This hobby is getting even more ridiculous with pricing......

[Marquiseo]

When I first started 6 years ago, $100 got me at least 6 nice, multi-colored corals. Presently, $100 is almost the same as the value a dollar in this hobby....worth nothing. You can barely get just 1 coral with $100. Once shipping is factored, you will breach the $100 threshold. Also, corals went from colonies, to snack size, to bite size, to residue. When does the madness stop?

 

[Nano101]

craiglist

 

[mgoesma]

I agree. Look at the prices of people of pumps and controllers. I can buy a top of the line PC for the price of an aquarium controller. Am I the only one that thinks the manufacturers are taking advantage of people.

 

[Nano101]

piecing together a whole setup is sure pricey. More than a year's worth of maintenance/dockage of my boat

 

[jmp21677]

I agree 100%. I hate to say it but this website is responsible for some of it

 

[Nano101]

addicts unite?

 

[Marquiseo]

No, the ones responsible for this are overnight chop shops that expect to get rich by selling corals.

 

[Zechirian]

Tidal Gardens had a great video on one of the reasons. Wholesalers use to only charge $.50 give or take until they saw stores selling those pieces for $100's more. They decided to say "oh heck no" and said that piece that WAS $.50 is now $50.00. Hence the increase in prices.

 

[Nano101]

You can find a lot of equipment/corals on craigslist

 

[Marquiseo]

Tidal Gardens had a great video on one of the reasons. Wholesalers use to only charge $.50 give or take until they saw stores selling those pieces for $100's more. They decided to say "oh heck no" and said that piece that WAS $.50 is now $50.00. Hence the increase in prices.

So based on that, it still puts the blame on sellers. Even though retailers got it dirt cheap, they decided to mark up the price 10000% and the exporters noticed and wanted in.

 

[Marquiseo]

You can find a lot of equipment/corals on craigslist

It depends on the area.

 

[ReeferCub]

Absolutely agree with you and I have been in this hobby for a relatively short period of time. I entered the saltwater fish keeping hobby in 2013 and then reef and corals I started in 2014. I already feel the prices of dry goods have gone up much more than the cost of raw materials and labor cost. But the worst part is the cost of livestock. I have a friend who now resides in Toronto and he says the same is not true in Canada! Surprisingly the cost of decent sps and lps corals is less there!
One more thing I would like to point out is the size of frags have gone down to ridiculous levels. Sellers, including some of the big name ones in this site too, are selling quarter inch or less sized frags. Anything more than an inch and they are calling it "mini colonies". How ridiculous!
Facebook coral selling groups are holding Raffle drawing to sell corals where you can count the number of polyps in a sps frag.
Who to blame? WE are the problem. People like us pay and that is why this thing is increasing by day!

My rant is over.

 

[Diesel]

Following

 

[Macdaddynick1]

I'm glad that this hobby is getting more expensive so people actually value the animals they are getting if it was cheap majority of the people would naturally be more careless with their tanks. Kind of like the freshwater hobby for the most part. People spend 5 dollars for a fish and throw it into a vase without cycling and let it sit there and die. I know it's counterintuitive and I can't afford most of the coral in the hobby unless I get a really good deal, but my value for those corals is still high. Money is the best motivator, it weeds out people that keep on killing their corals and fish, and cannot get themselves to learn things.

 

[KingBlingTX]

There are still several places selling $10-$20 frags that just aren't the "branded" names . I've seen several of these that look almost identical to the more popular named corals out there.

When it comes to equipment like controllers, I don't see how people can call them excessively priced. For the price of an iPhone, you get a technology-filled product that performs well for our purposes . When you consider that the manufacturers of these products certainly deserve to make a profit and you also consider how many millions more phones/computers are sold when compared to aquarium controllers, it's surprising that the controller companies are able to do it.

There are certainly more expensive ways and less expensive ways to do this hobby . But I think you'll find that true in about everything in life. We can't expect a have a Mercedes and then complain it's more expensive than a Chevy.

 

[Marquiseo]

I'm glad that this hobby is getting more expensive so people actually value the animals they are getting if it was cheap majority of the people would naturally be more careless with their tanks. Kind of like the freshwater hobby for the most part. People spend 5 dollars for a fish and throw it into a vase without cycling and let it sit there and die. I know it's counterintuitive and I can't afford most of the coral in the hobby unless I get a really good deal, but my value for those corals is still high. Money is the best motivator, it weeds out people that keep on killing their corals and fish, and cannot get themselves to learn things.

Value isn't the issue there; Lack of education is. Raising the cost of corals doesn't elevate the hobby. It "flatlines" it. Eventually, it will hit the ceiling while losing many hobbyists in the process. It will deter potential hobbyists from starting. How great will this hobby be with a small group? LFS will close shop due to decreased sells. Eventually all coral sales will be online purchase which will also decrease.

 

[Elder1945]

The reason we have cheap coral and fish in Canada is there is little to no government regulations.. This will change and price will end up going higher then most places. This is the Canadian way..

Anyone can import coral/fish into Canada it is quite easy..

 

[Marquiseo]

There are still several places selling $10-$20 frags that just aren't the "branded" names . I've seen several of these that look almost identical to the more popular named corals out there.

When it comes to equipment like controllers, I don't see how people can call them excessively priced. For the price of an iPhone, you get a technology-filled product that performs well for our purposes . When you consider that the manufacturers of these products certainly deserve to make a profit and you also consider how many millions more phones/computers are sold when compared to aquarium controllers, it's surprising that the controller companies are able to do it.

There are certainly more expensive ways and less expensive ways to do this hobby . But I think you'll find that true in about everything in life. We can't expect a have a Mercedes and then complain it's more expensive than a Chevy.

The $10-$20 corals are common corals sold at local fish stores. Hobbyists will eventually want something different. Comparing Cell phones and Mercedes benzs to controllers is comparing apple to oranges. There are different ranges of cars and cell phones available. In this hobby, there are a few companies that make controllers and their prices are within $50-$100 of each other or even the same cost. This practice is pretty much the same as "price fixing".

 

[nicholas.babb@gmail]

As a long time serial hobbyist, I have noticed that a lot of hobbies are more expensive than what they once were BEFORE the mini economic depression in 2006 - 2010. When times were tough, I noticed everything from car parts to brewing supplies becoming more expensive as fewer products were in demand. Not sure if this would apply to reefkeeper or not but my 2 cents.

 

[Marquiseo]

To expand further, most of the companies are using MAP pricing, which puts a leash on retailers. Retailers do not have the flexibility to make sales, legally. So if a company wants to sell an $800 controller at MAP pricing, retailers have no choice but sell it at that point. Retailers are pretty much enforcing their inflated price for them.