This hobby is out of control

[Sod Buster]

Cheeseburgers are fine, especially with Yanceys Fancy steakhouse onion cheddar cheese on them, on a toasted onion roll with a smear of creamed horseradish for bite. I'm really not that picky. Not so long ago I lived on Yuengling, but it took a girl to make me understand, thankfully.

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

We are responsible for our own buying choices. Caveat emptor!

 

[Eddie7144]

Is That store is located in Manhattan NY. If so they gotta pay that high rent Some people in Manhattan have a lot of money and probably don’t know better or don’t care about the price.

Nope they are in the middle of queens lol they are not in the city.

 

[Sod Buster]

No dilly whacker death for this boy. I refuse the koolaid

 

[cracker]

It's always been expensive always will. I bought 120$ fish once ! I will not buy a coral for 100's $$

 

[Reefpuck]

The funny thing is when random friends/family come look at my tank...they usually like the basic things. A rasta looks just as "cool" as some of those $300 zoas to them.

My $10 bangaii cardinal get's more "that's a cool looking fish" comments than my $100 flame wrasse.

It is what it is.

 

[Sod Buster]

No different from anything else bud, look at cars now, clothes, gas, food, milk. In 1998 they were all much cheaper.

Im still wearing clothes I had in 1998. They are not rags yet, built to last back then.

 

[fish farmer]

Is That store is located in Manhattan NY. If so they gotta pay that high rent Some people in Manhattan have a lot of money and probably don’t know better or don’t care about the price.

The Rent Is Too dang High

 

[Sod Buster]

Slow down everyone. 41 people plus guests on this thread. Almost as bad as the WWC tax crazy sale. We'll overheat the server.

 

[malacoda]

In terms of equipment, I can understand some of the high prices. It can take a lot of time, design/engineering labor and costs, software development, and tool/manufacturing costs to make things like system controllers and such. Not saying I personally feel the need or desire to spend $800 plus on a controller ... although I am willing to spend that amount of money on a high-end light system. Just saying that with reef keeping being such a small, limited market I do understand some of the pricing on some of the high-tech equipment.

Corals on the other hand are another story. Some of the color and naming fads--like the ones the OP illustrated--amaze me. Personally, I'm perfectly content, and get just as much awe and joy, from a healthy, vibrant colony of plain ol' strawberry shortcake as I would from two $900 Godbeast zoa polyps.

As with beauty though, value is all in the eye of the beholder.

 

[scriptmonkey]

 

[GoatmealJones]

I can attest to the fact that coral prices have at least doubled at my LFS's in LA over the past 7 years, during which I was out of the hobby at school. I remember being able to buy decent sized colonies and clams for 40-50 dollars, now my LFS sells 1' clams for 79-100 I think my new tank is going to be frag heavy, which i dont mind, but i wish i at least had the option to buy colonies of a few favorite corals without having to spend 100 each

 

[Sod Buster]

I'm perfectly content, and get just as much awe and joy, from a healthy, vibrant colony of plain ol' strawberry shortcake as I would from two $900 Godbeast zoa polyps.

$899 for 1 polyp

 

[scriptmonkey]

I can attest to the fact that coral prices have at least doubled at my LFS's in LA over the past 7 years, during which I was out of the hobby at school. I remember being able to buy decent sized colonies and clams for 40-50 dollars, now my LFS sells 1' clams for 79-100 I think my new tank is going to be frag heavy, which i dont mind, but i wish i at least had the option to buy colonies of a few favorite corals without having to spend 100 each

I think those days are coming to an end. More and more areas are closing to coral harvesting. Like it or not, this is our new reality.

 

[adam finley]

Well is the price out of control? Absolutely. I watch all these “live sales” and every time the bigger name vendors sale out of almost everything they list, so they’re not going to lower the price till that stops. The funny thing is “usually at least” they will say corals at 40-80% off. Well they mark it up 40-80% then show them taking it off so people think they are getting a deal in reality they are paying the regular asking price. It just irritates me when they say sale and really it’s not. But people get caught up with trying to grab the coral before the next person that they fail to realize it’s not really that good of a deal. Maybe one day people will wake up and demand more then a 1/2” frag for a couple hundred bucks but I doubt it. Honestly, if I could buy a colony for 200 bucks and cut 1/2” frags and make 2000-3000 grand from the “ vendor defenders” ie the people who pay those prices I would too.

 

[Sod Buster]

This is off trend a little bit. If I could get permission, I'd have a crisp $100 bill today for an old school guy. Tony's original cookie monster acro! Blue as blue gets. I know TCK has them sporadically.
Edit: I made a mistake. ARC who has the storefront and shares it with TCK, has the cookie monster. I read the old thread and it is ARC or Sanjay that kept this going thankfully. Tony documented the lineage on this forum a few years ago.

 

[scriptmonkey]

This is off trend a little bit. If I could get permission, I'd have a crisp $100 bill today for an old school guy. Tony's original cookie monster acro! Blue as blue gets. I know TCK has them sporadically.

So did some searching, you have good taste, that is beautiful..

 

[ccombs]

These corals are kind of like shoes.

Some of us buy shoes to get the job done-Unnamed frags or colonies that we like.

Some of us buy shoes that are known to be quality or a staple like Nikes or nice dress shoes/boots-Known corals or colonies that many have/enjoy

Some of us buy shoes that we won't even wear or take out of the box-Designer corals.

Off topic- I went to a store with some sneaker heads and they bought a pair of designer shoes that were in a sealed box. You couldn't even try them on. When you bought them they would lose all value if you opened the box.....

 

[lolgranny]

Im still wearing clothes I had in 1998. They are not rags yet, built to last back then.

My undies are around the same. They don’t fit so well anymore dad weight.

 

[Sod Buster]

My undies are around the same. They don’t fit so well anymore

I read in the Bubba sps thread about you granny. Your TV is as spicy as mine. I have some loose elastic too.