Vendors Gone Insane?

[cvrle1]

A fool and his money are soon parted. As long as fools are willing to pay exuberant prices for these corals, shops will keep charging them. There are really 2 ways to drop these prices down. Either people stop paying that much, and it forces shops to lower prices in order to sell, or someone floods the market with same frags but for much cheaper. I read about few folks trying to do precisely this, so hopefully they are successful in doing so. I would much rather buy from them, as not only would I be saving my hard earned $, but I would be helping burst the bubble for these ridiculously overpriced coral frags.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

I made the mistake of visiting WWC with my wife when on vacation from the UK. Now she thinks any coral I buy costs hundreds of pounds.
Some of their corals are insane when compared to what we have got in the UK, but $650 for a 1" frag, that could last a week on your display, well that's just ridiculous in my opinion.

 

[Tyler White]

For people like me that dont really have a LFS that i can get acros from it forces you online where you might run into 800 dollar frags.
Im a big free market guy. EVENTUALLY it will regulate itself.
I like WWC and have bought from them before and spent hours in their store talking with them but their prices are out of control. I get it takes alot of money to run an operation like that but when you can get the same coral 15 other places for a fraction of the price eventually they cannot run off of the name and advertisement from BRS.

Even their live sale pricing was crazy.

250 dollars goes a long way elsewhere.
At their current pricing you would get 4 OKAY looking frags
I was able to get 9 coral frags 6 of which were named pieces from TCK for 260 and change.

Eventually people will realize you can get more for less elsewhere and they will have to change their ways.

 

[bsn_rn_cen]

I made the mistake of visiting WWC with my wife when on vacation from the UK. Now she thinks any coral I buy costs hundreds of pounds.
Some of their corals are insane when compared to what we have got in the UK, but $650 for a 1" frag, that could last a week on your display, well that's just ridiculous in my opinion.

My wife wants to go to RAP next weekend with me. I have been fearing the same thing will happen.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

And I have a similar problem, different cause. I do soft corals. Not Zoas and shrooms, but sarcophyton and soft corals like different Xenia species (that some people have never seen), nepthea species, gorgonians, etc. Because these corals, for years, have been deemed "undesirable" they are becoming exceedingly difficult to find. No one is producing them because they were not or are not "profitable" so now that places like Fiji and Indonesia are off limits, you just about CAN'T find anything except for zoas, shrooms, gsp, or standard Xenia or just out right ugly leathers that are attached to a combo rock, or pulled out of a neglected tank. So this leaves me with very few choices. The only way I have to get some types of hard to find corals, especially if they are aquacultured, is to buy from the few people who have invested in producing them, usually states away. There are no local people (unless I want zoas, shrooms, or the generic toad stool) producing these in their tanks.
I guess what I'm saying is, despite the insane prices, most of you can shop around for a fairer price and have friends who are growing out stuff to trade with. Those of us who do stuff other than SPS or LPS or Zoas and shrooms, are kinda stuck with very few sources for our tanks.
Side note: I went to two frag swaps recently. Dude was selling a frag of three tube worms (about 1.5 inches) for 60.00, another with one inch frag of ugly sinulara for 50.00, generic Xenia for 30-50.00 and a lot of vendors who, when I asked about stock, "oh yeah, I've got some of that back home but didn't bring it" and they say it with all the love of someone talking about a roach infestation.
Out of two shows I was able to get a few gorgonians, sadly the majority wild caught and just don't do well when they are, one aquacultured, which is doing great, and a single frag of unknown sinulara I've yet to ID. The woman thought it was Palau because that's what someone told her, but it wasn't. I still bought it for 35.00 because I simply hadn't seen a variation like that before.

 

[siggy]

I could never understand why people buy frags when you can get chunks or colonies for the same price.
Yes super rare or colorful acros are a different story and if you want one you have to grow it.

As for QT clean systems, wrong, I had a premium frag from a top tier vendor arrive with bubble and green algae along with an baby aptaisa.:mad: When a frag of OP arrived smaller than a match head that was it for me.

I now see wild coral or scrub frags filling the gaps to meet the volume demands during the live sales, the price is still inline with the hardier aquacultured corals. That's the crazy part.

 

[Jimmyneptune]

I like WWC. A few years ago I bought a 12 pack of monti frags from them for less than $200. I watched their auction sale and saw that I could get maybe two or three pieces for that much. A few years ago at a show my wife said let’s get one of those indo gold torches. I thought naw that’s too big for my tank. I think it was 60 bucks at the time.
I can get a BTA for $45 From a local guy would be $300 on the Internet. It’s all supply and demand.
I think in the next 2 to 5 years as there’s more and more people who are able to automate the alkalinity And calcium dosing as well as more knowledge about lighting, flow and trace elements we’ll see a larger supply of quality corals which will drive down some of the higher prices.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Honestly, folks, you really should be asking yourself WHY you want the frags that online sellers have continued to shrink and price higher. There are at least 2 responses in this thread opining that they wish that the prices would come down so that they could buy one (or some). It's precisely that desire that drives the market and establishes the prices.

There are different ways of doing things. I've never bought a frag. And I absolutely would not tolerate a coral with a comic-book name in my tank. That last part is actually shading the truth a bit - if I'm given a frag of a "named" coral, I instantly and deliberately forget the name, and am careful not to pass that name on to another reefer if I give him/her frags.

Bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, propagating comic-book names, and posting threads to forums with title of something along the lines of "Look at this Whizzleberry GumDrop Acro!" perpetuates hype, and guarantees an overheated market. Just think about the silliness of the euphyllia glabrescens craze. A "Dragon Soul Torch"? Seriously? That's ridiculous, as is paying $1500 for a head of it.

I can sum up this post with a rather famous line from an ancient comic strip: "We have met the enemy, and he is us"

 

[foxt]

Honestly, folks, you really should be asking yourself WHY you want the frags that online sellers have continued to shrink and price higher. There are at least 2 responses in this thread opining that they wish that the prices would come down so that they could be one (or some). It's precisely that desire that drives the market and establishes the prices.

There are different ways of doing things. I've never bought a frag. And I absolutely would not tolerate a coral with a comic-book name in my tank. That last part is actually shading the truth a bit - if I'm given a frag of a "named" coral, I instantly and deliberately forget the name, and am careful not to pass that name on to another reefer if I give him/her frags.

Bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, propagating comic-book names, and posting threads to forums with title of something along the lines of "Look at this Whizzleberry GumDrop Acro!" perpetuates hype, and guarantees an overheated market. Just think about the silliness of the euphyllia glabrescens craze. A "Dragon Soul Torch"? Seriously? That's ridiculous, as is paying $1500 for a head of it.

I can sum up this post with a rather famous line from an ancient comic strip: "We have met the enemy, and he is us"

If Pogo is ancient, I am prehistoric!

 

[William Mumford]

For sure wwc means $$$$$ scrambled eggs zoas for like million.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Hmm - Well, since Pogo launched in 1948, I'm guessing most readers would see it as rather dated.

 

[Chewbacca]

Well, since many, many frags of acros with comic book names actually sell in that range, if I was a vendor, I'd do the same thing. In my opinion, "fair" isn't a reasonable consideration in regards to price - you charge what people are willing to pay.

"Fair" does enter into misrepresenting corals by photographing them under actinics and using a photo-editing program to jack the saturation. At least the photo manipulation doesn't seem to be the case for more reputable vendors like WWC and others, but on fleabay, you're taking your chances.

I will not deny I love WWC and some other vendors out here, but with a hint of accusation gauging is gauging for certain items and at other vendors they need an audit by BBB,Big Brother (IRS) and whoever else. But I also realize that Public (consumer) has the right to look and not touch because it is out of their reach $ wise, rephrase, Some have deeper pockets than others and will to overlook said hint above to set the high value trend. (POKÉMON) . Now on quarantine issues I have purchased from a lot of vendors here and will say all have had nasty hitchhikers from everyone of them ,but nothing I couldn’t handle. So don’t tell me about state of the art quarantine processes. As a consumer you have the right and maybe common sense or senselessness to make your purchases. For me a high priced item better turn around and keep my reef spotless and do water changes. Enough rambling. Rock on people.

 

[408Dartfish]

I’m tired of reefers complaining about everything. You’ve been into aquariums since 2011

 

[truetricia]

I agree lol. I get 5-20$ frags of pretty much any acro from my LFS.

Man! My LFS sells GSP for $50 for a golf ball sized frag. But there's not a lot of competition and they're not very good.....

 

[DJ H]

I don’t do business with wwc. The only way they do so good is they have deep pockets. They spend the most at wholesellers so they get first dibs on coral. So that’s why your local reef stores don’t get as good of corals as they use too. I another reason is the staff are some of the stupidest people in are hobby. They don’t care about coral just there pockets. Easy fix don’t buy nothing from them. BAN WWC

 

[Chewbacca]

Thank You

 

[ca1ore]

Honestly, folks, you really should be asking yourself WHY you want the frags that online sellers have continued to shrink and price higher. There are at least 2 responses in this thread opining that they wish that the prices would come down so that they could buy one (or some). It's precisely that desire that drives the market and establishes the prices.

There are different ways of doing things. I've never bought a frag. And I absolutely would not tolerate a coral with a comic-book name in my tank. That last part is actually shading the truth a bit - if I'm given a frag of a "named" coral, I instantly and deliberately forget the name, and am careful not to pass that name on to another reefer if I give him/her frags.

Bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, propagating comic-book names, and posting threads to forums with title of something along the lines of "Look at this Whizzleberry GumDrop Acro!" perpetuates hype, and guarantees an overheated market. Just think about the silliness of the euphyllia glabrescens craze. A "Dragon Soul Torch"? Seriously? That's ridiculous, as is paying $1500 for a head of it.

I can sum up this post with a rather famous line from an ancient comic strip: "We have met the enemy, and he is us"

Way to cloud the debate with common sense ...... LOL

 

[ca1ore]

These price winging threads pop up with regularity and the answer is always the same ..... supply and demand! If there are people willing to pay $500 for a little finger frag, other people will be only too happy to sell it for that. Friend of mine would always rail against frag prices while he was building up his system, now that he’s there and selling frags apparently the practice is less egregious. Although I’ve paid moderately silly $ for tiny frags, I don’t do it anymore. I just trade now.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I don't think you added anything to this thread other than a bunch of rhetoric that means nothing.

Please bear in mind , everyone especially on a forum is entitle to their own opinion and expresses it in their own way. Regardless, we must be respectful whether its a contribution or nonsense.

 

[S.Pepper]

Please bear in mind , everyone especially on a forum has their own opinion and express it in their own way. Regardless, we must be respectful whether its a contribution or nonsense.

Thank you and I agree. It could have been said better.