What factors determines the price of corals?
 

Hi
I wanted to know if anyone has insight into what determines the price of corals? I know that lfs will have their own margins and markups to make as well as overheads costs that factor in, but what other factors make up the price in general? Rarity? Location?

For example I went to a
Lfs where they were selling zoos for 5-10$ a head, but they also had a cluster of 25 zoos for $25.00 and when I asked why some were more expensive than others, the owner said that was the distributor prices them so they do the same.

If One were to for example, sell frags of corals how would one determine the price?

Pricing
 

One thing I've learned quickly about this hobby is pricing is clearly connected too demand. The more you want it the more they charge you. Only thing that's consistent is hardware pricing.

In my opinion, pretty much all along the supply chain the answer to this is simply: Supply and Demand.

Low supply and high demand equals $$$$$

The nicer it looks, and the more you want it, the more its gonna cost ya :mrgreen:

It has a lot to do with location of collection. "Rare" doesn't necessarily mean it's rare in the wild, just rare in the hobby. Sometimes corals are collected only from one location that's hours away from a collection farm. For propagated corals, like many Zoas, the price is often based on demand and also the speed that the Zoas grow. Some Zoas are painfully slow growing, and thus the price will always remain relatively high. Newly discovered color combinations often start at a high price, but are faster growing, so once hey get spread around a bit the price will drop.

IMO to answer the OP question, it's greed from hobbyists and keeping the doors open for the retailers.

Thanks for your help answering my question, where would someone like me who's still relatively new to the hobby go to find out if they're getting their money's worth when purchasing a coral? Do you guys have any website referrals?

definitely local reefers just make sure you dip your corals first :)

I agree somewhat with this as many fellow reefers do price decently but there are some that are just plain greedy and think just because they found a website with a stupid high price that they should ask that much. Personally I prefer selling thing for a much more reasonable price regardless of what the masses say.