Reef Auctions! Love 'em or hate 'em? Let's talk about 'em!

[Daniel@R2R]

Hey Reef2Reefers!

Lately, I've been thinking about the rise in popularity of auctions for reef livestock. I've seen these everywhere from eBay to Facebook to vendor websites. I'm curious to know your thoughts and experiences with reef livestock auctions.

I know some find auctions to be an exciting and fast-paced way to acquire a wide variety of corals, fish, and invertebrates. I know some people love the competitive aspect that auctions can have. The whole experience can be a rush (especially for you sniper bidders!)! I get it. It's thrilling, especially when you're bidding on that one dream piece you've been searching for.

On the other hand, I can understand why some people aren't fond of auctions. They can sometimes create a sense of urgency and pressure, leading to impulsive buying decisions and inflated prices. Furthermore, I know some people worry that the rise of auctions not only inflates prices, but brings in even more coral and fish flippers into the hobby where livestock is ripped from the ocean and dropped on an auction website before it even has time to acclimate properly to aquarium life (which ultimately can lead to increased mortality rates within the winning bidders tanks).

I've also noted the rise in things like reef raffles (occasionally called "waffles" on some social media outlets) where you buy slots and a winner is drawn. Heck, I've even seen where some people do multiple raffles for slots in a "winners' raffle" for the ultimate win of some highly sought coral or fish. That whole process is honestly CRAZY to me! Do you guys consider those to be raffles of a sort, or do you put them in a different category?

So, here are a few questions to get the conversation going:

1. Have you participated in reef livestock auctions before? If so, what has been your overall experience?
2. What are the main advantages and disadvantages you associate with auctions for reef livestock?
3. Are there any particular precautions you take when participating in an auction, such as researching the seller or inspecting the livestock beforehand?
4. Are there some types of auctions you absolutely refuse to participate in? If so, what are they? (Like the reef raffles mentioned above? Or should those even be considered in the same category as auctions?)
5. In your opinion, do auctions contribute positively or negatively to the reef-keeping hobby? Why?

 

[BirdFish5000]

I find auctions annoying. Just set a price and let me buy the coral. I won't even look at auctions at this point.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hey Reef2Reefers!

Lately, I've been thinking about the rise in popularity of auctions for reef livestock. I've seen these everywhere from eBay to Facebook to vendor websites. I'm curious to know your thoughts and experiences with reef livestock auctions.

I know some find auctions to be an exciting and fast-paced way to acquire a wide variety of corals, fish, and invertebrates. I know some people love the competitive aspect that auctions can have. The whole experience can be a rush (especially for you sniper bidders!)! I get it. It's thrilling, especially when you're bidding on that one dream piece you've been searching for.

On the other hand, I can understand why some people aren't fond of auctions. They can sometimes create a sense of urgency and pressure, leading to impulsive buying decisions and inflated prices. Furthermore, I know some people worry that the rise of auctions not only inflates prices, but brings in even more coral and fish flippers into the hobby where livestock is ripped from the ocean and dropped on an auction website before it even has time to acclimate properly to aquarium life (which ultimately can lead to increased mortality rates within the winning bidders tanks).

I've also noted the rise in things like reef raffles (occasionally called "waffles" on some social media outlets) where you buy slots and a winner is drawn. Heck, I've even seen where some people do multiple raffles for slots in a "winners' raffle" for the ultimate win of some highly sought coral or fish. That whole process is honestly CRAZY to me! Do you guys consider those to be raffles of a sort, or do you put them in a different category?

So, here are a few questions to get the conversation going:

1. Have you participated in reef livestock auctions before? If so, what has been your overall experience?
2. What are the main advantages and disadvantages you associate with auctions for reef livestock?
3. Are there any particular precautions you take when participating in an auction, such as researching the seller or inspecting the livestock beforehand?
4. Are there some types of auctions you absolutely refuse to participate in? If so, what are they? (Like the reef raffles mentioned above? Or should those even be considered in the same category as auctions?)
5. In your opinion, do auctions contribute positively or negatively to the reef-keeping hobby? Why?

I have not done a live auction yet. I'll end up doing them in the future, though. Likewise, I think it is a nice way to potentially get uncommon coral cheaper or snag those coral pieces you have been eyeing for a while.

 

[ninjamyst]

Auctions are the worst. I don't recommend anyone participating in them. They are tedious, boring, frustrating, and bad for your health. They will steal your identity, crash your tank, burn down your house, and key your cars.

(I participate in auctions...)

 

[JoJosReef]

1. I have participated in Ebay and site auctions. In my last site auction from one vendor on this forum, I won 3 bids at a low price that were taken away because the vendor decided that the policy should be that you must meet at least 50% of the buyout price to win. Wasn't stated anywhere to my knowledge and it makes no sense to start an auction at $1 if the minimum you are willing to sell it for is half the buyout price. I will not be participating in that anymore. In that sense, Ebay is more reliable. However, my experience with Ebay has been complete irrationality in the winning bid prices--I've seen winning bids on corals that are twice the price of the same coral listed on the vendor website!
2. You can sometimes nab a good one, but most of the time it just gets your blood pressure rising.
3. Only doing auctions from sellers I've bought from before. That said, I've more or less abandoned both the Auction and Live Sale format of acquiring corals and just get them from locals.
4. Almost all of them at this point. Only auction I've done recently is from one of the two online vendors I use.
5. I don't have much opinion here. It's just another format for people to buy what they want and people will pay what they are willing to pay. It does play into peoples' impulsiveness, but that's nothing unique to corals. It might affect people regionally if, say for instance, they are used to getting corals at a certain price and then the coral "whales" over in another place far far away starts bidding up corals so much that prices inflate across the board.. that can be frustrating, but that's also the age we live in where physical boundaries have mostly fallen.

 

[Troylee]

Waffles are the way around face book filters and getting shut down for gambling.. it’s a legit raffle and been going on for years.. I was doing hot wheels for a long time and that’s how we rolled..the biggest problem with that was people wanna get paid for their time to raffle and then they need product.. where does product come from? Mostly eBay! Now the prices get ran up on eBay and then raffles fetch more to cover it and the crazy inflation begins!! It’s all bad! Speaking from experience! I myself was caught up in it and had my own raffle page!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Auctions are a fail for me. Never have and never will participate (especially for livestock/coral). It just ends up inflating cost anyway. Sure you may get lucky on a coral or two, but your gonna get swept up in a bidding frenzy and pay more than you should for something more often than not.

 

[Troylee]

Auctions are a fail for me. Never have and never will participate (especially for livestock/coral). It just ends up inflating cost anyway. Sure you may get lucky on a coral or two, but your gonna get swept up in a bidding frenzy and pay more than you should for something more often than not.

Raffles work the same way.. you put a $200 coral up for $10 a spot at 20 spots.. lots of people will jump on that opportunity! It fills so fast you’re like hmmmmm maybe I went cheap! Now you just the same piece up $250 it fills quick! $300 it takes a day to fill… screw it let’s see if we can get $350… you get half filled now what do we do?? Nobody wants to pay $35 for a shot well you start a side raffle for those last spots.. $5 a spot at 7 spots to get that $35 and fill a void in your main raffle… sigh.. eventually you fill it and here we are just 4 days ago a coral sold for $200 it’s fetching $350 and the next guy sees that and away we gooooooo! Haha

 

[paragrouper]

Not a fan.

I joined a couple and quickly remembered I don’t like impulse buying. I really prefer buying from my LFS. I may have to wait longer for something I want, but I can see what I’m getting.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Raffles work the same way.. you put a $200 coral up for $10 a spot at 20 spots.. lots of people will jump on that opportunity! It fills so fast you’re like hmmmmm maybe I went cheap! Now you just the same piece up $250 it fills quick! $300 it takes a day to fill… screw it let’s see if we can get $350… you get half filled now what do we do?? Nobody wants to pay $35 for a shot well you start a side raffle for those last spots.. $5 a spot at 7 spots to get that $35 and fill a void in your main raffle… sigh.. eventually you fill it and here we are just 4 days ago a coral sold for $200 it’s fetching $350 and the next guy sees that and away we gooooooo! Haha

This, so this, lol. I do occasional FB groups auctions for deep sea fishing gear and coin collecting. I always look at open market pricing before I 'buy in'. If the auctioneer is making a stupid profit off of our silliness then I walk.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

I participate in a lot of auction’s and I would feel remiss in my duties as a fellow Reefer to give a warning when warning is needed, the one auction to warn you about would be the Aquariums wholesale auction, they sell absolute garbage, their clothes are not healthy and they spread flatworm, and about two hours into the auction. It turns into an absolute **** show, it’s more like a drunken pirate ship than anything else, a total embarrassment to the integrity of the hobby, smh

 

[Reefer Matt]

Not a fan of auctions or live sales. I actually get better deals on coral from reefer friends in my area, and often for trade or free. We share the hobby.

 

[ronnie]

I’d consider auctions if the pictures weren’t so saturated and taken with a macro lens. I bought several frags from an auction and the polyps were so tiny I can’t even see them. They have tripled polyps and still can’t see anything. Need more disclosure on colors and sizing.