Fraudulent Coral Pictures
- Thread starter dawgface
- Start date
I feel the gel filters make the corals look more like they do in real life as opposed to making then look enhanced. Just my thought on the gel filters.
Still haven't bought anything online. I see things that look nice but I know it's tough to be sure how things are going to look. Does anyone have any online vendors they recommend?
Pops
Still haven't bought anything online. I see things that look nice but I know it's tough to be sure how things are going to look. Does anyone have any online vendors they recommend?
Pops
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World Wide Corals
Agreed - any of the filters do a great job of color balancing the photo helping the camera see what I see. it's different than taking a photo under actinics and multiplying that layer (cropping just the coral) over a photo under whites, making the color pop like you wouldn't believe. When I get home, I'll take some quick photo's and show you how easy it is to pull crap like that without playing with any of the saturation and still have it look believable.
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I have ordered from a few different people (including cornbred, but it was zoas that I was familiar with), and haven't been burned yet. I prefer to get stuff from other hobbyists. If you look in the sales section on some of the national sites, you can find some great stuff.
I have gotten several things from cornbread and I've never ever been disappointed.
Definitely some of his and many others are photoshopped ( and you can usually easily tell lol)
But overall when I get the coral, it looks extremely similar.
I've only been scammed once on one looked nothing like the picture. And that was not corn bread (it was actually a place that got it from a supplier) on here.
Names are extremely handy just for a quick quick references on what you want. Nothing wrong with him being smart enough to make a business out of it. I'd hazard to say he is more popular and probably makes more dough and and Tyree lol
Definitely some of his and many others are photoshopped ( and you can usually easily tell lol)
But overall when I get the coral, it looks extremely similar.
I've only been scammed once on one looked nothing like the picture. And that was not corn bread (it was actually a place that got it from a supplier) on here.
Names are extremely handy just for a quick quick references on what you want. Nothing wrong with him being smart enough to make a business out of it. I'd hazard to say he is more popular and probably makes more dough and and Tyree lol
I'm not sure I can afford several things from cornbred. Just checked his eBay page and my goodness! Who is paying $3000 for a mushroom or $1500 for a single eye frag of chalice? I guess if you've got the money, why not but that's insane.
Pops
Pops
Anything "hot" right now will be available within 2-3 years locally from other people in the club/sponsors or expos if it shows even the slightest tendency to grow - even when it's "named", "deepwatered" or photoshopped/rotated/enhanced to a fair-thee-well. At least with buying locally you can take it all into account and avoid the more blatant rip-off sellers.
Case & point:
"Captain America" palys - used to be $35 a polyp or more for "lineaged" strains - one of our local reefers gave me a 3-4 polyp frag a year ago for free or in trade for some macroalgae (I forget exactly).
"Blue Hornet" zoas - three years ago they were batting $200 a polyp. A year ago I bought a six polyp'd something that looks a heck of a lot like 'em for $35.
You just can't allow yourself to get bent outta shape because someone's able to intercept stuff earlier in the supply chain/cherry pick or subsequently price it out of your reach, or that someone else out there's got a grand or two apparently burning a hole in their pocket.
I just as soon wait it out and get the easy to keep stuff after the hype dies down, but that's just me.
Case & point:
"Captain America" palys - used to be $35 a polyp or more for "lineaged" strains - one of our local reefers gave me a 3-4 polyp frag a year ago for free or in trade for some macroalgae (I forget exactly).
"Blue Hornet" zoas - three years ago they were batting $200 a polyp. A year ago I bought a six polyp'd something that looks a heck of a lot like 'em for $35.
You just can't allow yourself to get bent outta shape because someone's able to intercept stuff earlier in the supply chain/cherry pick or subsequently price it out of your reach, or that someone else out there's got a grand or two apparently burning a hole in their pocket.
I just as soon wait it out and get the easy to keep stuff after the hype dies down, but that's just me.
I normally have good luck with Divers Den.. but they too have altered pics. I have had two pieces now out of maybe 10 that were clearly not the same colors as shown in the photos.
The second time it happened I complained, got a call from them a few days later and they would only say it was due to shipping stress, but the coral was clearly not stressed and was not bleached.... They offered no way to correct it, just said "sorry"
The second time it happened I complained, got a call from them a few days later and they would only say it was due to shipping stress, but the coral was clearly not stressed and was not bleached.... They offered no way to correct it, just said "sorry"
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maybe you guys need to send a letter to the folks who brought the smack down to the fast food industry. How many years did we see amazing burgers in adds that were made out of glue/plastic/whatever inedible substance looked amazing in pictures. I'm pretty sure now they are required to take pictures of actual real food lol.
I've been pretty happy with divers den, super happy with the refund policy. Even if it's not a dead ringer for the pic (usually pretty darn close imo), give me a 14 day refund on corals, 30 day on certifiied aquacultured corals??? heck yea! Compare that to any other refund policy "don't you dare take it out of the bag, i want a pic of it dead in the bag through the plastic within 1 hour of documented delivery".
I've been pretty happy with divers den, super happy with the refund policy. Even if it's not a dead ringer for the pic (usually pretty darn close imo), give me a 14 day refund on corals, 30 day on certifiied aquacultured corals??? heck yea! Compare that to any other refund policy "don't you dare take it out of the bag, i want a pic of it dead in the bag through the plastic within 1 hour of documented delivery".
It's important to me to get this across accurately.... This topic or rather this post by me circles around the misrepresentation by these sellers, NOT price.... Period.
Principally and fundamentally I'm not nor would I ever become upset about anyone's ability to gather and spend their wealth, for it is what drives me in my life. With that not only do I value ones ability to amass that success in what ever format they chose to accept I congratulate and would further attempt to learn from if at all possible. Personally speaking it is what has driven the positive success stories I've had in life.
Last the use of names in marketing attempts to increase sales is not a inappropriate or fraudulent actions. Quite simple put, it's just good business sense.
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Kind of a parallel conversation started by Mr. Fellman at UC today:
i_luv_coral
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Have you seen WWC's instagram page?
Lol
I got SO ripped off when I was a newbie! I tried to fight the payment through Amex and they sided with him.
Stress from shipping...
I was SO pissed! I appealed and lost, appealed and proved my claims. AMEX paid me out if their own pocket because it was to late on vendor
It wasn't worth my time just for the refund, I just didn't want others getting away with it!
I've got some good & bad from CB. Enough bad that I won't buy again.
Others are doing the same thing "Dreef" on eBay out of Fl. What the heck is Dreef? It's BS, that's all!
My theory, what goes around, comes around!
Stress from shipping...
I was SO pissed! I appealed and lost, appealed and proved my claims. AMEX paid me out if their own pocket because it was to late on vendor
It wasn't worth my time just for the refund, I just didn't want others getting away with it!
I've got some good & bad from CB. Enough bad that I won't buy again.
Others are doing the same thing "Dreef" on eBay out of Fl. What the heck is Dreef? It's BS, that's all!
My theory, what goes around, comes around!
Camellia;1036353 wrote: I got SO ripped off when I was a newbie! I tried to fight the payment through Amex and they sided with him.
Stress from shipping...
I was SO pissed! I appealed and lost, appealed and proved my claims. AMEX paid me out if their own pocket because it was to late on vendor
It wasn't worth my time just for the refund, I just didn't want others getting away with it!
I've got some good & bad from CB. Enough bad that I won't buy again.
Others are doing the same thing "Dreef" on eBay out of Fl. What the heck is Dreef? It's BS, that's all!
My theory, what goes around, comes around!
Yea don't get me wrong CB has nice stuff, hell he's actively buying the nicest possible like any vendor does. The dirty difference is he changes the dynamic with a increased purchasing power due to high margins based on unethical sales practices. So I suppose just cause it has his dirty worthless name (lineage) on it doesn't reflect garbage.... But the proceeds go to the dirtbag, then on to the next coral purchase to start the revolution all over again. Found to compound when other scum are looking at him saying they can manipulate coral as well.... Which birthed Dreef and FireCorals I suspect as well and the laundry list of other low rent worthless pond scum found laying around these days.
meh.....
