LA Cherry Picker Wanted.

[born2reef]

Bryan of Blowfishaquatics started this thread and I would like to add my 0.02:

Every little guy with 2 or 3 tanks is trying to make extra money by selling their proud and joy frags to support their hobby. However, when someone like Bryan take the extra step to make it a real business by selling out of their basement then I have a problem with that. Hobbyiest like Bryan are the real step backward in this hobby. Somehow, they got a hold of a a wholesaler/transshipper in L.A and started selling corals that they don't even know their names :roll:. I read what I stated above on another BB and I totally agree.

The problem with this industry is everyone's responsibilty which starts from the wholesaler and ends up with the hobbyiest. Shame on the wholesaler who is trying to make a fast buck.

 

[born2reef]

sorry douple post

 

[Anonymous]

I'm bringing this thread back from the dead.

I'd like to hire a jobber to personally cherry-pick stuff for me.

Me, personally.

I have a 180 to fill at my new house.

:lol:



Peace,

Chip

 

[fishinchick]

Keep in mind that sales reps at many wholesalers (One I know of in particular) keep 'hold' tanks in their offices and before the doors open they go thru the warehouse and put the really 'cherry' stuff aside to hold for their LFS' that order every week. This ensures that along with your 'regulars' b/b order they get a few really stellar pieces of coral.

I myself would go out and cherry pick for clients that ordered bread and butter stuff every week. The bigger the client/bigger the order/the more good stuff they got with their b/b. Reputable sales reps with a clue know that it's the LFS that orders every week that deserve to get first pick of the nice stuff. I'd rather spread the wealth than give it all to one person to undercut the very store that supports me.

Do you realize that for every cherry item a wholesaler buys they have to ALSO buy 15 or 20 bread and butter items too? So if you run around and grab all the nicest stuff, what is there to entice anyone to buy the brown stuff?

 

[Anonymous]

If you're with the company I think you're with, I have to say that I think your reps do about fairest job of "spreading the wealth" I've seen. Especially since I also saw folks from a local doing their own picking. Good job.

 

[fishinchick]

Heh. I'm sure you are probably guessing right. Most of our reps do a very good job at holding things for the clients and making sure that our out of state stores get nice things too.

 

[Kalkbreath]

What kind of items are we looking for ? Whats a cherry?

 

[clarionreef]

Reefchick,
I applaud your efforts to be fair and honest to the retailers who keep you in business. No wait...isn't that just common sense? Maybe you stand out for doing whats intelligent because there are others who will sell a single box at the airport to turn a buck.
For many years, I had the record for kicking out dozens of cherrypickers and non bonafide dealers in LA. Perhaps you guys will now beat it.
It wasn't so much against them but more FOR the real dealers who stand with you in the slow times, the summer and despite the 'turn em and burn em' transhippers that lurk under the airfrieght loading docks.
Once a cherrypicker asked why I didn't just buy only cherries and not all the other stuff. Only an innocent member of the public has a right to be so out of touch w/ the very product that sustains us. No bonafide dealer could ever be so dense as to ask why divers and mother nature don't only produce the very hardest to get and most coveted items ...in quantity..
Sincerely, Steve

 

[Kalkbreath]

Thats because 99% of all corals are brown! Take a look at Jen Veron "Corals of the world" Three part book , even most of the acros in that book are un sellable in a retail store because they are brown! Thats why its silly to think coral collection can harm the reefs. While we might remove the brite colored corals ......ninty nine percent are never even given a second look. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Take a lok at CITES quotas, thats where the cherry issue really heats up. Theres only so many brightly colorred corals available to all, whether you sell etail, retail, wholesale, tranship, export, import or collect coral. If you want flower pots/goniapora, I think your in luck, they are by far the one with the largest quotas, BY FAR.

Kalk, J.E.N. Veron photographed the corals in those books for id purposes, not exactly for brightly colorred one of a kind morphs, which doesn't really help id'ing corals now does it? But your right. most of the reefs are browm. So you locally wipe out the desirable colorred species, and from a far, and your left with what?

 

[Anonymous]

If you're with the company I think you're with, I have to say that I think your reps do about fairest job of "spreading the wealth" I've seen. Especially since I also saw folks from a local doing their own picking. Good job.

I disagree. Our rep from said company sucks. What a jerk.



Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

What kind of items are we looking for ? Whats a cherry?

If it's the feminine kind you're talking about, and you're the same personality in person as you are on here, you will probably never see one...



Peace,

Chip

 

[JennM]

He's quite quiet in person - almost humble even Unless that was his evil twin I met last year...

Chip - ya gotta know who to buy from. "Big Boxes R Us" just doesn't cut it.

I kept getting stuff I don't carry (Goniopora, Dendronepthya, Cataphyllia) and junk even though I'd specify every time I'd order.

Now I get just what I order and nothing more... and in some cases I can see before I buy.

Delta still creates frags for me sometimes :roll: but that's their fault not the shipper.

There *is* a market for the brown corals... beginners don't want to spend a bundle on a fragile blue-tipped acro... they want to get their feet wet with mushrooms or leathers or brown button polyps.

Glenn made some interesting observations - people want "rare" stuff but as they prop it out and share it (orange Montipora capricornis for example, or Xenia), once everybody has some, it's no longer rare so they seek something else...

Everybody in ATL has some green Bali Slime acro that grows like an evil weed... now it's hard to get rid of around here. Ditto for green M. digitata...

It's all relative.

Jenn

 

[Anonymous]

He's quite quiet in person - almost humble even Unless that was his evil twin I met last year...

Weird...dual personality?

Chip - ya gotta know who to buy from. "Big Boxes R Us" just doesn't cut it.

Most of the time it does for me, but it's slowing down. I can't get things I got last year with the frequency and quantity I used to. Now that our clientele has doubled in size, I need it.

I kept getting stuff I don't carry (Goniopora, Dendronepthya, Cataphyllia) and junk even though I'd specify every time I'd order.

That doesn't happen to me at all. The only time I get something I didn't order is when it's supremely nice, which I like. It happens with one or two items per shipment, and I have no problems with that.

Now I get just what I order and nothing more... and in some cases I can see before I buy.

I love how Mary does that. She's great.

Delta still creates frags for me sometimes :roll: but that's their fault not the shipper.

Yeah, I know. I've had some large pieces turn into 5 or 6...

There *is* a market for the brown corals... beginners don't want to spend a bundle on a fragile blue-tipped acro... they want to get their feet wet with mushrooms or leathers or brown button polyps.

There is NO market for brown stuff here. Very very rarely does someone buy something brown, and that's usually when we're sold out of everything else and they buy the nicest brown piece we have. I know I sure as hell don't pimp the brown stuff.

Glenn made some interesting observations - people want "rare" stuff but as they prop it out and share it (orange Montipora capricornis for example, or Xenia), once everybody has some, it's no longer rare so they seek something else... Everybody in ATL has some green Bali Slime acro that grows like an evil weed... now it's hard to get rid of around here. Ditto for green M. digitata...

We don't have that kind of coral community here. Our buying radius is evenly spead out over 1.5 hours distance from the shop.

Peace,

Chip

 

[fishinchick]

Big Boxes R Us?

Jen:
If you don't like your sales rep and you repeatedly get junk you don't ask for and have specifically said you dont want - it is time to either run your rep thru the ringer OR ask for a new rep. I have had accounts that I didnt get along with or didn't get along with me.
We have 7 Sales reps at our place and each one has a different style. Do I agree with all of their styles? No. I'm a 'get your butt outta the seat and tell em whats really there' kinda girl. Others are the 'speculate what is there based on the day of the week vs. what was on the list monday vs. whats going to ship in tonite'. I don't dig that but if you don't say anything, nobody knows you arent happy. Nothing wrong with raising a little hell and letting your rep know that they arent doing a good job for you. A sales rep. is your eyes and ears. Don't dump a company because one person isnt getting off their settled can

Cortez:
That is precisely it. A client that has purchased thru me all summer when it was slow and ugly is one that I am more likely to give better stuff to. The more persistent you are as far as ordering goes - the more often any wholesaler is going to look upong you favorably. I have been asked on more than one occasion when sending three or four really stellar 'cherries' if the client was a big client or a steady buyer. It's natural to want to keep the good people comming back to you. I have to say that I went above and beyone 70% of my client load - about 30% of those people I would run ragged (even to the extent of them having my cell phone and home phone numbers in case of emergencies).

and Chip....

 

[JennM]

Big Boxes R Us is a generic term I use instead of naming names... those I no longer deal with know who they are.

Been there, tried that - complained, changed reps - in one place the rep got fired, then rehired, then fired or transferred again... the replacement sales person didn't know fish from corals, so I got Yellow Tangs instead of Yellow-Eyed tangs...

The other place, rep changed, quality stayed the same... crappy. They never admitted they had a problem with Vibrio (or any other problem - "Couldn't have been from us, we use UV"), even though I talked to other retailers who experienced the same thing, around the same time, and we all had that one vendor in common.

I'm a small mom and pop startup, so I got the dregs. Well now I've expanded and improved, I'm never going to be anybody's biggest client but I go where I'm treated like one

That and I do my best to support those who do their utmost NOT to support the cyanide trade.

Every week I get stock lists and phone calls from plenty who want my business, but I stick to those whom I have a good relationship with. My only regret is that I can't support each of them every single week, but I do support them as much as I can.

Jenn

 

[Anonymous]

Your support doesn't go unnoticed Jenn. I like shipping to nice people, they appreciate what they're recieving

 

[Kalkbreath]

What kind of items are we looking for ? Whats a cherry?

If it's the feminine kind you're talking about, and you're the same personality in person as you are on here, you will probably never see one...



Peace,

Chip

Thats not nice! Actually I was truely interested .....What are you looking for ? The market today has changed . What used to be a cherry is common place. Rose anemones , ultra arcos . Phonape clams , orange plates , Conspics .......hell even Clarion angels. Whats difficult to obtain in todays market?

 

[Anonymous]

Thats not nice! Actually I was truely interested .....What are you looking for ? The market today has changed . What used to be a cherry is common place. Rose anemones , ultra arcos . Phonape clams , orange plates , Conspics .......hell even Clarion angels. Whats difficult to obtain in todays market?

Well, as far as what's really difficult to obtain, I'll tell you what I have trouble finding :

show-size pieces of anything not brown
gem tangs (I want one, dammit!)
rhomboid wrasses (I want one, dammit!)
masked swallowtail angels (males, actually...I want one, dammit!)
any reef-safe angels (can't seem to get bellus or watanabei that much either)

I have a new 180 to fill, and the more I search for stuff I want, the more I don't find it.

Peace,

Chip

 

[lclau]

All this complaining about etailing. Why don't we just do away with the internet and any business that may be conducted via this manner. Pretty much, this is what all of you against it are saying. If you believe this, I hope you don't shop for a single item online, or else, you're pretty much a hypocrite

Lawrence