Selling Corals for Profit $$$

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by Zoaelite

I would argue the line is crossed when you full well know your taking advantage of a fellow hobbyist.

Let me give you an example;

Seller A buys zoas that lack a specific trade name from LFS. They then proceed to name said coral themselves to improve its ability to sell (lets face it, named stuff goes for more EVERY time).

This seller then posts these zoas for sale, priced per polyp at $35 exclaiming what a major deal these are. He/she goes on to state that if you don't buy now the price will increase DOUBLE to $75 per polyp.

Seller A is pretty much saying these are 50% off at the moment indicating they are heavily reducing the price to be an AMAZING person and sell you some unreal coral a wicked deal!

Sadly Seller A probably bought that unnamed zoa rock from a local LFS at around $50, if all 10 polyps sell @ $35 then $300 profit has been made or 600% profit.

That is personally what I consider profiteering

Hmm, while I don't necessarily agree with the ethics of your example, I also don't think that's a strong case against profiteering. Where do you draw the line? 100%? 200%? When someone goes from being 'dude in a basement' to 'dude in a basement with a business license"? What if we extended that last frame to 'dude who has a storefront'?

Take Steve Tyree for example. All strikes against him, and I may be going out on a limb here, but that guy REVOLUTIONIZED the reef hobby. His 'LE' gimmick reinvigorated the entire coral scene well beyond "OMG, Fiji Aquaculture is so dope!" (and trust me, this was the state of the hobby circa 1999-2003). And he did it straight off the back of your example. I'd argue that this sort of, let's call it entrepreneurial, spirit is exactly what keeps the hobby healthy. Eagle eyed hobbyist spots a gem at LFS, sensationalizes it and drives a frenzy, creating a secondary market. I see no harm in this. The coral has already proven its worth to the original benefactor (the LFS that sold it at their expected markup) and now there is a new and unique strain of coral that will be hosted and propagated by steadily increasing numbers of hobbyist. Fast forward six months and the market value of the coral will steadily decline as supply exceeds demand. For most people, getting a nice coral isn't a matter of having money on hand, but patience.

Anyway, about to flood a tank, I'll be back to stir this up more in case y'all want to continue the dialogue.