huh, just found this thread...
I doubt anyone is going to want to jump on this thread and be objective and fair with their opinions.
Too many people are doing exactly what UC pondered about 3 years ago.
Vendors and hobbyists alike are fragging frags and then creating hype with lies and unethical marketing.
Frag selling has adopted and exploits the impulse buy credit card swipe about that is common, more so here in the USA.
We swipe our credit cards like the money is free, we may lose a little bit of sleep over an impulse buy but get over it soon enough.
the credit card bill just gets paid automatically in increments and we make the conscious decision to ignore how much we overpaid on the frag and interest rate.
There are sellers both vendors and private sellers that lie.
They lie when an expensive coral is sold fishing for impulse buyers.
They lie during the presentation of the coral by editing pictures to unrealistic levels, again, searching for impulse buyers.
Many frags and or packs go unsold but the sellers just lie that it sold at a high price.
Anywho, I just received a UC bali shortcake frag today from UC, it is so big that I am shocked and it not the first coral UC sends me that has floored me.
Other vendors and private sellers are marketing the sizes UC sells as "mini colonies" for much more money, insane.
If we the buyers start ignoring the hyped up websites and for sale threads for 12 months and focus only on vendors seeking to establish relationships/repeat business we may be able to make a dent on the 1/2" frag for $200.
Impulse shoppers will always exist but if we were to ignore the BS artists in 12 months or less we would see a trend change and could get back to affordably buying and replacing coral all year round.
Will it happen probably not, hobbies are driven by people evolving through their lives.
For every person that shuts down their fish tank because it was too expensive, a new person will be looking to take up the hobby.
As long are there is newbie fish, vendors will keep baiting the hook searching for impulse buyers.
Its takes a while to catch on to the marketing / scam approach but any newbie reading this....read the OP post by an entity that is in the business, skip over the BS posts that defend picture altering and 1/2 expensive frags, go review a few pictures and for sale ads and come up with your own conclusion.
On a serious note though , is it just a handful of people buying these extremely rare corals or is it quite a common thing ?
:mad: then when you tell them one showed up rough shape they spar with you that its not totally dead! Of course you stop doing business with them and you latter see them trying to re-establish that Excitement for their Co. Start offering lower pricing and moderate styles just to get cash flow going. Well it will catch up to you sooner or later and of course Karma's a B!+@#
