Awesome that you jumped in Ian, and again I wasn't trying to single out the retailer as I'm well aware that sometimes you guys don't have any choice. I ran a business myself so I know all about slim margins and overhead and I appreciate that you guys don't necessarily always get to choose your pricing

I'll take a line to acknowledge that you guys and a couple of other retailers really do try to cut the costs and are not necessarily the root of all evil :)

But... Niche market or not, those prices are crazy for something that probably cost $3.00 to manufacture (if that), and no one will convince me that shipping one of those things costs more then $10 or $15. Essentially it's a rigid Canadian tire Juice Jug with a straw.

A large part of the blame falls on us for buying it, but I do shudder a little every time I hear of another product becoming "Exclusive" to one distributor or another or one retailer or another... to me that's just an opportunity for the consumer to pay more. Good for the manufacturer but pretty poor for us (again keeping it general and not trying to bash anybody!)

That's more than I paid for my 40" 1080p LCD Sony television... crazy

That is $500 less then I paid for my TWO 50" plasma TV's.........things that make a person say WTF.:biggrin:

Roger that! Stores like Oceanic and my own are in existence because of a passion for the hobby...not a passion for money. There are plenty of better careers that I could come up with that would make me more money. I can't think of anything I would enjoy more than this, however.

I have friends in other retail industries with average margins who commonly and jokingly refer to this industry as a non-profit society! :lol:

If somebody is making a lot of money on this stuff, it's not the competitive retailer.

This is interesting. Im also curious of the end cost of a t5 bulb. Saying that, I feel like big buisness's, manufacturers, and those market analysts have made the value of a dollar about 10 cents. So a litre of gas thats going for 6 cents in some parts of the world(what its actually worth) is 107 cents here. The sad part is that, like the guys here are saying, there not offered the actual prices either so they do there best to offer us a fair price to be able to keep the hobby going. Unless your talking to your boss about wages. Then that dollar has more value then gold. :lol: Just my 2 cents.

toilets are expensive becuse they last so long. so spread out over 25 years they are cheep :mrgreen:

Volume. A 14K MH bulb is something that doesn't have a lot of application outside our hobby so the production volume on them is low (relatively speaking) so costs are somewhat higher.

On the business side, we as hobbyists 'demand' a 14K colour temperature so the manufacturers oblige -at a price. We pay that price so the beat goes on.

In defense of the LFS, they need to make money too. In fact, if they didn't, they wouldn't exist and we'd have nowhere to run to when we have a tank crash on a Saturday afternoon. No one likes to pay more than they need to for something but a good LFS will provide value beyond the product itself with good advice. Many of them have been known to take-in sick fish or provide a holding tank in an emergency. These are things that are hard to put a price on.

Finally, I know it's not everyone's thing but you should take a spin at making your own gear. It can be a challenge depending on what kind of tools you have but it's very rewarding -and you get to make something *exactly* the way you want.

Lol for me that IS the real problem...or maybe WAS. Someone in Germany or Italy has already made everything far better than I could (and exactly how I want it haha).

Gotta support LFS like you said. I've gotten help or equipment (sometimes stuff that was used in the store) in a pinch when I had no other local and fast options. These relationships are worth much more than the little bit extra you might pay.