Retail Pecking Order

[Kalkbreath]

You cant mean suitcases?
You cant sneak a siutecase full of anything wet onboard in todays airports.
Perhaps you are insinuating they are being snuck into the county the same way a person seeks in something into a prison ?
Wow?I knew wholesalers were tight about giving up the acans...but do you really think there are hundreds of these corals being carried in the underbelly of shady importers?
Maybe what we need is acan sniffing body cavity dogs in the boarding area of U.S. In bound air flights?
How long can an acan last with a colon as the holding vessel?
How awkward would re-oxing be inside those tiny airplane rest rooms?
Do they have a mile high club for such a feat?

Its not that easy sneaking wet stuff onto air planes now with the increased screening and no liquid polices.
Can you bring water or liquids as "carry on leaving" from Japan/China to the USA other then in your intestines?
You cant from Hawaii, not even in the checked luggage.

 

[Kalkbreath]

double post

 

[Kalkbreath]

sorry did I say double post ?
I ment to say triple post.

 

[Anonymous]

They were doing pre liquid ban (for carry on) in their checked in luggage, no joke. Not wholesalers, individuals

 

[Anonymous]

If it were that rampant (sneaking in corals), then you would see more of them on the market.

I see them all over the place, but I surf the web professionally :lol: I also follow the threads on the various trendy corals and what nots, on many forums. They usually produce some nice eye candy

The majority seem to be private "dealers" or boutique websites, but I've been seeing more and more on larger sites.

 

[Kalkbreath]

They have been coming in from Dinar, Kupang, Timor, and Tonga for years.
Whats currently different , is that the customers(brick and mortars) that used to buy these up in years past (like me) have long since stopped , due to the simple fact that Brick and mortars cant really turn them lie they once could.
Like I said before, a one inch frag looks really nice on your computor.
But in a retail store display its looks silly.
in the store Newbies laugh in your face when told that its 80 bucks.
And newbies are what its all about.
Even on the web, newbies are where the money is.
The doctors and MD are prime examples of how the bread and butter customers make up in volume .... a market thats stable and not based on the newest illegal import craze.
Here in Atlanta I bet the 25 local brick and mortars did 50 thousand bucks in live animals last week ..... how many acans and micros would have to sell on the web to begin to compare with the volumes of basic corals and fish the nations 5000 brick and mortars sell each week?

 

[Anonymous]

Your confused. I was takling about Asian corals that we're being "CITES washed" thru indo. Quit changing lanes with out using you blinker Kalk, geesh. You almost killed that poor lady :lol:

 

[JeremyR]

Late to the discussion.. the whole premise for this thread is invalid. Anyone can get those corals.. they aren't all being funneled to a couple of lame etailers. Kalk is actually pretty much right for once.. a tiny acan frag looks great on a 17" screen, but not nearly so awesome in a retailers fish tank. I can't tell you how many local people I've seen post pics of an etail awesome frag they paid crazy money for when they had recently overlooked something I had that was 1/4 the price and nicer. I hate the whole name pimping thing too.. but like a prev poster, when we had the "green people eaters" they only sold because of that name.. otherwise they are blah ugly polyps that nobody would notice. You can have killer orange zoas, but if don't call them something related to fire, they aren't leaving the building. People are lemmings, and more interested in name dropping & what other people think is cool than in what will actually make their tank look nice. They complain to me about my prices, then go online and pay double that for a photoshopped tiny piece with a name thought up while someone was dropping acid.

 

[Anonymous]

Late to the discussion.. the whole premise for this thread is invalid.

ding ding ding !

8)

 

[Anonymous]

I can't stand it either but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will change anytime soon.

I once has a purple acanthastrea for MONTHS. All I was asking for it was what I needed, something like $40 for it. Wasn't sold to me as anything special so I didn't pay anything special and it was huge. Almost softball size. When I changed my site, I put it back up for $105 and slapped a name on it. Sold the very next day.

Heh. Exactly the perfect illustration of the phenomenon. I agree with you, I don't think it will change anytime soon, either. Too many of my fellow hobbyists are all too ready to buy into hype.

I recently had an sps that had the same color scheme as what is now dubbed "pokerstar" (wtf do these people come up with the names).

Tell me about it. Ever seen Radioactive Reverse Gorilla Nipples? I'm not kidding.

I notice wholesalers are getting in on it too lately.

Yeah. I wish I could blame them, but I can't. I blame the consumer for buying into it.

Have you noticed the naming of live rock?

New from Walt!

Tonga Nuku Fusion Rock

 

[Anonymous]

Just ran across that name today as a matter of fact!

 

[sdcfish]

The naming is an odd phenomena, but we as wholesalers have been challenged at times to find names for the new items which we receive.

We named a Tonga rock "Tonga Fusion" about a year ago when we found some awesome pieces of branch rock that had all "fused" together into a clump. We asked the supplier to seperate all that type of rock and send it to us as "Fusion". It's really nice, but somewhat limited.

The acropora naming goes all the way back to the beginning when Steve Tyree would help us unpack the first shipments of acropora coming in from Fiji. He started naming them immediately.....I remember "Purple Monster" as one of the firsts......now it's out of control and I can't keep up.

Happy holidays everyone!

 

[bookfish]

I agree the whole naming thing is boggling to me too. Without any solid standards it seems pointless. Except for marketing purposes of course.

 

[Piero]

I still have my doubts that price point and perceived risk are adequate explanations for high-demand livestock mostly appearing at small newcomer etail sites though. The big playes have the financial resources and the high-demand LPS stuff is hardy, not risky really. The guarantee of astronomical markeups should negate any minimal risk...certainly if the small boutiques online can risk it, a bigger operation can...
_________________
bank bailout

 

[JeremyR]

I don't think you are getting the point.. you put a $200 acan in most retail stores, and it doesn't sell or sells slowly. Photoshop it, and put it online and you can get $500 for the same piece in a much faster time frame. If another 50 LFS stores say the same thing, I get the feeling you will still think there is some kind of LPS conspiracy. Let's call it "acan-gate".

 

[Piero]

um, nope I'm mostly referring to large online players, not necessarily brick and mortar. And regardless, what's stopping any brick and mortar store owner from throwing stuff up online or on ebay real quick and taking advantage... just as any small time player would. You're saying bigger volume players like dr. foster, Reefermadness and Dr. Mac arent interested in the high demand stock?

Bigger operations have more financial muscle to get high demand product, and yet it finds its way to niche dealers...very odd I think, especially dealing with species that have restrictions on them. With species that are so often smuggled, like acans and micros, you'd think there would be more of an interest in an accountable chain of custody. Unfortunately greed takes its tole in the form of supplier secrecy, which makes accountability seem almost impossible.
_________________
economic recession

 

[Anonymous]

um, nope I'm mostly referring to large online players, not necessarily brick and mortar. And regardless, what's stopping any brick and mortar store owner from throwing stuff up online or on ebay real quick and taking advantage... just as any small time player would. You're saying bigger volume players like dr. foster, Reefermadness and Dr. Mac arent interested in the high demand stock?

I think the larger players are starting to play.
I think B&M's don't play too much in this area because its hard and it takes time. Its easy to make an initial splash, but most don't have the resources to run two businesses.

 

[dizzy]

I tend to agree with Piero that something seems strange about this. It just seems logical that the reason the big guys are shying away from the Acan-designer corals has something to do with shady chain of custody issues. I remember asking one of my suppliers why he didn't have these and he told me most of the really nice ones were illegally brought into the country. Yeah you can get some decent green and reds ones that appear to be legal, but the really exotic looking ones do not seem as easy for dealers like me to get, as others suggest. If the exotic colors are just a photoshop creation it would be a very poor long term strategy for a "good doctor" to employ. It just makes absolutely no sense for a company that has a very profitable legal business to take chances on this "questionable" stuff. But then again we have seen a few transgressions from companies we probably would have felt would have been above such things. 8O

 

[JeremyR]

THat's just plain silly.. even with clariongate, there wasn't really any major fallout to retailers who bought and sold the fish. Acan-gate is a myth. I've bought acans from at least 5 different wholesale sources, one of which is probably the biggest big boy on the block. Any mom & pop can purchase acans if they want to spend the coin, but for various reasons it doesn't make sense for them to do so. If you want to spend 2-300 bux wholesale, I can tell you where you can get some trippy stuff mitch (I bet you are or have bought from them too) .. but I"m guessing you aren't willing to do that and your 'supplier' probably knows it.

 

[dizzy]

THat's just plain silly.. even with clariongate, there wasn't really any major fallout to retailers who bought and sold the fish.

Maybe it's a Karma thing. Bad deeds get repaid in kind.



If you want to spend 2-300 bux wholesale, I can tell you where you can get some trippy stuff mitch (I bet you are or have bought from them too) .. but I"m guessing you aren't willing to do that and your 'supplier' probably knows it.

Go ahead and PM the source. The ones I see offered are like the ones attached pictures.
Mitch