where is the best place to sell a rare fish?
 

ive got a rare moray eel, Gymnothorax australicola, and im wondering where is the right place to sell. im NOT selling it on this thread, im just wondering where i could go to find how much its worth, or where i would find a collector who would be interested in it. again im not selling now, pls no offers

No idea myself. You should see what J&L would offer it maybe.

In the meantime: dude!! stop holding out on us! More pictures please!!

That's the one you found hiding in your rock? The hitch hiker? You got a positive ID?

If it is so rare as somebody said, maybe you should look more to an aquarium or scientific group.

A free hitch hiker like this one could be benificial to study as opposed to just cash in on. If it is rare at all.

Just my opinion.

I assume you won't sell it here as everyone knows you got it free. :P. Hard to mark up that price.

im getting a few more professional opinions with regards to its ID. It has bulked up quite a bit since ive started feeding it so i will certainly add some pics when the lights turn on today. i also agree that an aquarium or scientific group (as long as theyre not goin to disect it) would be the best option. everything really hinges on getting a few more pro opinions about its ID. the people at J&L keep asking me how much its worth so im getting curious.

I'm totally jealous of your Eel story. I think it's such a cool hitchhiker and now to find out that he might be rare is the icing on the cake. I'd loooooooooove to have him in my tank.

here's a snap shot of an importer's wholesale list for eels.

Mark up in retail is typically cost + freight + box charges + permits + currency conversion, then 3x to 5x for lower value items, and 2x to 3x for higher value items. In addition to landed costs, this covers overhead (electricity, rent, taxes, wages, food, salt, losses in shipment) and provides a decent margin. The aquarium fish business is a low volume high margin business (unlike commodities such as groceries, fuel etc).

I'm going to guess that the higher value eels are both rare and ornate. For one that is simply brown, I'll guess it's in the $10 to $20 wholesale range simply because wholesalers have no interest in holding inventory that can die... but rather want to turnover stock as quickly as possible. I'll qualify my estimate as my opinion only, but as opinion from one having worked in wholesale marine sales management.

i couldnt get any pics up because i cant find camera - computer chord. Stillwaiting on a second opinion from J&L (i sent them pics but i didnt say WWM crew thought it was G. australicola, so well see what their un-influenced opinion is).
...and it isnt simply brown, the pictures dont do it justice to real life, its realy quite beatiful in colour: some angles its brown and some angles its shiny (maybe slimy) green. and its grown about an inch in legnth, and a little in head-size and girth, since i moved it into a 50g tank on his own. its also much more curious and active now with regular bi-weekly feeding.

That's ridiculous. If I found a nugget of gold or a platinum meteorite in my backyard, it would still be worth market value regardless of how I acquired it.

Well, what's important is what it's worth to yourself. I have a dog that cost a few hundred dollars but I wouldn't sell him for thousands. Same idea. What it's worth to the market is different than its value to you. For something like this, there's not really a fair market value to the masses. It reminds me of the Auction Hunters episode where they found rocket parts... it was only worth something to so few people that to most other people... it was paper weight. (yes, I know that show is rigged)

If you're really wanting to explore further, you can contact some of the bigger wholesalers. There's also many trans-shippers who don't tank inventory, but instead, coordinate shipments from exporters in origin countries with buyers in North America. Who knows, maybe you have that one fish that some obscure public aquarium has been seeking...

Here's some of the bigger wholesale importers (not all of equal integrity, quality) you could look up and seek a contact to email your picture.

PS they don't sell to public, you need a business license / tax exemption certificate.

California (will deal in lots of Pacific stuff)
http://www.seadwelling.com/
http://www.qualitymarine.com/
http://companies.findthecompany.com/...-in-Gardena-CA
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-news...ow-tanked.aspx

Florida
http://www.segrestfarms.com/

Canadian
http://www.mirdo.com/
http://www.profilecanada.com/company...Mississauga_ON

heres some new pics, as requested (more feeding-time pics also the tank i keep it in)
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/DSC00922.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/DSC00920.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/DSC00917.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/DSC00924.JPG
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...m/DSC00925.JPG
sorry its alot of the same but its hard to lure him out with one hand a snap a shot with the other, also hes still a bit wary about being completely out of the rocks

I hope that's not the tank he was hiding in for so long. :P

no, thats the 50g one i bought after i caught it in my 120g w/ 100lbs LR.