What's important to you when you shop for coral?
 

Just throwing it out there instead of in the for sale section..

What do you look for when buying coral online? Love to see a rating of maybe your top 5 (or more) in order of importance. Example:

1. The coral itself
2. Detailed picture
3. Location
4. Price
5. Delivery option
6. Packaging
7. Seeing the tank in person
8. Selection of other pieces

Thanks in advance.

Also, I see a lot of people don't know how to add photos to their posts in the buy and sell. I haven't seen a post on how to do that here, would people be interested in seeing one?

Upload your photos to Photobucket, Flickr or another 3rd party hosting site. Copy the BB code, and paste to the postcard (mountain scene) icon when posting here.

There is a thread here somewhere.

are you talking about purchasing from an online retailer? or online from the buy/sell forum here?

I like nice clear photos.
I like wysiwyg pieces.
I would like to know what lighting the piece is under.
I like seeing the big picture; seeing the system the tank is in (mostly applies to non-retail)

I think it's a given, but yes, if you're gonna post something for sale, please list the price as well.

Thanks! Good feedback and much appreciated!

when purchasing online I like to know as well what lighting it was photo'd under. It is also nice to see pics that are not all "top down"
yes- it captures the coral at its best, but I want to know what it will look like in my tank, viewing it as I naturally would.
Cost is important, but you will pay for high end corals, so it is not a deal breaker for me if you want nice coral.
Most important to me is reputation of the seller.

Usually I just do a quick check where its located first and if they can deliver before I focus on the picture of it and then I look at the price

Accurate photos. Want to scare me away,post up blue smurf photos with an iPhone.

I also like seeing colony photos. Something baseball or softball size, though find people who actually grow coral this big is about as rare as hens teeth. Seems as soon as a coral has 3 branches its suddenly a colony and they are selling 1/2 or 3/4 inch frags.

I am finding it hard to buy coral and not because it's been hard to get stock into the country.

Early on I learned some hard and expensive lessons in the hobby about corals the following are my personal take on buying coral

I only buy from trusted businesses And trusted local reefers and because I trust them I will often buy sight unseen from them.

I will never buy coral that is ground shipped I will only buy if it is air cargo only.

I also refuse to buy coral with one or two heads on tiny plugs because it is a ripoff in my opinion which is also the reason I won’t buy from many reefers or stores that do this I understand they want to make money but I also don’t like being ripped off either.

Just my two cents worth

Very nice feedback! Thanks lads! Nice to hear.