who else sees it coming?

johnanddawn · Apr 11, 2010

I've been thinking this for a while, but this weekend i was at a frag swap and became convinced.
Chalice prices by the end of 2010 will be falling big time, but the quality will be better then ever!

I only own a couple and they are wild caughts but i like them, and i imagine the true collector pieces may hold some value but finally the buying wild caughts just to chop them up for a 100$ an eye stuff has seen its peak

On this board and a couple of on-line dealers i like to check out now and then, i've been seeing all these cool chalices coming in for some time now - and if you believe their hype each one is better then the last

- and yes many are!

The indo and aussie collectors know what the market is looking for and they are currently flooding the market with awesome pieces, while the market is "hot".

A couple of the fraggers had very nice chalices for sale but 1 guy in particular caught my attention. he was a vender/wholesaler as well as a hobbiest/fragger and had with him about 8 pices of wild caught chalice colonies that were unreal and the price was less then most 1 eye frags of so called high end chalices! i talked with him quite a bit and he said he gets these type of peices regularly now that the collectors know what we want

any opinions ?

RUGDOG · Apr 11, 2010

yes. I think the price drop has alredy started. good old run of the mill Miami huricane and such seem to have been coming down for some time.

agent462 · Apr 11, 2010

I think the prices will come down in private trade but initial pieces will still be a little on the high side. No matter how many people are selling coral it's a very price controlled market. There is always this dash to get these "LE" pieces to say you have them.

I just bought a sweet colony from Neptune and I'd never be able to sell the frags as high as they or another name in the market would be able to. I picked it up at a pretty good price for a full colony but if I were to resell the frags they'd come in on the cheap side.

There is also movement of the "fads" that help keep prices up. When Chalices are out and the next thing becomes the fad it will draw high prices. I still think chalices have awhile before they fall of out fad because the pieces get sweeter almost every month. The divers and collectors are starting to know what to look for.

CHALICEKEEPER · Apr 11, 2010

Not likely chalice's are staying strong have been for awhile

CoralBandit · Apr 11, 2010

they have come down considerably, The pieces that have more than 2 colors are going to always be more but still there are so many people in the game now that its just common sense that they will all go down with time.

darknessheir · Apr 11, 2010

i just bought my first two chalice and they were cheap less than 20 a frag - with many eyes. Same as others for the high price. Chalice at thsi past weekends swap were very cheap and looked great, many with more than two colors and very large, palm sized!

Acrokeeper3729 · Apr 11, 2010

They will come down to earth but the real show stoppers that come around every now and then will always be pricey.

soccerbag · Apr 11, 2010

nicks387 said:
They will come down to earth but the real show stoppers that come around every now and then will always be pricey.

Agreed!

mlove · Apr 13, 2010

As long as there are people who are still just catching the chalice bug, there will still be Miami hurricane frags going for $75-$90. The bug may have hit all of us, but there are still several people just deciding to see what the commotion is about

inactive · Apr 13, 2010

Same could see said about any coral.. There will always be something new in an old family. I remember when acan lords were "on the down fall".... but when a new rainbow pops up you would swear it was a few years ago. Zoas, the same... Scolymia? Sure.. BA and the commons will go down in price with time... but Scolymia like say, Sikryds? High dollar.. all day.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

ReeferBen · Apr 13, 2010

Yeah then we all remember when bland looking lords were selling for hundreds per single polyp on ebay, now you can get 10 polyp pieces for $30. Chalices will go down as time goes by. Once tons of people are trying to sell single eyes of BGM they will have to drop the price. The ones that will stay high IMO are the ones that grow very slowly.

Reef Goddess · Apr 13, 2010

Yeah they've def been going down, that's why I didn't invest in them. Back when I had a killer collection before chalice fever set in, I couldn't even sell my whole colonies for good money and I used to have some nice ones.

Chalices and acans have seen their day, lets restart the zoo and ricordia fad! ;p

fab1971 · Apr 13, 2010

Everyone and their mother has a frag of bubble gum monster + miami hurricane. On top of that they are extremely fast growers compared to some of the others. As far as some of the nicer ones, I doubt they'll go down too much. Especially the slow growing chalices. Tyree red wm + tyree pink wm are slow growers for me. You won't see me cutting them up to sell at a low price and I doubt too many other people would either. I do believe there will be more trading however. That's what I plan to do when my chalices + high end zoas grow out.

SDguy · Apr 13, 2010

Reef Goddess said:
lets restart the zoo and ricordia fad! ;p

yay, back to things that melt easily :wink:

I agree with those that say some chalices will always cost a decent amount. A slow growing attractive coral is going to remain a slow growing attractive coral, regardless of how many people have it. I doubt I'll see low cost tyree pink watermelon frags any time soon. Besides, if prices did get that low, then I think supply would decrease, since who wants to cut their slow growing, ****** off easily chalice for a couple $20 bills?

Edit: pretty much what fab1971 typed just before I posted :bigsmile:

inactive · Apr 13, 2010

fab1971 said:
Everyone and their mother has a frag of bubble gum monster + miami hurricane..

I have neither of those

johnanddawn · Apr 13, 2010

i think part of the intent of my original post was lost or misinterpreted (or i just plain didn't explain myself well)
i agree there will always be some collector pieces that are well established in aquaculture that will settle in at a reasonable, fair price (but quite a bit lower then last years prices). this is true with SPS, zoas, and other LPS like acans as well

what i was really talking about was the wild caught imports that are coming in today that will easily beat many of the so called originals. for example, the watermellon types, the collectors are out there finding anything with a green rim, knowing that is what the market wants. many people that couldn't afford a tyree red watermellon for example will soon be able to own a full colony of red watermellon (that is possibly equally as nice, just doesn't have the name) for the price of one eye of the real deal

i also think most reefers are smart enough not to fall for the gimicks where someone buys a colony of these new imports and cuts it up to try and sell each eye for the price they spent on the whole colony as if it were an aquacultured piece. this is one practice i personnally can't wait to see end.

fab1971 · Apr 13, 2010

Kraylen said:
I have neither of those

As soon as my mh starts sprouting eyes, I'll ship you a frag for free. Split the shipping for with me and I'll hook you up. It's the least I can do for the nice video's you share with us :smile:

Reef Goddess · Apr 13, 2010

SD Guy, I don't know what you're doing wrong but ricordia and zoos rarely melt on me, I'm sure others would concur. Fragging my chalices is way more of a pita than fragging my zoos and ricordia.

SDguy · Apr 13, 2010

Reef Goddess said:
SD Guy, I don't know what you're doing wrong but ricordia and zoos rarely melt on me, I'm sure others would concur. Fragging my chalices is way more of a pita than fragging my zoos and ricordia.

I was just being funny. Wild yumas and wild zoas.... meh, they can melt.