Sorry guys, been busy, MIA...
Carribean's pretty bad, the two stores in the Tonawanda's (Buffalo area) are by far better choices to receive any frags or unwanted corals you have. Call the Fish Place ahead of time and ask when to come in, they'll actually hand you greenbacks out of the till. Chucker's story is 100% true and is the epitome of their business practices. I hate to slam them like this but have been burned as well... They claim to pay 1/3rd in Store credit, what they think they can sell it for... but frequently claim they can sell it for less than what it's being sold for the next day... Kinda gets you when you're using your store credit on overpriced products to begin with. They don't barter much (take it or leave it policy on trade 'Prices'), and do get an arm and a leg for what they have (like Chucker said, our Canadian friend went there and still thought it was cheap). However I will say in their favor, I know of one guy that gets 50% on trade-ins, and their store is by far, the nicest looking store I've been in. Everything is impeccably clean, they have a "Coffee Shop" atmostphere to it... Nice place to go and visit, A couple of the people that you see working there are actually very nice and pretty knowledgable.
Chucker and I both know one of the guys working the SW section at Pets Plus in Lockport, and I've been to SW Paradise numerous times. The Fish Place is a really good shop too, but seems very business like to me (one of the biggest shops (FW mostly) in the area, almost like an importer it seems sometimes). With the weather being the way it is, I'd suggest bringing a cooler, although both TFP and SW Paradise have given me styro coolers free in the past ('course I dropped 100+ bucks USD those days ;-).
If you're thinking of coming Stateside and making it as far as Rochester, I'd be happy to get together and swap some frags if you like. I've got a fair assortment of SPS we could work something out on, and with our club meetings (might be the best idea for a trip up here), you've got access to a ton of coral frags. Watch for posts to the Eastern Trading forum for our next meeting, and if the Lake Effect isn't too bad, consider making the trip!
- Mac
