Online Coral Vending Questions

[greeniejr]

Hello everyone,

Its been a long time since I posted so I doubt anyone remembers me, but recently I have been in communication with a local LFS about helping them establish an online store this summer before heading back to college in September.

I have some experience vending coral online for different companies but I have a few questions for the veterans out there to make sure I get everything right, especially since its not my coral.

Is eBay a good way to go? Or would building a store specific site be worthwhile?
What packaging do you use? What shipping company is the most reliable? The cheapest?
Where do you obtain your packaging? How do you determine which coral requires which shipping method?
What common mistakes lead to corals being DOA, and where do you buy those cool little capsules that are used to protect frag plugs as they're shipped?

Also what are the best cameras, lenses, lense protectors, and settings for photographing the coral? I'd like to minimize post production as much as possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Connor

 

[gumbii]

 

[nwayne567]

YouTube has some good info how to ship corals, I never shipped corals myself so I can't answer your questions


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Reefnoobie12]

I got a couple answers lol
ULine will have all ur shipping needs , boxes , foam, heating packs cooling packs , bags , rubber bands etc.
I shipped using the website shipnex.com and had good luck with it they give u the best rate through usually usps or ups. I know usps is the worst one you could use but hey worked for me. Some people use urine sample cups and glue or puncture a whole in the bottom of the cup so the frag stay put and protected. As funny as it sounds lol I used an egg from Easter and shipped polyps in it. Worked really well actually.

Camera wise ~
I use a cannon t5 rebel with the basic lens which is like 35 mm to 55 mm or something and use a top down view box and take some really close up pics on really small polyps. Just takes practice

Good luck.


**Poor Because of Coral **

 

[greeniejr]

thank you reef "noobie"! I'll check all that out!

Did you sell on forums? facebook? eBay?

 

[SantaMonica]

My fav packaging sent to me has been the coral floating upside down on a piece of foam. Will always stay underwater this way.

 

[Reefnoobie12]

thank you reef "noobie"! I'll check all that out!

Did you sell on forums? facebook? eBay?

Everything but eBay lol


**Poor Because of Coral **

 

[SGreene]

Don't even think about shipping via USPS. I sold corals on eBay a while ago and I am not exaggerating, they messed up one in five shipment. UPS is the way to go but open an account with a third party like shipnex, will be much cheaper.