I mean the likes of Paletta, Sanjay and others that have written articles and or participated in videos and I guess I am pooling them into the group of self righteous vendors.
If plugging all the name brands and stores has been done absolutely free of charge I would be surprised. I realize that with being located at Pratt, the many years your tank has been up and the swap also being held there you have probably met them and very well know them. I am basing my opinion on their videos and articles I read. A lot of branding and brand pushing, if that was done for free than I guess many should be thankful with them.
Again, since you may know them I will recognize that they have taken the time to share.
That's what I meant.
Reef Builders is another site that simply introduces new products, its like the 2 a.m. infomercial. You just have to review archived articles to see how many products they introduce and make an attempt to hype and the product flops or ends up being useless.
Now, if you do know them and you are stating that the live goods that I have seen being sold with the name Sanjay or Paletta was not of their own doing, than I much further understand your response.
Cherry Corals, Corn Bread, Jason Fox, Unique Corals, Reef Raft and all the other stores and or coral fraggers that buy basically from the same wholesalers come up with ridiculous names are part of the reason why Paletta wrote the article in the first place. When frags are going to cost $300 for 1" it becomes very hard to share at random.
I am not opposed to a business making profit, I am critical of exxagerated and or deceptive marketing campaigns that prey on human impulses such as the use of credit cards and impulse shopping to market and sale a coral that should have a retail value of $300, photo shop it a bit, hype it and market it as a collector's piece for $1200.
Yes, there are truly hard to get pieces that rightly so command a high price, take a look at the internet websites and forums and tell me if there should be so many "rare" pieces and digitally edited pieces.
Anyway, the bone I had to pick is that brand pushing is usually done for commissions or product gifts.
If I am way off then I am way off but I have seen and read the brand pushing attempts AND I have seen on the internet the personal naming of corals.
Mike Paletta has never been a "dealer " or vendor, nor did he name anything after himself. If others decide to name a coral they got from him in his honor and as a way to identify lineage that is not self branding nor of the authors doing. I'm also not sure who you are referring to that you don't like as you use he and they in the same sentence. Do you mean Paleta, Reefbuilders or all authors?
Jim, very nice gesture.