It’s hard to value corals; the prices fluctuate often, and you can frequently find great deals that aren’t necessarily sales or special pricing. Also, most expensive corals aren’t too bad if you get a tiny frag.
I have several large sunburst BTA. We would frequently sell these at my LFS in Chicago for $1400-1600 each (and a couple super small ones for $700-900). Unfortunately, it’s quite common when people mix sunbursts with other anemone varieties, the sunburst will die within hours. And we unfortunately witnessed this dozens of times... it’s a shame. Anyways, I got one through a trade and after it’s second split, I had no-where else to put the baby, except in a tank with my rainbow BTA. Low and behold, it didn’t die. Apparently mine do fine together, and I’ve had them mixed for years now. I love it! They’re beautiful, but I do expect the price to come down over the next several years.
I also have a Cruz Arias Leng Sy monti. Most veterans don’t like Monti’s as they grow too fast (myself included). But I’ll make exception for this one and maybe 1-2 others (such as Setosa which doesn’t grow too fast). While many monti’s under the name Leng Sy sell for ~$40 per frag, the Cruz Arias is the authentic/original and sells for $425 per inch. Ouch! However, I expect the price to come down to $100 or so within the next year or two, so that’s what I usually sell them for. In my opinion, $400 is way too much for a Monti.
Then, there are a bunch of cornbred corals, a few Acros, a beautiful favia, and a platygyra (my personal favorite and profile pic), some nice Palys, and bounce mushrooms. Most of my nice corals, I’ve gotten through trading. The hard part is finding people that are willing to trade.
One coral that I’d love to have sometime is a Tie Dye jawbreaker mushroom. Maybe someday I’ll find the right one.
