True, and it will test my theory that people on here are fair. Test, not prove
Look forward to seeing the pricing!
So what is fair? Lets set up a few scenarios.
crops, fruits are sown in the soil, and sun and water comes from mother nature. then farmed, harvested, sold to wholesalers, they run and operation, and make a profit, then sell to grocery stores, which make a profit, also the need to pay for overhead, electricity, rent, payroll, and is sold.
fish are free, given by mother nature as well, caught from the wild or bred in farms, fed, kept, boxed, packed, employees paid, and placed on an airplane, destined for wholesalers/importers around the world, then a profit to be added, employees paid, overhead, then sold to store, and the same repeats itself, then finally sold to end users.
There are always several middleman in any operation. water is free but you willingly pay for it in a bottle. Many things dictate the price of things, or fish. The scarcity of an item, the demand, the extrinsic value one puts on the item, inflation. You do realize that gas prices have gone up from 2000 to 2012 from $1.27 a gallon to $4.00 a gallon. So the tiger fish I got back in 2000 and sold for $75.00 I should in reality sell for $280.00 right? Also at the same time aircargo and freight goes up as well, fuel surcharges. I use to ship a box of fish to the east coast for $45.00, and now it costs me $75.00.
What is fair? when I import $6000.00 worth of fish, and 50% of them die during acclimation and shipping, and I still suffer the shipping costs of several thousand, and only sell about $1000.00 worth of fish, is that fair? People always think to make a quick buck by doing something they like, little do they realize what goes into all of this operation. You see hobbyists, vendors, come and go, even stores, and some are here to stay, carved out a niche in the hobby/market for themselves.
I feel bad sometimes for even selling something because its expensive, and I give out fish for free just to be nice. I had a customer's fish that died after a month of having it, and I told him that I'll do something to help take care of him next time around without him asking, is that fair?
What I love the most is after all that people ask for, and I make the trouble to import them, then tell me that they actually wanted something different, but similar, a bit bigger, a bit smaller, its not eating prepared food.
Do people not realize that its part of the hobby, part of the fun, part of the risk. When you buy bottled water, do you feel ripped off? Well you should, as Hanson's, coca-cola is laughing their way to the bank while selling you "water" which is free.
