you. Here's my problem, I don't have ONE store within a 4 hour drive that sells coral frags. So, what choice do I have?

 

[Mattrg02]

My pet peeve are the ridicules shipping costs. I may want to buy a couple zoas and here comes a $40-$50 shipping charge. I just bought $50 worth of frozen foods from Drs Foster and Smith which weighed 19 lbs and they shipped it overnight air with a shipping cost of $19.99. So why is it that the online coral dealers/ stores have to charge those $40-$50 prices?? And then some of them charge more per frag after the first one. What kind of incentive is that for people to buy more from you. Here's my problem, I don't have ONE store within a 4 hour drive that sells coral frags. So, what choice do I have?

I feel your pain, but’s $40 is actually a good price and only because they ship so much. I priced a few overnights and was given a $70 quote from fedex. It sucks, for sure, but cheaper than gas and wear and tear on your car.

 

[BoomCorals]

My pet peeve are the ridicules shipping costs. I may want to buy a couple zoas and here comes a $40-$50 shipping charge. I just bought $50 worth of frozen foods from Drs Foster and Smith which weighed 19 lbs and they shipped it overnight air with a shipping cost of $19.99. So why is it that the online coral dealers/ stores have to charge those $40-$50 prices?? And then some of them charge more per frag after the first one. What kind of incentive is that for people to buy more from you. Here's my problem, I don't have ONE store within a 4 hour drive that sells coral frags. So, what choice do I have?

Because foster and smith do MASSIVE volume and therefore get massive discounts. Your average coral shop doesn’t do anywhere near enough to get that. Even at 50-ish % discount my average shipments costs me $55. I charge $35 flat rate and that doesn’t cover my actual shipping costs in most cases. Coral vendors aren’t making money on you on the shipping cost.

 

[AdamNC]

My pet peeve are the ridicules shipping costs. I may want to buy a couple zoas and here comes a $40-$50 shipping charge. I just bought $50 worth of frozen foods from Drs Foster and Smith which weighed 19 lbs and they shipped it overnight air with a shipping cost of $19.99. So why is it that the online coral dealers/ stores have to charge those $40-$50 prices?? And then some of them charge more per frag after the first one. What kind of incentive is that for people to buy more from you. Here's my problem, I don't have ONE store within a 4 hour drive that sells coral frags. So, what choice do I have?

$40.00 over night is a real good price. When I used to breed and ship Emerald Tree Boas over night with the same size box it would cost about $75.00 plus $12.00 for a shipping kit.

 

[ClowinRound]

[/QUOTE] That's actually a pretty good idea. A repository of corals by name with pictures. Similar to zoabrary/zoaid for zoas. Does such a thing exist?[/QUOTE]
Yes it does. Reefs.com has a pretty good library. Check it out. Zoa, sps, lps

 

[tgionet]

My pet peeve are the ridicules shipping costs. I may want to buy a couple zoas and here comes a $40-$50 shipping charge. I just bought $50 worth of frozen foods from Drs Foster and Smith which weighed 19 lbs and they shipped it overnight air with a shipping cost of $19.99. So why is it that the online coral dealers/ stores have to charge those $40-$50 prices?? And then some of them charge more per frag after the first one. What kind of incentive is that for people to buy more from you. Here's my problem, I don't have ONE store within a 4 hour drive that sells coral frags. So, what choice do I have?

For me to ship you a small frag pack it would be $91.20 That's for an 8.5x7.5x7 box, the second smallest of the U-line insulated packages. You're comparing Petco, a multibillion dollar multinational corporation to Jason Fox for example who's a guy that operates out of his basement in Maryland.

 

[jda]

Everybody wants to complain about prices and then also complain when all of the vendors go out of business. As a whole, we are a pretty unintelligent group of people.

There is no law or rule against knowing the hobby and buying stuff knowing what frags might be worth some day when you go to sell. Most of the jacked up prices from the online vendors are time sensitive and mostly artificial. If anybody is spending $1000 on a SPS frag for a new designer, photoshopped black-lit coral, then they need to know that they have about 12-18 months to grow and frag that thing before they become $30-50 frags like Fox Flame or MattV Hornet. ...and there is only so many folks who pay for the tricks, which also lowers the price.

The old-school tried-and-true nice stuff still commands a good value. I can still get very good prices for most of this stuff and the locals are always happy since they need no tricks to be nice.

If you think that SPS are bad, get into mushrooms... I grow jawbreaker and bounces because they are easy to grow, easy to sell and people still want them with no signs pointing towards a slowdown (people kill them). The grow REALLY fast under the halides with the clean water and the do well in my frag tanks and are far more safe than SPS. These are the best thing to grow, IMO, to help with hobby cash.

 

[Servillius]

That's actually a pretty good idea. A repository of corals by name with pictures. Similar to zoabrary/zoaid for zoas. Does such a thing exist?[/QUOTE]
Yes it does. Reefs.com has a pretty good library. Check it out. Zoa, sps, lps[/QUOTE]
Reefs.com has a start, but I wouldn’t be able to actually validate a coral is the particular named one with their information. I’m suggesting we go further. At least use standard camera settings, lighting, etc. to picture the coral.

 

[Mattrg02]

That's actually a pretty good idea. A repository of corals by name with pictures. Similar to zoabrary/zoaid for zoas. Does such a thing exist?

Acropedia or something like that?

 

[Servillius]

I

Acropedia or something like that?

just sent to Acropedia.com and it’s not what I expected

Reefs.com is a good start. The more pics and data we get, the more I can be sure a particular coral I bought is what it was sold as. That would help all of us decide if this particular vendor is a) getting good info themselves, and b) being straight with us about it.

 

[Mattrg02]

I

just sent to Acropedia.com and it’s not what I expected

Reefs.com is a good start. The more pics and data we get, the more I can be sure a particular coral I bought is what it was sold as. That would help all of us decide if this particular vendor is a) getting good info themselves, and b) being straight with us about it.

Man, just when you think you’ve got a unique idea.

 

[BoomCorals]

Reefs.com has a start, but I wouldn’t be able to actually validate a coral is the particular named one with their information. I’m suggesting we go further. At least use standard camera settings, lighting, etc. to picture the coral.

It’s almost impossible to match lighting due to the variety of lights

 

[BoomCorals]

I

just sent to Acropedia.com and it’s not what I expected

Reefs.com is a good start. The more pics and data we get, the more I can be sure a particular coral I bought is what it was sold as. That would help all of us decide if this particular vendor is a) getting good info themselves, and b) being straight with us about it.

You have to account for morphs. For example there are legitimate corals with the name Oregon tort, but slight variations and lineage.

 

[Servillius]

It’s almost impossible to match lighting due to the variety of lights

Definitely. Ideally you would have someone set up lab conditions and take all the pictures. So if you want to get added and registered you have to send a frag, let them house it for a fixed period of time in their lab standard reef tank, then take the pic under the same conditions as all the other frags. This still ends up being imperfect, but it’s a lot closer to standard.

Failing that, if you collect enough pics and have the lighting info for each you can group them by lights and folks can at least get a feel for it by seeing the similarities.

This is the sort of thing that gets better with some money. If enough people were willing to only pay premiums for MACNA registered corals, or whatever the organization is that does it, then that organization could charge a registration fee to offset the cost. Whether we’re up to that as a hobby is an open question.

 

[Servillius]

Definitely. Ideally you would have someone set up lab conditions and take all the pictures. So if you want to get added and registered you have to send a frag, let them house it for a fixed period of time in their lab standard reef tank, then take the pic under the same conditions as all the other frags. This still ends up being imperfect, but it’s a lot closer to standard.

Failing that, if you collect enough pics and have the lighting info for each you can group them by lights and folks can at least get a feel for it by seeing the similarities.

This is the sort of thing that gets better with some money. If enough people were willing to only pay premiums for MACNA registered corals, or whatever the organization is that does it, then that organization could charge a registration fee to offset the cost. Whether we’re up to that as a hobby is an open question.

For what it’s worth, Steve Tyree has drifted in this direction with some of his efforts. Let’s leave aside whether his efforts are the right ones, he’s at least done some work to document what each coral is.

 

[Mattrg02]

Seems to me that one wouldn’t upload a photo if:
A - they didn’t believe their color and form to be a good example
B - they didn’t have some decent camera skills.

 

[BoomCorals]

Seems to me that one wouldn’t upload a photo if:
A - they didn’t believe their color and form to be a good example
B - they didn’t have some decent camera skills.

A quick look on the two zoa sites says otherwise haha

 

[Velcro]

There is a stunning amount of ignorance in this thread.

 

[chris3del]

Seriously ^^^^^^

 

[HB AL]

Seriously ^^^^^^

Now that's out of control, a whole 1/4 inch.