Coral pricing
 

Being as this appears to be a sore spot with people about coral prices I figured I would start a post here

Now to be clear there are very reputable coral dealers out there who are very responsible with their prices and size of their frags and I have my suppliers I use and as Tim stated in the Poll buying coral from suppliers is getting harder and more costly for the LFS and that gets passed on to the customer which I have no issue with.

If you wish to vent please be respectful of sellers even if you feel you are unfairly treated by them

My biggest beef is when a hobbyist gives a LFS store frags either at cost or free then the LFS turns around and tries hawking it for exorbitant amounts of money sometimes as much as 10x the price they paid for it that is bad business practise

I also have issues with hobbyists that frag their colonies then want LFS store prices I understand wanting to make money from the hobby but that is going overboard IMO.

If it was a common coral I would agree with you, but if its something rare that you cant get locally then why not. Buyer ends up saving taxes and shipping fees

also gotta factor in cheapskates when pricing. theres always one chump out there asking for $5 off a $25 frag when they are only buying 1 thing.

to be clear im not against asking for a deal/ price break during initial contact (its easy to stop replying to txt's or just laugh at them). I take issue with ppl who show up after agreeing to a price and ask for a discount. its like they think i will feel pressured into saying yes because they are in front of me, but in reality i just tell them to leave.

rant over.

Hello

Interesting thread Dearth. I can see where you are coming from and can see why hobbyists are upset when LFS make a good buck from what was bought off them or when their peers are demanding same price as LFS.

I'm going to put another perspective to this. This is reflective of an inefficient market where liquidity is low. If there are a lot of buyers and sellers trading then there is going to be an equilibrium. You will get the odd ones from time to time even in a highly liquid market but they are the odd ones.

Titus

Issue is that it was several big coral farmers that started raising prices on frags with their made up name corals. They take pics under blue light, use orange lens to make colors pop, photoshop the crap out of the picture, slap a silly name on a coral and ask for $200 for a tiny frag. I know several folks have started trying to crash the market if you will, by offering those same frags at fraction of the cost. I hope that they succeed.

Like I said in another thread, I found that prices have stagnated or ever gone down on a lot of common corals. "Designer corals" are a whole other issue altogether. Those prices are pumped up by the novelty/desirability factor, which is very subjective. But, if you look at the median price of coral frags in the hobby I disagree with the assertion that the prices have gone up. At least not since 2012 when I started in this hobby.

I think the LFS needs to make money and should do so.

I'd like to see frag sizes go back to that 1-2 inches, well encrusted or showing new growth and people realizing just because your 1" frag has 2 branches doesnt make it a mini colony.

I remember when people were called out for small fresh glued frags and smurfs pictures. Those were the good old days.

That is the only thing I am dreading about coming back to the Hobby right now. The price of coral has skyrocketed in the last 6 years since I got out. But I suppose that only means that it will take longer to populate my tank. And I'll just have 2 frag my tank more often so I can purchase the next unique Coral to grow.

As long as hobbyist pays $200 for a five-polyp frag, the price of corals will continue to rise.

So when will this end? Stop creating demand for this overhyped craziness. Wait maybe a year or 2 when nobody buys them anymore.

I remember when Red Diablo came out and they were charging $100+ for barely an inch frag. Same is true with a Red Planet. And guess what a couple of months ago I purchase a huge colony Red Diablo for $40 as this colony just taken over his tank.

I don't have a problem LFS charging X $$$ amount, they need to make money to keep their business afloat. What I don't get is when hobbyist charging for an arm and a leg for a five-polyp frag of a common coral like red planet.

I understand as a hobbyist you invest money to get this so called high-end corals and spent several buckets of salt and electricity to grow it, but dude you already made money for charging an arm and a leg for a couple of inch-2 branched red planet that you call a colony for almost a decade. Please make it affordable for noobs who just starting so that this hobby can continue and be sustainable.

That's my rant for today, I'm out!

Hello

Well the designer ones are always subjective. They parallel the likes of buying Gucci clothes which frankly speaking I have no idea of why anyone digs their designs. There will always be people willing to pay crazy prices for these type of stuff.

Titus

I disagree with sky rocketing prices. I find that yes, there are a lot more expensive corals these days with fantastic colors, but also corals that were available 5 years ago have dropped significantly because they are now more common. You will see this occur with some of the newer corals as they grow out in peoples tanks.

Will they all drop down to an affordable level? Probably not because some are very slow grows and its a major factor in prices next to availability. But many will come down.