Man did I screw myself or what?

[J4Life]

I think I made a really bad mistake. I recently traded a ricordia florida rock to my LFS and said that it was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 only to find out the Phishybusiness is selling one for $200 bucks.

Check out the link:

http://www.phishybusiness.com/ricordia.php

Its the blue ric rock on the left.

My rock had about 30 ric's on it. Here is a picture of it.

http://the-gerrards.no-ip.com/images/reef-tank/resized/ricrock.jpg


Man I feel like kicking my own @ss after this.....:blown:


Bill:mad2:

[porky]

How much credit did they give you for it?

[J4Life]

Around $50 bucks or so! I know that I can't expect to get anymore than half the value. My LFS's won't go any higher. I am working on that though.


I told them that my rock was worth about $80 to $100 retail. Eventhough I pretty much screwed myself I did leave there with what I wanted.

I got to corals, a fire shrimp, and a porcelain crab.


Of course I could have gotten more if I new that it was worth $200 clams!



Bill

[tng2538]

You usually only get 1/2 price for stuff if you take it to the store. You would have to sell it yourself if you want closer to retail price.

[J4Life]

I wasn't looking for retail price, but I was looking to get half the value. So if the rock is really worth $200 retail I lost $50 bucks on the exchange and that really sucks!


I guess that's a hard lesson learned. Then again maybe Phishybusiness is just way over priced.

Has anyone else looked at or bought stuff from them and felt that they were getting a good deal?

Thanks,
Bill

[porky]

Then again maybe Phishybusiness is just way over priced
NAH! Phishy Business usually has the best prices on the web!
You definately screwed yourself by under estimating the value of the rock. It would probably "retail" close to $200.
However, if you get half the retail from your LFS I want to start taking my corals there. We have a couple of fish stores that buy stuff locally but none give more than 1/4 the retail value some only give 1/5 the retail value. So if you were in our neck of the woods and you got the value right you would still have only got $50 store credit. At most!
So I think you made out okay.
I think you always do better dealing with a hobbyist and getting a trade or sell that way.
Ever try Ebay? Some of the prices those guys get for stuff is amazing! Especially zoo's and rics some guys make a killing!

[Bass Master]

Fish Safari sells green rics for $10 apiece and blues for $20 apiece. Orange also for $20 apiece. Not that this does you any good cuz' this store is in Va. beach, just a reference for next time.

[J4Life]

Bassmaster,
At $20 a piece my rock would have been worth $600 bucks. They are definitely ripping you off there.

Porky,
The LFS here where I live will do half the value towards store credit or cash, so yeah I shouldn't complain, but man it would be nice to have another coral.

I am going to make out pretty good though. Getting ready to cut my leather into some frags. They give $6 bucks for every frag. I should be taking about 10 of them in for credit in the next couple of weeks.

My one leather is capable of paying for the support of my tank. This thing grows pretty quickly and from what I understand they grow even faster after they have been fragged.

Bill

[mikeshook]

I live in Winston. What LFS (I only know of one) did you go to? Maybe next time, I would be willing to buy frags and etc....
Mike

[J4Life]

mikeshook,
I went to the Aquarium Center located in Kernersville off of Hwy 66.


Nice selection of stuff. Working on the prices though. They are willing to try and compete with online etailers and places that have things they sell cheaper.


Bill

[mikeshook]

Thanks Bill. That's where I shop now. I buy my water there, and recently he matched MarineDepot's price for Power Compacts. I tend buy frags mostly, but I find his frag prices too high. Still though I can't find something better in the Triad.

[cyclgrl]

You can always get more if you sell the rics individually to hobbyists than the rock as a whole. Sum of the parts being greater than the whole and all that. But of course that takes time.

[J4Life]

cyclgrl,
I agree with your statement. At the time though I was wanting to make room in my tank. I still have some blue rics and they divide fast so I will have more for fragging again soon.


Bill:)

[Putawaywet]

But didn't you say you got what you wanted in return?

I mean, you needed to make room, got what you wanted and were (and I'm guessing here) relatively happy and satisfied with your new aquisitions on the way home. Wasn't that that the outcome you were hoping for when you left home?

I know they say hind sight is 20/20 but sounds like you got stuff you are happy with?

Brett

[Daddyo]

A quick question on Ric's, since yours are doing so well. Do you spot feed them? I feed phyto to the whole tank every week, just never spot feed the rics anything.

[J4Life]

Putawaywet,
Yeah I wasn't upset with the LFS, I was upset with my own stupidity. Its ok though I did get what I was looking for so there is a silver lining here.

The lesson learned though is check all available resources first.

Daddyo,
I really am not sure why they grow so quick. For along while I quit using phyto and they still grew. I am not certain that phyto will help them, but it does help other things grow.

I do not spot feed them. I do however dump about 3 froze cubes of food on M,W,F's and then feed Golden Pearls in the 5-50 micron size. I have also started feeding Cyclop-eeze as well. I am also now adding 6 drops in the morning and evening's of Tahitian Blend phyto from www.brineshrimpdirect.com

I will be growing my own phyto again very soon and will be adding that as well.

HTH's,
Bill:)

[szwab]

what did the lfs end up selling the rock for?

[J4Life]

szwab I don't know. I haven't been there since Saturday.

[seahorsie]

Well I tried selling a florida ricordea on e-bay - it had over 30 polys. The colors were reverse - green/blue w/purple edges. I placed a reserve on it for $175 - it didn't even get past $50 bucks.
So you never really know.

Here's one that killed me - I had a zoo's on ebay. I had a version of the ppe but mini - the frag was about 1x2 in size. I stated that this was the closest you would come to getting the real thing. I even posted a picture on reefcentral to make sure they were not the mini ppe (according to you guys they were not). So I placed them with a reserve of $80. They didn't sell, top dollar was $53.
The highest bidder contacted me afterwards and I let it go for $53. Three days after she rec'd it - she used my picture and placed it on ebay - stating they were PPE, they sold for over $200.

[J4Life]

I am sorry to hear that. Especially that some lied and made a profit. People can be unbelieveable.

I am not familiar with the term PPE. Can you give me the definition?

Thanks,
Bill

[szwab]

PPE - purple people eaters


--- no biggie I was just curious what price the LFS would sell them for.

[J4Life]

Makes sense now............Duh! I don't know George. Which way do I go, which way do I go.

Having a Friday moment..:lol:


Thanks,
Bill:p

[TwoValveKid]

Originally posted by J4Life
Bassmaster,
At $20 a piece my rock would have been worth $600 bucks. They are definitely ripping you off there.


They are 8 bucks a piece at that shop. And a rock with 405978208 polyps on it is going to be cheaper per polyp to the shop. Think of it like buying in wholesale.

Plus...if the shop is going to sell it for 200 bucks...then 100 bucks for it is normal. Just doing business :)

[J4Life]

TwoValveKid,
I am sorry, but making a 100% profit is not normal by my standards. If every business marked things up that high no one would be able to afford things.. Plus not to mention that it definitely has moral implications, but hey greed is everything to some people. I wasn't complaining about what they gave me. I was complaining about my ignorance.


Thanks,
Bill

[TwoValveKid]

Thats normal in every fish store ive been in all over the place...you usually get half "Store credit" or half cash...hhmm

[lacie143]

the sites can charge higher prices because they are selling to a much large and often more wealthy demographic. Foe example, my lfs had a powder brown achillies hybrid that they sold for 100 eventhough it is worth like 300 because it was better for them to sell in a month rather than wait forever until someone with that kind of money and that desire to buy that particular fish to come along. We also have a purple ric that is $69. Its been there for about 4 months. We can't selll it for anyless because thats about what we paid for it. i've seen rocks like yours go for about 80 locally.

One more example, i bought a favia brain at a lfs for $40 that someone else bought on liveaquaria (more or less identical) for 250. Its a matter of what you can get. Don't feel bumed. I'd only feel bad if ur lfs actually sold it for 200 and gave you 50