Unlimited Edition

[Slamajamajama]

Prattreef, You should be smacked on the hand for selling 2-3" Tyree Undata frags for $15 - how dare you!! :iamwithst

I agree with you Educator, I would never charge more for a frag that I paid for it from an MR member. This has been a motto of ours for any of our culturing corals. Stuff that is maricultured, then recultured is more difficult to price based on costs of maintaining and growing that coral into profitability - not very easy to do and often fails winding up as a loss - you'd be surprised how often this happens.

Wish we could have donated to your school this time around, but we just donated to the intermediate school in newark and gave them a bunch of frags at the swap - next time around, we'll hit you for stuff - and guess what, if you want, I'll charge you $15 for them so when they do grow out, you can make a few bucks back on it in the hopes you can sustain the tanks without having to worry about the schools budget reductions and how you're going to excite and stimulate your students with something unique as building and keeping an closed ecosystem like a natural reef. Yo're welcome to do this with whatever we donate to you - I would want more for the students than you having to give it away, but be reasonable about passing it on at a cost -

The etiquette of this is often muddied by the market forces that drive people into frenzies over "name brand importance" or collectors who just want it for the sake of having it.

Guess what, we have 5, yes, 5 Tyree watermelon chalices that we got on consignment from a reefer/customer - we'll be giving 2 of them away to deserved members and selling the other 2 keeping one for brood stock - the cost of growing these over the past year puts us at about even on cost - not a smart business modal, but now I'll have 2 resources to tap in the event we have a crash or need to redo our brood stock

There are ways to make this work, and at the same time be profitable - "hack and rack" is really only the true way to make money on it IMO.

Anyway, now I am babbling - feel free to call me anytime to talk about this stuff, I find it fascinating conversation and am still seeking a way to drive the costs down on culturing - By the way, this is exactly how MR started, with this very sentiment in mind.

House

ive got to come visit...

 

[Slamajamajama]

Just to clear up my position which I think has been slightly muddied-- I have no issue with hobbyists selling frags for reasonable prices, nor do I have issue with vendors selling livestock for whatever they think they can get for it. What I do question is hobbyists being caught up in the marketing hype of the collector mentality so common in the hobby today, not for the collecting itself, but because this orientation pushes people toward operating on the frag level never letting stuff grow out because you need to recoup your $$$$ so you can buy the next latest frag.

I originally jumped in on this thread simply to challenge the notion that the only stuff people give away for free is the cheap and easy stuff which I strongly contend is not the case. I think the point of this whole thread is to make people think a little more carefully about how they approach the hobby, what their priorities are and how they might re-think the notion that selling stuff is the only way to go. The truth is, as Sanjay and others have pointed out, a lot of hobbyists give stuff away all the time, and the historical fact is that this used to be the norm. I just think we can do a better job of foregrounding these facts and by doing so, help shift what amounts to a philosophical perspective on the hobby that IMO has drifted too far in one direction.

BTW, nice to see you back on the board Alfredo, we miss your contributions.

when i come with my pruners ill be sure to only snip high-end stuff....:tongue1:

 

[NYreefNoob]

pft slama got his gift already, no more chalices for him

 

[Slamajamajama]

pft slama got his gift already, no more chalices for him

okeey...lets see, Rick off the list...lol

 

[prattreef]

when i come with my pruners ill be sure to only snip high-end stuff....:tongue1:

You know I wouldn't have it any other way When are you coming?

 

[NYreefNoob]

:irked: with the growth rate of it that list will be a little while, mike ya deserved it anyways

 

[Slamajamajama]

You know I wouldn't have it any other way When are you coming?

thanks RD..Im away for a 5 day hike from greenwood lake to bear mnt, ill send you a pm when i return..(or if) ..lol

 

[NYreefNoob]

see could have brought me my frag since i live on bear mountain, but seeing you didnt if you get lost dont pm me lol

 

[Slamajamajama]

:irked: with the growth rate of it that list will be a little while, mike ya deserved it anyways

you know, its already fleshed over the sides, i think this piece will grow out quick, but your right, gonna want it to be big disc before any ideas of fragging...thxs rick, your back on the list...lol

 

[NYreefNoob]

u up my way lmk ya can stop by. im sure i might have a chalice or 3 ya aint got, got to wait a little for them to grow some myself . i live right by bear mountain ext

 

[sakura51707]

It's just a fact of life, especially in America, if you want something nice your gonna have to pay for it, why should the reefing hobby be different from any other hobby that's out there? Maybe at one point in time, before the explosion in popularity of the reefing hobby with the advent of the nano reef, which in turn made the hobby affordable to just about everyone, things were different, there was more of a sense of community and reefers traded high end corals more freely amongst themselves and charged less for frags. Times change, things change, people change, I totally understand peoples feelings, I too am a hobbyist but I also understand not everything stays the same

+1
Excellent points made. Agree 100%

 

[James]

how about at the next frag swap we have a separate and vibrant thread for actually swapping, not selling corals???

Next swap is almost here and the frags for sale threads will start popping up in a couple weeks:thrash:

So to start off the actual swap part of the swap I am offering to swap anything in my tank (check my tank thread). Scoly, orange hammer anything else that is in there (be use common sense in making offers, I don't want to trade my scoly for your brown zoas... that being said, nothing is out of bounds in my tank). I figure if a couple people post threads (similar to the for sale threads)of the coral they are willing to swap people can just shoot links to each others threads and make trade offers.

I will start a thread up with some close ups of my frags in a couple of weeks. Just to clear up, none of this stuff is available for sale so please don't pm me asking how much, if you like something, offer up something that is in your eyes, "equal." :beer:

James