Andy, one point others have brought up is the the difference between calling it a pinwheel zoa ($1 pp or less) or a JF Stargazer Zoa (10-20$pp from him or second hand stores). Members have sold them for $3-5pp but still.... it is the same thing. JF didn't get a different variety or morph the google images for both look the same imo.
That is driving up the cost of cheaper corals more than anything. When what used to be cheap is rebranded to "luxury" it drives the cost up. Example... Lexus is the same company as Toyota. But Lexus gets a higher price for their brand and slight upgrades. Inside both are the same hardware. Maybe that is a bad analogy but I feel some of the prices are solely because they are the ones selling it.
Tim,
If someone is willing to pay a higher price for the same exact coral from a vendor they trust, I don't see the problem. And I certainly don't see how this drives overall prices higher. I have corals from Jason Fox. They look exactly the same in person as they do online, contrary to what some people (usually people that later admit to never having seen his corals) claim. I know that some vendors misrepresent what they are selling, so I would rather deal with someone I trust.
But I highly doubt that anyone that sees an amazing Homewrecker from a club member's tank that has the same exact coloration as the Homewrecker direct from JF is going to pay a premium to JF over the club member. The point is that people want to know what they are actually buying, and the appearance and health is what matters, not a brand name.
I would agree that paying 20x for the same coral from JF seems like an egregious difference, but JF is not driving overall coral pricing higher. I would wager any amount of money that the vendor at $1 per polyp is doing much higher volume than Jason. Jason Fox is probably 0.001% market share of the coral market. He cannot drive pricing higher. I realize JF is just an example, but the market is very fragmented...this is not an industry with a dominant player with pricing power. Quite frankly this entire argument is kind of absurd.
How many of the vendors charging $1 for the zoa will be in business a year from now? History seems to clearly say not many. When I first joined this club years ago, there were dozens of members selling coral from their home - not as a way to help members, but as an attempt at making money. That number today I am pretty sure is zero, or maybe one.
Vendors online disappear all the time.
The car analogy isn't a great one because the lines are far different than they used to be. They are not just re-badged cars - generally speaking.
And besides, if you took a brown Acropora Tenius (same species, like same chassis), but gave it purely a cosmetic upgrade (what you say the automakers do), a Homewrecker is clearly more valuable than the brown acro.
I can't prove this, but my very strong suspicion is that these conversations are driven more by envy and an attitude of entitlement (i.e. I want that coral, so I deserve it) than anything else.
Raising attractive corals is a very hard business. The people with poor looking tanks in this club should know that! And this is not directed at anyone in particular