The Hobby in this Economy

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TheRealCramer

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2012
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Upstate NY
Wow have prices inflated! I was looking through a petsolutions magazine from 2007 and the prices blew me away! An internal duetto filter I got 2 of about 4 years ago were $16.99 each. Now they are $24.99! The price freaking doubled!

Now I'm finally setting up my first saltwater tank and I used to see clown fish for $10.99 and blue damsels for 4.99 and now they are $24.99 and $8.99 respectively. I think the most I've ever paid for a fish was $20 for a butterfly koi. Yeesh.

And it's not just retail that's over inflated. Garage sellers on forums or Craigslist need the extra cash so instead of liquidating the equiptment for cheap because it's taking up space they want to squeeze every penny they can get out of it.

I know it's the way the world is now but I don't see this bad of a jump in my other hobbies. In fact, some have come down with more competition. Was there another hit the aquarium hobby took that caused such a surge? Popularity? Laws? Nemo?

What do you see in the hobby in the past 6 years?


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Yeah, things are bad. My best LFS just had to close down. The demand had just dwindled. Things have to be priced higher just to keep companies afloat. I've always been a budget hobbyist, so a craigslist bargain is still a craigslist bargain to me.
 
Sorry, I'll reword: they were $16.99 each. Now they are $24.99 each. Not doubled. I was thinking of the stupid clownfish and not concentrating. I shouldn't have put that. And now I can't fix it.


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I think craigslist bargains are missing since new equipment prices went up. Instead of liquidating used equipment, Ive seen alot of stuff for sale for upgrading to new equipment. Since people's new set ups cost more, they need the extra money when selling off old stuff. And in turn, people buy it because its still cheaper than new stuff. Thats why I'm all about making things myself as much as possible and getting fish from MFKers only at this point. I miss the days when you could shop at a lfs and not feel like youve been violated.
 
tomomothy said:
I miss the days when you could shop at a lfs and not feel like youve been violated.
Click to expand...

Ha. I paid $1.99 per gallon for saltwater the other day since I only needed 5g. The guy siphoned it fr display tank that although had huge corals was loaded with ammonia & nitrates. I dumped it. And bought mix. Lesson learned. Not going back there




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:banghead:
Perfect exapmle
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TheRealCramer said:
Ha. I paid $1.99 per gallon for saltwater the other day since I only needed 5g. The guy siphoned it fr display tank that although had huge corals was loaded with ammonia & nitrates. I dumped it. And bought mix. Lesson learned. Not going back there




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Click to expand...

If it was loaded with ammonia and nitrates then it wasn't loaded with coral, or atleast it wont be for long....
 
I'm not yet savvy on everything but he had a huge zenia(sp?) tree blowing around in there and it was the best one I've seen yet. So it probably needed a water change. Could also be some from my own cycle. Either way, I don't want poopy water. I thought buying water meant they mix it for you. Like when you buy RO water. He charged me for his throwaway water and I didn't know better. That's another aspect of a bad economy: people becoming selfish hoarders and predators. Every man for himself, eat or be eaten. We're going back to the jungle.

Well, I have RO and bought salt mix.


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