Debate/Question- What makes certain corals so expensive/rare? (such as certain zoa color morphs, ie.)

[imarino326]

I've been wondering about this for sometime now, but what makes certain patterns and colors so rare/expensive? In the terms of zoanthids and palythoas, what makes a certain color morph so special? Or when it comes to acroporas and anacroporas; they look alike but you can find some really pricey ones. Why is that and what makes everything so unique/special/expensive/rare?

 

[Hemmdog]

Rare colors(orange, true yellow, etc.), contrasting colors, colors theme a pop culture figure, vendor who releases it, how much the coral illuminates under actinic/UV, species(rarely but occasionally), speed of reproduction/growth, hardiness(delicate corals tend to be more expensive, possibly due to the difficulty of propagating them)

I’m sure there are more reasons.

 

[KrisReef]

The money in your wallet makes the seller find a way
to convince you that the coral is worth more than they say.
Anon.

 

[Copingwithpods]

Like above stated, rare colors, slow growers and what's popular. Now find one with all 3 and you're in the big bucks.

All In all I think although corals are expensive sometimes I think how everything factored in they are kinda cheap. I mean if you gave me a fragplug with aptasia on it and told me to baby sit it for 6 months until it split I'd probably charge you $100 just for the time and effort that went into that.

 

[homer1475]

Slap a super duper fancy name on it.

Been seeing it more and more for years. Take the current euphyllia craze. When I first got back into the hobby, euphyllia were considered the easy to keep coral and were basically trash. Multi head hammers were 20$, rainbow torch's were 5$ a head, my first frogspawn was 4 heads and it was 10$.

Now those same corals are hundred of dollars.

 

[KTrevino]

Unfortunately, part of the reason is few people will pay extremely unreasonable prices for some if the corals which continues to drive the price increase. Yes I understand that they put time and money into these corals, but some of the prices are crazy 1K for a mushroom.... there is a difference between making a profit and being greedy. People paying that makes it seem okay. My lil rant