Vendors Gone Insane?

[vetteguy53081]

My favorite is the $ 80 green slimer . It's just laughable . The only time I look is when they have a 30% off sale just to laugh at the "sale price ". I mean it's a top tier store , all healthy stuff , knowledgeable but pricing is a bit extreme imo.

And $25 Xenia and $20 GSP. These are rare or farmed? I get it as a former full line Pet store ownert ( profitability, utilities, CAM, etc) but this is pure robbery.

 

[melanotaenia]

The one thing not mentioned her is about all the different avenues of obtaining coral have been shut down. Basic supply and demand comes into play. More and more vendors are starting to farm their own coral, which will help to sustain this hobby. Of course vendors are going to charge more if they are growing corals from a market that isn't available anymore. I still Indonesia corals for a decent price from some vendors as well.

I don't care what coral is growing out, 650$ for a frag is unacceptable.

 

[tehmadreefer]

It will continue just has it has for the past few years until ppl just stop paying these prices. Until then debate/complain til your blue in the face.

Things aren't gonna change.

 

[Scurvy]

Ive been dropping myself off most of the larger name vendors mailing lists for the same reasons. if I have to spend 20 minutes looking for a frag under $100 Im gone.

The list of places Im willing to buy from gets smaller by the day. Lives sales have gone down the toilet so far as deals go unless you're looking for the things they're trying to dump.

I got an email from a shop today saying make a purchase during your birthday month and choose any wysiwyg frag for free up to $30. I gave up looking for that $30 frag after 7 pages.

 

[AngryMike2016]

A few days ago that EXACT frag was $899.

 

[saltyhog]

How about this for a 1/3" frag? Next thing they'll be selling SPS by the polyp.

Cornbred's Beast Mode Acro

Price is for 1/3"-1/2" Frag Live Coral for Sale

cornbredcorals.com

 

[ODSlim]

Coral prices have definitely gone crazy

 

[TheOne]

I just picked up 16 corals from a reef2reef online vendor for $200 shipped. So there are still some out there that are worth checking out. So in perspective for that same $600 coral I could get 48 corals from some place else, ha.

 

[Scorpius]

I've gotten pest algae from WWC. Don't trust any vendors "rigorous quarantine" they tout. Buyer beware, protect your own tank yourself.

 

[Opus]

If everyone would just stop paying so much for ferraris then they would come down in price and then I could buy one.

 

[ODSlim]

I started reefing back in the early 2000's. Back then, chalices wee the golden ticket. Frags consisted of "per eye" and if it was the hot item at the time some frags with one eye weren't even 1/2". Acro frags back then were hardly in the $150 range per frag. In todays world, coral vendors will acquire colonies from Malaysia, cook them in there tanks and hope to gain those rainbow like colors. And if they're lucky enough to gain those colors, they'll put a crazy name to it and frags start at least $100 and up. Ever notice corals especially acros almost look identical from vendor to vendor, Im pretty sure they came from the same original coral distributor but ended up producing slightly different colors in there own tanks. ALL tanks are never the same when isolated. At the end of the day, buy what you like and what you can afford, some reefers are just fortunate to buy a $500 frag (Wish I was one of them). Or better yet in todays market, what about these $1000-2000 torch corals, or what about them mushrooms?? As mentioned, Im old school and my all time favorites are the pink *******, Miami Hurricane, Mummy eye chalices, Oregon, cali torts, 500 degree efflo acros. Im so glad these frags could be found dirt cheap and larger than 3 inches. Best bet is to find a local reefer that has these high end pieces and buy off them, hoping to save 30 -40% vs big box or online vendors.

 

[S.Pepper]

Does anyone think that companies like WWC have gone insane?

I have been around aquariums since I was born and was one of the first customers in WWC when I started my reef tank in 2011-2012. I bought many things from them, some that I still have today. When I started prices were reasonable on corals and there were very very few coral frags over $100 and the ones that there were were based on size or super rare. Now it seems like everyone has gone crazy and thinks that their stuff is worth $$$.

I was looking at WWC today and noticed this hilarious piece of stupidity, one of the worst I have seen in a very long time.

First off, quality Acropora frags should at the bare minimum be starting to encrust the plug and shouldn't be fresh cut.
Second, this is not even close to XL and should be listed without a size at all or listed as small. This is the minimum size any Acropora should be purchased at which is about 1.5 inches with a new branch starting. The frag is hardly any bigger than the dang plug! An XL frag would start to look like a mini colony with like at least 5 branches like this one from AquaSD.
Third, this price is insane. I don't care how rare a coral is the price should never be over $500 for a frag of anything, honestly, even over $200 is getting expensive. People are forgetting that this would be about 3-6 months of growth of an Acropora in an established system.

You can argue all day that it's rare or looks nice or whatever but this is just silliness.

I'm not here to throw hate just on WWC either they just happened to be the ones I saw today.

https://worldwidecorals.com/collections/acropora/products/walt-disney-tenuis-acropora-2842

I totally agree with u, AquaR44. And no, I didn't read any responses. I wanted to keep it clean without any interference or bias from other posters. What has happened, IMO, is people like me. I am totally new to SW tanks. I think they, those that distribute, are preying on the those that have no idea what's going on. While i have done my due diligence--yes i sigh-- I get the idea if ur not willing to spend the x and effort, ur going to get taken by those who r capitalizing on the trade. While i can't personally blame them for this, i understand how those that have been in this hobby for years feel.

 

[HB AL]

A few days ago that EXACT frag was $899.

I saw that and said what the heck.
So I drove to one of my lfs’s and bought 4 nice size Acro frags for 100$, with the prices online stores charge for small frags of average type Acros with the fancy names, I’m so happy I have lots of lfs’s around here in Orange County California to buy and see them in person versus a pic online that most times isn’t accurately depicted and way overpriced. I do have 2 online vendors ( not gonna mention who cuz I don’t want more competition) I do shop with on occasion cuz my tank is packed anyways but ther frags are of good size and the prices are really good compared to the majority of online stores. But I guess if people pay for the corals with outrages prices for what’s being offered then why would they lower there prices?

 

[drawman]

Ive been dropping myself off most of the larger name vendors mailing lists for the same reasons. if I have to spend 20 minutes looking for a frag under $100 Im gone.

The list of places Im willing to buy from gets smaller by the day. Lives sales have gone down the toilet so far as deals go unless you're looking for the things they're trying to dump.

I got an email from a shop today saying make a purchase during your birthday month and choose any wysiwyg frag for free up to $30. I gave up looking for that $30 frag after 7 pages.

+1 couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Opus]

I started reefing back in the early 2000's. Back then, chalices wee the golden ticket. Frags consisted of "per eye" and if it was the hot item at the time some frags with one eye weren't even 1/2". Acro frags back then were hardly in the $150 range per frag. In todays world, coral vendors will acquire colonies from Malaysia, cook them in there tanks and hope to gain those rainbow like colors. And if they're lucky enough to gain those colors, they'll put a crazy name to it and frags start at least $100 and up. Ever notice corals especially acros almost look identical from vendor to vendor, Im pretty sure they came from the same original coral distributor but ended up producing slightly different colors in there own tanks. ALL tanks are never the same when isolated. At the end of the day, buy what you like and what you can afford, some reefers are just fortunate to buy a $500 frag (Wish I was one of them). Or better yet in todays market, what about these $1000-2000 torch corals, or what about them mushrooms?? As mentioned, Im old school and my all time favorites are the pink *******, Miami Hurricane, Mummy eye chalices, Oregon, cali torts, 500 degree efflo acros. Im so glad these frags could be found dirt cheap and larger than 3 inches. Best bet is to find a local reefer that has these high end pieces and buy off them, hoping to save 30 -40% vs big box or online vendors.

Too bad the purple monster never came down in value.

 

[Hermie]

Just because something is priced high doesn't mean it sells for that price. So all the people in this thread saying "the market determines the price" well guess what, we aren't looking at what the market is paying, we are looking at a specific listing with a specific price which is "unreasonably" high. If WWC opened up their receipts then we could see what the "market price" is but we don't have that information, unlike EBAY which is a great thing about eBay, the market price information is closer to reality and public information than private vendor listed prices. We can actually see what items SELL for, not just what they are listed at.

 

[S.Pepper]

Just because something is priced high doesn't mean it sells for that price. So all the people in this thread saying "the market determines the price" well guess what, we aren't looking at what the market is paying, we are looking at a specific listing with a specific price which is "unreasonably" high. If WWC opened up their receipts then we could see what the "market price" is but we don't have that information, unlike EBAY which is a great thing about eBay, the market price information is closer to reality and public information than private vendor listed prices. We can actually see what items SELL for, not just what they are listed at.

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

 

[Hermie]

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

Pot meet kettle?

 

[Gino Rodriguez]

Never met a person who would buy this for this price. Whoever buys this frag must have money falling out of their pants when they bend over.

Agreed, I’ve never met a hardcore reefer who is actively buying from WWC. Just scoff and source local

 

[smartwater101]

Take any photograph from WWC and reduce the saturation by 50% and you'll get a decent representation of what it will look like in real life. Even under heavy blues.

All they have to do is take a photo of some plane-jane coral, jack up saturation, give it some stupid name, and boom... justification for a 40-100% mark up.


And it works. There is always going to be people that buy it. And even worse, people that enable shaddy business practices with their "well you dont have to buy it" attitude.