any way to find out prices of... fish/coral HELP

I got my Jaw recently from BlueZooAquatcis for $75...the sale is still on I believe. The Shipment was packaged very well, and I will definitely be doing business with them again.

 

out of curoisity...why do you want to know what the wholesale price is. You are not going to get the stuff at that price? I know what the wholesale price is of a lot of stuff. People are always thinking that the LFS is screwing them...sometimes maybe! But you have to realize the overhead of the fish. A LFS orders 100 fish.....guess what, maybe 30 of them arrive DOA. They dont get the money back on it...it is a risk. Then another 10-20 might die during acclimation. Then the LFS has to feed them, treat them, pay electricity, staff, etc. Shipping to midwest is usually a couple hundred bucks on an order that price. Trust me, the LFS owner is not raking in the money. They might be making a few bucks off the fish you buy.

The only way you will ever pay wholesale is by having a merchants license with tax id etc.

Since I worked at a LFS I pay wholesale plus shipping. The prices are not a whole lot lower then what you will be paying if you come in

Please dont get me wrong......I am not trying to start an argument here as I am sure you are just curious as I was!

 

Sorry buddy....I had to delete this. It's not your fault, it's my fault. I was more than a little perturbed if it wasn't evident. LOL

+1

I have access to wholesale prices of about half a dozen suppliers, but would not tell anyone. It is only the business of the person who owns the store and making the orders. As inwall said, they vary weekly, like the stock market. If you want to know wholesale prices do as inwall said.

I will give you an idea of shipping, it is nothing like buying from one of our sponsors on ebay. They charge by the lb, for the boxes, heat packs, foam, gas, and anything else they need to use to ship. Shipping is about $2.00 lb before adding other shipping fees from one wholesaler. Order a flame angel and most suppliers will ship the fish in about a gallon of water. That gallon weighs 8lbs. Multiply that by 2 and that is another $16 added to the actual cost. Not to mention other factors such as QT treatments. Coral comes in more than enough water as well.

 

Totally +1

 

it is mostly a curiosity thing, i know that i will never get those prices but i am curious what the real cost of those fish are.

 

It would be nice to know what the LFS pays, but I have 2 good LFS that are quite different when comparing prices. One has fish that are jsut as cheep as online prices, and the other one is a little more expensive. Both seem willing to order the fish you want/need. But if you talk with the people they straight up tell you they don't make money on the fish. They make 90% of their money servicing peoples tanks in town. The one LFS services over 50 tanks in town per month. And he runs his shot with just him and his girlfried. And a crazy guy every once in a while.

 

just divide the price at the lfs by 2 or 3(depending on the lfs) that should put you in the ball park.

 

Food for thought.... I have a LFS and have ordered a dozen or more of one kind of fish setting my price at 2X the "wholesale" price which made my retail price very competitive with even most online retaillers.

On those fish after figuring shipping, cost to maintain tank (electricity, buffers, etc), very low loss rate (less than 10 percent), food, fish bags, credit card charges for the sale, etc.

I lost money overall on those fish with a 100% mark up! LOL and those were Fresh Water fish! Now add the extra costs of SW fish? it's not easy to pick a living out of fish sales.

What might be a huge markup on a dry good would be a loosing money situation on a fish.

My two cents (if I had two of them )

 

I don't see any on todays list.

 

12.60 for a medium. This is from one of the more popular wholesalers around LAX.