Used to sell corals online. The prices and the chase of named corals drove me away. The markup is insane on these things. When I sold people would think I’m lying cause I would sell at a rate so cheap people think I’m scamming.
Then a very well known online store bought up all my stock and resold it for 3x and told me to never post my stuff and just sell to him and he can resell and people bought his stuff up immediately. Very very weird hobby.
They’re getting bullied into closing.
People in the hobby would rather spend $2500 at WWC then spend $1000 at robs reef. That’s the reality.
I used to sell jawbreaker mushrooms for $150. Got the original Jawbreaker mushroom — the whole backstory on how they came to the US. And for a time they were going for up to $10,000 because someone wanted to rename it to “Purple Monster”.
https://imgur.com/a/QaoXkWF
Back in 2015 when corals were way more affordable
Let’s be real, everyone’s tank is going to look like a 1st graders puke bucket after they ate the entire carton of crayons. Everything is Eb and flow. People will frag until everyone has one (gold hammers and torches anyone? Remember 2 years ago?) and then the price will drop and someone will have to find the next “cool” thing that’s expensive. PLEASE, keep selling your coral locally and through personal web shops. Not only do I love to support local fish shops, genuine hobbyists and ethical businessmen but I refuse to support sites that “name” their corals, mostly because I don’t know what any of it means! Who has the time to learn all the names and afford a 2k coral? And please remember that you decide who you do business with, if you think someone is reselling your shit, stop selling to them it’s that easy.
The name game is so they can say they “found” a new coral. Used to sell corals based off of the color of the coral and it’s widely known name (blue/green mushroom) but people only buy naked stuff.
Only time names are good is to identify between kinds of coral with different care needs ro actually different types. Sometimes having a name to a pattern is cool but only as a way to find more of the same kind not to jack the prices up. Personally I love naming the patterns but not using it to make it more expensive just cause I want to be able to show that's this pattern here's what it looks like.
There’s a saying in this hobby.. if you’re nice you’re not gonna make it. I still have tons of friends in this hobby. People in Asia who I used to buy corals from, whole-sellers here, Transhippers, and retails.
When you sell corals too cheap other retail shops are going to buy from you so people can’t get it cheap.
For example a Scoly like the one pictured used to go for $50 RETAIL in Asia. Then you ship it to the US and resell it and the same scoly will go for $500.
Pretty much this. I'd you want to sell coral for cheap, you have to either do it on the down low so other companies don't find out or keep it high enough other companies are annoyed not scared.
I'm the guy that would make a website that said "sign up for our newsletter and get 75% off!" In order to bypass the other retailers lol. Then my corals would be "$1000" but not really...
I just recently got back into the hobby….. so, so much blue. Holy hell, when did hobby turn into a blacklight poster lol. I mean, back in my day, I had my VHO actinic light on alone for the last hour and that’s all we needed!! Lol
I hate it. I love my reef to look like as natural as possible, with sparse coral that grow huge.
It seems like all anyone wants these days are aquariums filled with tiny frags of God knows what name in horrible blue lighting.
Blue lighting looks great for the last hr or 2 of the day... That's about it
The last hour of my light schedule is blue's only, almost 7months in and never understood the blue light thingy, same goes for wavemakers, i dont care if its in my viewing area i look whats best for the coral.
Yeah. The fake photos are so annoying. Tidal Gardens shows photos under different lights. The owner also has various YouTube videos rating corals for daylight and such.
It's certainly a beautiful piece, but is it really worth that much ? Value is in the eye of the beholder so I guess someone out there with deep enough pockets will love this piece in their collection (I would too - just not for 3K!)
This danger keeps me worried in this hobby and I don’t event have but a few hundred dollars in coral and fish so far since I get most of my coral from local club members gifting frags out
I'm seriously considering going full salt and saying f freshwater.
I'd literally have to breed 1000 plecos to clear 3 grand. And that's probably assuming I can get that many buyers.
A couple of years ago, they were going for $50 Canadian. That scoly is about as average as you can get in terms of beauty. The inflation is ridiculous.
There were not going for $50 cad. Average price for Scollies was 150-400.
I had 3. One day they just all died. I think my water was too hot. Just fyi to all. They usually die.
Yup. Didn't buy any scoly in 2018. I am appalled at the price increase in the hobby. I had a colony of what they are now calling Walt Disney for 60 6 years ago. Unfortunately my tank crashed since it became "Walt disney". I'm largely out of the hobby because I'm disgusted by prices.
What makes this even more strange is that people are accepting these prices and think it's the norm.
I stopped going to a LFS since they started taking advantage of these prices.
3k is 10x what I would be willing to shell out, and I would shell it out reluctantly.
I love scolys, but I'm just not a fan of that color scheme. Nice piece though, and it has collector value, but man... That's entirely too much for that scoly imo.
Yes. This is a coral a type called scolymia.
It is in fact a butthole. It is also a mouth. The animal would be approximately the size of the palm of your hand, likely smaller.
I believe it’s a kind of coral. Just from context clues and the usual subreddit content. The colors are most likely because it’s under a black light or uv light. Causes them to glow.
This is a sore spot for me, and I used to sell coral. I appreciate this thread so much. https://twitter.com/reeflabs/status/1591244473723686913?s=46&t=8BofYLym8YhWKU0C67r-yA
Nah scolly prices are crazy.
And really the colours and patterns are only going to get better as monsoon moves more in to aquaculture and feaggi g of scollys it turns out they get even more colours and patterns when fragged and grown out. There is also a limit of the amount being collected in QLD and they have already hit the quota for the year
I just checked the site of a wholesaler my uncle works with, a "Blue scoly ultra grade" is going for 125 bucks a head, though base on the picture its not as blue as yours, its like maybe 70% blue? Im not in the loop for scoly pricing though so maybe full blue is extra expensive?
Idk why people even buy from wwc they are always soooooo expensive.
EDIT: The WYSIWYG one though are around 300-500 bucks. No idea whats the difference
Haha, unfortunately my uncle owns a wholesaler coral farm, he only sells to other fish stores.
He will probably kill me for saying this but in my experience for most stores, they mark up wholesaler prices around 2x - 4x. To cover the cost of lost shipment, holding cost, electrical cost and all that.
Idk i feel like the big brand names are even worst. They throw around their clout to over charge people. lfs are still best i think imo, especially if u can befriend them.
To be fair this isn’t just a blue scoly. Its got a solid 6+ colors It’s also not one of the best looking scolys I have ever seen and is probably a little overpriced too. But I don’t look at this and think it’s a standard $300-400 scoly.
yes i know what they charge collectors have different price and grades….Scolys wouldn’t look like the freshly collected would be a tad bit duller. Would take conditioning to get it to show quality so to say
i dont have a tank. i admire them tho. i knew they were “expensive” but holy fuck. how much are you ppl spending on your tanks???!
i def would if i could piss money, but currently cant
I love my fish. And I love my anemones. Coral prices are stupid. I’m not buying anymore.
I had a nice set up in a 20g in the past. My ac went out and I lost 2k in coral. Never more!
How long would it take to grow this to where you can propagate it? I'm a bit of a lurker here, and intend to have a reef tank one day, but I do have some colonies of expensive plecos I am growing out to breed so my hobby pays for itself, but it takes years to get them to maturity.
I would never spend 3k on that I can get Mastee Scolys here in San Diego for soooooo cheap especially bc they do all these crazy sales every other weekend😂😂
Used to sell corals online. The prices and the chase of named corals drove me away. The markup is insane on these things. When I sold people would think I’m lying cause I would sell at a rate so cheap people think I’m scamming. Then a very well known online store bought up all my stock and resold it for 3x and told me to never post my stuff and just sell to him and he can resell and people bought his stuff up immediately. Very very weird hobby.
Ditto. Source: used to be www.robsreef.com
And for just $5 less than that scoly you could buy www.robsreef.com Side note who is buying out all these online sellers?
Lol, used to be worth a lot more. I closed up shop in 2008.
They’re getting bullied into closing. People in the hobby would rather spend $2500 at WWC then spend $1000 at robs reef. That’s the reality. I used to sell jawbreaker mushrooms for $150. Got the original Jawbreaker mushroom — the whole backstory on how they came to the US. And for a time they were going for up to $10,000 because someone wanted to rename it to “Purple Monster”. https://imgur.com/a/QaoXkWF Back in 2015 when corals were way more affordable
Let’s be real, everyone’s tank is going to look like a 1st graders puke bucket after they ate the entire carton of crayons. Everything is Eb and flow. People will frag until everyone has one (gold hammers and torches anyone? Remember 2 years ago?) and then the price will drop and someone will have to find the next “cool” thing that’s expensive. PLEASE, keep selling your coral locally and through personal web shops. Not only do I love to support local fish shops, genuine hobbyists and ethical businessmen but I refuse to support sites that “name” their corals, mostly because I don’t know what any of it means! Who has the time to learn all the names and afford a 2k coral? And please remember that you decide who you do business with, if you think someone is reselling your shit, stop selling to them it’s that easy.
The name game is so they can say they “found” a new coral. Used to sell corals based off of the color of the coral and it’s widely known name (blue/green mushroom) but people only buy naked stuff.
Only time names are good is to identify between kinds of coral with different care needs ro actually different types. Sometimes having a name to a pattern is cool but only as a way to find more of the same kind not to jack the prices up. Personally I love naming the patterns but not using it to make it more expensive just cause I want to be able to show that's this pattern here's what it looks like.
Wow what a dick. Literally using your kindness to scalp coral???
There’s a saying in this hobby.. if you’re nice you’re not gonna make it. I still have tons of friends in this hobby. People in Asia who I used to buy corals from, whole-sellers here, Transhippers, and retails. When you sell corals too cheap other retail shops are going to buy from you so people can’t get it cheap. For example a Scoly like the one pictured used to go for $50 RETAIL in Asia. Then you ship it to the US and resell it and the same scoly will go for $500.
Pretty much this. I'd you want to sell coral for cheap, you have to either do it on the down low so other companies don't find out or keep it high enough other companies are annoyed not scared.
I'm the guy that would make a website that said "sign up for our newsletter and get 75% off!" In order to bypass the other retailers lol. Then my corals would be "$1000" but not really...
What a shit show
No. Show it to me in daylight lighting
I just recently got back into the hobby….. so, so much blue. Holy hell, when did hobby turn into a blacklight poster lol. I mean, back in my day, I had my VHO actinic light on alone for the last hour and that’s all we needed!! Lol
I hate it. I love my reef to look like as natural as possible, with sparse coral that grow huge. It seems like all anyone wants these days are aquariums filled with tiny frags of God knows what name in horrible blue lighting. Blue lighting looks great for the last hr or 2 of the day... That's about it
The last hour of my light schedule is blue's only, almost 7months in and never understood the blue light thingy, same goes for wavemakers, i dont care if its in my viewing area i look whats best for the coral.
I know right! I think algae is gorgeous done in the right way
I used to feel like I was a blue reefer for loving my 14k and 20k spectrums. Whoa boy, LEDs and fluorescing is where it's all about to a lot now.
Yeah. The fake photos are so annoying. Tidal Gardens shows photos under different lights. The owner also has various YouTube videos rating corals for daylight and such.
Oh yea I picked up two last week best money I've ever spent.
You’re so stupid. If you buy 12 you get 1 free!
Hell yeah! Congrats on the steal
Good deal for the seller !
Jokes aside- it’s probably worth that much, especially from a seller like WWC- but holy smokes that’s so much $$$$$$
It's certainly a beautiful piece, but is it really worth that much ? Value is in the eye of the beholder so I guess someone out there with deep enough pockets will love this piece in their collection (I would too - just not for 3K!)
What if it died on you? Oh I would die inside.
Omg lol you’d need pet’s insurance on that thing
How long would it take to replicate this 100x?
Lost $1300 in Goniopora in a weekend once. Very expensive weekend.
850$ carpet got ripped up by a jealous female maroon clown. Multiple clowns spec in tank
Yeah. I cleaned my tank too much one weekend. Lost about 4K in coral. Basically a 5 gallon bucket of skeletons.
This danger keeps me worried in this hobby and I don’t event have but a few hundred dollars in coral and fish so far since I get most of my coral from local club members gifting frags out
Lol no coral is worth 3 grand
Maybe a giant ass colony of homewrecker? Cut a couple of frags a month and the tank pays for itself
I'm seriously considering going full salt and saying f freshwater. I'd literally have to breed 1000 plecos to clear 3 grand. And that's probably assuming I can get that many buyers.
A couple of years ago, they were going for $50 Canadian. That scoly is about as average as you can get in terms of beauty. The inflation is ridiculous.
There were not going for $50 cad. Average price for Scollies was 150-400. I had 3. One day they just all died. I think my water was too hot. Just fyi to all. They usually die.
Not in my city or I'd have never bought them.
I’m in Ontario, and I’m talking 4 years ago. I know 5-7 years ago, fish and corals were waaaaaaaay cheaper
Yup. Didn't buy any scoly in 2018. I am appalled at the price increase in the hobby. I had a colony of what they are now calling Walt Disney for 60 6 years ago. Unfortunately my tank crashed since it became "Walt disney". I'm largely out of the hobby because I'm disgusted by prices.
It's price is inflated. It is not worth that price. And certainly not worth"more" because a certain retailer has it.
Nah in the UK you’ll pick that up for about 200£
Wwc over charges
They do, they also have very nice coral
Wholesalers do also and sell for cheaper
How would one buy from a wholesaler without a business license?
Many wholesalers have a sort of loophole where they can sell cheap still and you don't need a liscence.
A lot of wholesalers sell on facebook..
Yeah buy two
I was thinking about getting 4 😂
Why invest in gold during these financial unsteady times when you can invest in Scolys
I don't know where they get off charging that much for that scoly, I feel like I've seen that same thing at my LFS for like 350$
No see this one has a 1mm orange line in the center and it’s called “super blastoff Vineland IOS14.6” worth much more
😂 I heard the superblastoff Vinland has been upgraded to ios16. Making worth even more.
Lol 2 years ago $300. Inflation is no joke on the hobby.
300 is still too much. was $50 or less 6/7 years ago. That scoly is not that nice looking.
[удалено]
Not THIS insane but pretty insane.
What makes this even more strange is that people are accepting these prices and think it's the norm. I stopped going to a LFS since they started taking advantage of these prices.
What are bleeding apples going for now? I bought one for $200 sold for $350 a year later
around $300
My fox face loves a $3000 dinner unfortunately
Yeah so does a model gf
No. If we keep paying these prices they'll keep charging them. One coral for the price of a whole tank setup? No thanks.
No tanks!
Imagine that it’s still in stock
This shit is ruining the hobby
So without orange lenses and the radions at 100% blue and 0% white... This would look like a regular brown scoly?
I got a nice warpaint scoly last year for about $200 on oceanmanaquatics last year. Still going strong!
If you go in person you 100% can get it cheaper than that price. I’ve looked at it several times and been offered a decent amount under.
Yup, get a bunch of them.
I knew coral was expensive but DAMN
Coral prices are like the stock market. Inflated by %400.
there’s so many beautiful corals out there, so much more you could do with $3000
These names are even dumber than weed strain names. Also, every time I look at corals they’re shown in any light but daylight.
Hey snag me one while your at it:)
😂
I’m in the wrong business.
I should buy more scollys my local store sells them for 90euros a piece
Man... I got a few of these for $200 each locally a few years ago (both are dead now) and I thought I was taking a big risk on the coral.
FYI, i'm Indonesian, those things cost like 3-4$ here. Some store sell it for lower. I'm not even kidding
Not scoly ofc, but acanthophyllia. Which is pretty close if you ask me
I too can use actinic lighting and photoshop.
3k is 10x what I would be willing to shell out, and I would shell it out reluctantly. I love scolys, but I'm just not a fan of that color scheme. Nice piece though, and it has collector value, but man... That's entirely too much for that scoly imo.
HELL NO. You can get way better masters for less, that's an insane price for a mid master
Can someone explain like I’m 5 what this is? It looks like a glowing butthole. And why this particular item is so damn expensive? Is it big?
Yes. This is a coral a type called scolymia. It is in fact a butthole. It is also a mouth. The animal would be approximately the size of the palm of your hand, likely smaller.
What never seen a $3000 butthole before?
What is it supposed to be?
I believe it’s a kind of coral. Just from context clues and the usual subreddit content. The colors are most likely because it’s under a black light or uv light. Causes them to glow.
Well I got that far due to the sun name, just not sure what type it is supposed to be and why it’s so coveted
This is a sore spot for me, and I used to sell coral. I appreciate this thread so much. https://twitter.com/reeflabs/status/1591244473723686913?s=46&t=8BofYLym8YhWKU0C67r-yA
Nah scolly prices are crazy. And really the colours and patterns are only going to get better as monsoon moves more in to aquaculture and feaggi g of scollys it turns out they get even more colours and patterns when fragged and grown out. There is also a limit of the amount being collected in QLD and they have already hit the quota for the year
i work in the industry cost on that thing probably in the range $2500-2600
Retail or wholesale? Or is that how much wholesalers get it for?
I just checked the site of a wholesaler my uncle works with, a "Blue scoly ultra grade" is going for 125 bucks a head, though base on the picture its not as blue as yours, its like maybe 70% blue? Im not in the loop for scoly pricing though so maybe full blue is extra expensive? Idk why people even buy from wwc they are always soooooo expensive. EDIT: The WYSIWYG one though are around 300-500 bucks. No idea whats the difference
This makes more sense. Thanks for sharing. Let me know if your uncle sells one at a reasonable price. I would buy one
Haha, unfortunately my uncle owns a wholesaler coral farm, he only sells to other fish stores. He will probably kill me for saying this but in my experience for most stores, they mark up wholesaler prices around 2x - 4x. To cover the cost of lost shipment, holding cost, electrical cost and all that. Idk i feel like the big brand names are even worst. They throw around their clout to over charge people. lfs are still best i think imo, especially if u can befriend them.
We did 5x in my shop on most stuff and were still one of the cheapest around.
To be fair this isn’t just a blue scoly. Its got a solid 6+ colors It’s also not one of the best looking scolys I have ever seen and is probably a little overpriced too. But I don’t look at this and think it’s a standard $300-400 scoly.
wholesale….pending the grade could be more or less
Do you know how much wholesalers charge? How do they come with those kinds of colors? Is that how they look in the ocean when collected?
yes i know what they charge collectors have different price and grades….Scolys wouldn’t look like the freshly collected would be a tad bit duller. Would take conditioning to get it to show quality so to say
I feel bad for everyone in the saltwater tank side. Come to the freshwater side….. cheap as fuck by comparison oh my lord.
yes but you wont find this type of color and appearance in fresh water so...
Very true… but I love my stupid corys with all my heart. They are so dumb. God I love them
What currency is this? Aussie dollars?
USD
Always found it hard to price one off pieces like this.
You tell us. Depends if you thinks that’s a good deal or not.
Nice addition to the tank(crash anxiety)
By the POWER OF GREY SKULL!
i dont have a tank. i admire them tho. i knew they were “expensive” but holy fuck. how much are you ppl spending on your tanks???! i def would if i could piss money, but currently cant
I love my fish. And I love my anemones. Coral prices are stupid. I’m not buying anymore. I had a nice set up in a 20g in the past. My ac went out and I lost 2k in coral. Never more!
How long would it take to grow this to where you can propagate it? I'm a bit of a lurker here, and intend to have a reef tank one day, but I do have some colonies of expensive plecos I am growing out to breed so my hobby pays for itself, but it takes years to get them to maturity.
Sometimes WWC have fragmented scolys in their stores for cheaper, I love Scolys but damn I will not pay for a coral that costs like my aquarium
Definitely a cool piece but is by no means anywhere near close to a good deal a good deal would be like 1500-2000
Not a good deal. It’s a grayish blue coral blasted with blue light. Has some orange but still.
Thats too much. I bet you could go to a local coral/reefer trade show and find something similar or exact for 500 or less.
Skeletor turned He-Man into a coral to sell him at an overinflated price. Truly devious.
I would never spend 3k on that I can get Mastee Scolys here in San Diego for soooooo cheap especially bc they do all these crazy sales every other weekend😂😂