What live sale is right for me?

Dodgersfan · Jan 29, 2018

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this, but i wanted to get some feedback from other Hobbyists on who to watch out for a live sale from now that my tank is finally ready to go. I know there's a lot of great vendors, but I'm hoping some folks can steer me towards a few that will best fit what I'm looking for. here are my two main requirements:

- nothing overly high end/expensive: I'm looking to spend about $200-$300 total including shipping and want to get a dozen or so large frags/mini colonies. Some vendors on here have some amazing, high end corals, but they probably aren't the right fit for me, I'm looking for $20-$30 average cost, not $50-$100 .

- I'm not looking for SPS: lots of beautiful options out there, but I'm still new to corals so I don't want to dive into SPS yet, and I know a lot of the vendors are very SPS focused. I'm looking mainly for LPS, especially Euphyllia & maybe some Zoas. I might grab a $10-$20 cheap SPS frag just to try one out, but a live sale that's 50% SPS or more probably isn't right for me.

So any ideas which vendors I should be looking out for?

Daniel@R2R · Jan 30, 2018

Bumping this up for others to weigh in on.

Dythomas11 · Jan 30, 2018

I’m in the same boat. I’ve been looking at sales for a couple months now as my new tank gets settled in. Tidal gardens has a monthly live sale via YouTube. They’ve always got a variety of zoas and not a ton of sps. Not many euphyllia though which is a little disappointing. I also sat in on a cherry corals live sale that I was really impressed with back on Black Friday I believe.

I’m interested to see a few other opinions as well!

NeuroticAquatics · Jan 30, 2018

Most live sales have a mix of everything. That spending range should be able to get you some good stuff. I’m sure others can give ideas of actual vendors. I’ve never paid much attention to who does sales when.

[Cameron] · Jan 30, 2018

I would take a look at the yourreef.com sale items. Quality vendor, WYSIWYG, some solid pricing and they have been in business a long time.

Dodgersfan · Jan 30, 2018

[Cameron] said:
I would take a look at the yourreef.com sale items. Quality vendor, WYSIWYG, some solid pricing and they have been in business a long time.

That’s who I’ve been leaning towards... and I just saw that they’re having a live sale this weekend... this could get dangerous...

Daniel@R2R · Jan 30, 2018

Another great one for LPS is @AcanLord. Once you're looking for SPS, there's a few others that should be recommended

WWIII · Jan 30, 2018

Live sales can be tricky, but kinda fun and addictive! I've enjoyed sales by Cherry Corals, WWC, and Jason Fox. All are excellent to deal with and have awesome corals! There's plenty more great vendors, but those are the ones I always check out when they have a live event.

leahfiish · Jan 31, 2018

I feel like aqua sd's offerings, while not a "live" sale, might be up your alley if you're still deciding. I also have participated on WWC's live sale and was able to stick to my budget pretty well, 3 of my frags were less than $20 if I remember correctly. But the live sale is all about the hype. If you just wanna shop on a website and see all of your options there are better choices.

Opus · Jan 31, 2018

Actually, it sounds like a frag swap is more of what you are needing. I checked the 2018 swap thread and it looks you would have to wait until April for one in the Atlanta area. Usually a lot more lower end corals at good prices at those shows and since you are face to face, you can usually work out better deals by buying several pieces from the same vendor. I try and go to all the ones in the Dallas area and I drive down to Houston for their big show in the spring.

For live sales, I would say Cherry Corals is perfect for what you are wanting, and also as mentioned above, yourreef is a good one. You may want to check out Joe Knows Corals live sale in early February. He usually has a good mix soft/lps/sps in his sale and usually has a good mix of low to high end. Only problem is he isn't doing 1000 corals like Cherry or WWC so I find it can be a little more difficult to win a piece, but I'm usually only looking for a few certain pieces.