RnB

Importers total landed cost + 50% + cost of shipping / handling to you.... obviously you would get a discount if you purchased more, and at these levels I would expect a minimum purchase ammount of maybe $100 at a time. for most things I think $30-40 would be plenty, if the importer was prepared to frag some things up into "Discount frag packs" then cheaper again..... I have seen acro colonies that could easily be fragged at the import station. would this option get more people into the hobby....

sorry re sp? but thats the one! Reef- by my calcs the rise in frieght cost due to fuel prices be more then off setting the cost of the product in USD....... question Reef - Do you beleive that LFS are pricing at fair levels? perhaps you not answer some questions also Peter

i think landed + 50% is probably a fair return........... give you an example, to buy a prominent kayak biz in AKL at the moment the asking price is $350k tunrover approx 1mil wages for owner 50k and around 50-80k profit on top of that if you are keen/good i think the outlay for a wholesaler is quite small... therefore expecting to make a lot of money and that no one else will enter the biz is not smart...... outlay to start a import commercially 20k possible return per year 60+ very nice little margin biz! and all the tax beneifits of owning a small biz

hey reef good on ya, you have made a world of difference to prices, that korean angle still for sale at $90 i think, cute fish, was going to look up its reef compatibility..... thats the thing with fish, u cannot be so impulsive! your comments about keeping things alive are interesting when i look at most LFS , there skimmers etc are way smallr then most hobbists yet corals sit in their tanks for ages....... take a good look at the V simple technology and low number of MH lifgts over most LFS tanks next time you are there.... really look - none of these places "appear" to have the passion of say http://www.phishybusiness.com/Our_System.PHP These guys are expanding at the moment...... IMHO this is the future of our hobby in NZ!

would take no time at all to pay for a qual facility if you did 800 piece imports......... I only want to bring in approx 100 at a time! reef and others would have nothing to fear from a hobbist if this is the volumes that are being turned over! Peter

I do not agree reef. I will try this out and see what happens......

yes but they had the fish in store when they first quoted me....... overheads must have increased between mon and thursday when i picked up the fish....... I want a recount

I perhaps am not as interested in helping out everyone else i do not know..... I want cheap corals for me........ and my close friends thats why i wioll do this....

regarding the comment about "the average hobbist" not being able to handle 3 week qual for fish/corals thats prob the best reason i have ever heard to make the next AKL facility a co-operative... with many knowledgeable hobbists involved. MAF would love that... deep base of technical knowledge and all..... Peter

on the bag inside the box whats the writing say.... prey tell....

bring some over, we can compare it with my expensive (must be better ) sand.

so be it, flick on the ones you do not want...... even at cost if necessary trademe probably work............ at last this thread is talking about a way to change the prices we pay , rather then just bitching about them.......

shoot from the hip pies $4000 down so far here Tank and stand 1k lights 700 rock / ro/di / bits 1.5k fish from ivan 1k hey.. what about the rest of the stuf :roll: skimmer 1k so how about this shed out the back 3k council approvals 1k pumps/skimmer tanks etc 2k its small and personal remember maf approval 1-2k $10 profit per coral... have to sell 7-800 corals... over next 10 years of my hobby about 1.5 corals per week, one shipment per year would break even in the longer term........... duh even a bank manager can see the numbers stack up...

i was loosely quoted $80 - $90 for my copperband turned out to be $129 mmmmmmmmmm........ "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." nope dam it thats in florida........ i tend to only go back to get scr*wed twice if i enjoyed it the first time.....

Reef you should probably relax.... You understand your margins, have established clients. Do any of us really believe that Jetskisteve/Nick will not make a dollar here or there out of this..... :lol: they have suck $$$ into their import venture and i assume, being business based will want a return.. in fact need one for ird purposes... even a small biz allows lots of great tax benefits thats why i keep bringing up the hobbist importer side of this.... when you dont have to add a margin... its always cheaper :lol: Pies is dead right, DIY is a viable option...... I cannot see anyone getting rich out of this hobby, market is too small and the barriers to entry too low...... this may keep everyone honest though.....

last time i saw dolphins trailing phos it was 2am in the morning, i had no sleep for about 15hrs, we where on our way back from little barrier in a 2 handed race.... the first dolphin came in broad side like a torpedo.... i sh*t myself until i realised what it was, dived under the boat just before it got to us (as they seem to, smart those dolphins) . it really is awesome to lean over the bow and watch the compression wave in the water also... the phos actually spreads out in front of you best i have ever seen was diving near bali... people glowed whaen they got back onto the boat... magic

Keep it a clean board guys - lets not like this thread disintegrate. This is about the future direction of our hobby.... LFS vs Direct.... Sustainable pricing levels.... The forum is doing what its ment to, encoraging debate, sharing information and the exchange of opinions....... Reef - I find it hard to believe that steve/nick will be able to "make" the LFS change their pricing levels.... unless they go direct or have a "volume" requirement beofre you can open a "trade" account. I am as interested as you to understand their model... the more i think about it the more i come to the conclusion that there are only thre models that can work Perosnal import... not a business and perhaps not limited to personal use but not really running as a business.... it can survive because its hobby based... its sustainable just like any other labour of love *look at all those expensive yachts racing in our harbours..... ) Wholesale only... to LFS only. Wholesale/retail .... like in CHCH... could also be online........ which brings me to my next new topic.......

i agree with one thing reef The LFS will not like wholesalers selling direct to their customers..... Nick/Steve will probably find it difficult to sell direct and wholesale.......

no reference to any margin levels, personal use, commercial use...... nope MAF are the police, and the police do not make the law.... they police it..........

with respect Alois.... even you cannot change governemnt regulations overnight

often see phospuressence sp? in the gulf, at night, dolphins playing around my boat look AWESOME... like torpedoos with ribbons behind them... almost spiritual....

it is true that you have set expectations of very competitive pricing nick/steve. Reef, the secret like anything is to start small, learn the basics and go from there.... Everyone who assumes that only profit motivated people will apply to start and import corals is mad. MAF only need you to demonstrate an ability to operate the facility financially.... deep pockets satisfy this requirement

If steve and nick do not do some form of direct selling then the prices to us keen guys will not change, so one of us will start importing....... I suspect that will happen anyway as nick says its a logical extension of our hobby and its probably the best/most cost effective way to stock a large tank anyway. Peter

you take a perfectly healthy coral and hack it into bits and stick them to rock in your tank, and all going well they continue to grow and you get lots of little corals that each grow up into big ones. You often swap the little fragments (frags) with others to increase the different corals you have in your tank. Alois suggested fragging his purple tang, I am not so sure... maybe he has lots of spares :lol:

Please post all your fragging tips etc in here....... Peter to mount stuff I am using Seallys Aqua Knead, its a green outer layer, light blue inner, smells real bad when mixed up but seems not to effect anything in my tank Rubber bands... about $10 for 1/2 kg at warehouse staionary.... Using little bits of uncured rock that have semi cured in my sump for a few weeks, guess they are cured but pretty dead really. Have fragged Zoo's, frogspawn, mushrooms by acident,