Next frag swap

I would be down to host one. I'm half way between Portland and Bangor.

As much as I've been wanting to go to cultivated reef maybe it would be good to do it at industry's house? Very central location and anyone that's been to industry's house knows he has a nice tank and allot of room around the tank so it wouldn't be overly crowded? I do like that sound of a frag draft to though!? maybe we should put it to a vote?

I'm down! Have to do some trimming in the garden soon lol. Plus I missed the last one at Greg's and need to make my yearly trip still.
Honestly I'm fairly new to the frag swaps, how's this drafting work? Most of my pieces have come from Greg, so I don't have much that he doesn't have already, but I'm always up for more acans lol.

we get a coral pack or fragpack (usually wholesale) divide the price by how many corals to get price we pay for a pick, then we randomly pick a number for our spot in the order to pick
usually it works out to around $20 for a $40-$50 coral and/or $10 for a $20-$25 frag. depending on if its a fragpack or a coralpack and of course where ever we get it from.

we used to have a couple lfs who would do a wholesale order for us but lately its been who can get the best deal gets the corals. last time I got 23 frags for $250! and we had stuff like 1 1/2" acros, 4 polyp blastos,neon orange and green plate coral, palys like darth mauls,purple puddles......... it was a good draft for all!!

If the frag swap ends up being at my place then I have a couple ideas of how we could do the frag draft. I have supported many frag drafts for various clubs over the years. Usually what I do is make sure the over all value is excellent but it is not wholesale prices. So depending on how we decide to do it there may be a wide range of coral value, some really expensive and some relatively cheap or we can narrow it down so everything is of similar value. But before We put to much thought into this we need to decide where the meeting is going to be at. Lance is in the process of getting ahold of the three people the volunteered to host the meeting (myself included) to compare available dates etc so everyone can vote on a location. I think that post will be goin up in the next day or two. If it ends up being at my place I think a frag draft would be very fun.

I feel like I need to make a comment here. People need to keep in mind that, while Greg is a hobbyist, he's also in business to make a living. As a business, his offer to host a frag swap - essentially letting competition into his house - has to be balanced with his need to stay in business. That means he can't sell coral at wholesale to us; he has to make some money to keep the lights on and to keep great new products coming into the area.

I do think that Greg will provide great value if we do a draft. I've never seen him skimp on what he sells. Everyone knows that he has great quality and that he stands by his products.

I'm saying all this as someone who has managed multipe retail pet stores and who has owned a marine fish and invertebrate import business. I know how hard this business is. It's a labor of love - no one gets rich off of selling marine livestock. You're lucky to stay in business. I think we should keep this in mind when dealing with any LFS (Cultivated Reef, Easy Aquariums, etc.) and appreciate that they are willing and able to support us hobbyists. We need to support the good ones in turn so that they stay in business.

That is all. Carry on.