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Most overpriced reef equipment / gadget?


ninjamyst

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What's your opinion on the most overpriced reef equipment / gadget available on the market today?  Product where manufacturing is probably cheap with a huge retail markup. 

 

Mine is ATO containers.  $75-$100 for a plastic container.  You can buy a similar volume ATO tank for around the same price.  Why?!?!  Material cost should be very low, just a few arcylic sheets.  What makes it so expensive to make?

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11 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Material cost should be very low, just a few arcylic sheets.  What makes it so expensive to make?

branding & advertising...  :P

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13 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

What's your opinion on the most overpriced reef equipment / gadget available on the market today?  Product where manufacturing is probably cheap with a huge retail markup. 

 

Mine is ATO containers.  $75-$100 for a plastic container.  You can buy a similar volume ATO tank for around the same price.  Why?!?!  Material cost should be very low, just a few arcylic sheets.  What makes it so expensive to make?

I use tubs. $8.

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13 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Material cost should be very low, just a few arcylic sheets.  What makes it so expensive to make?

The demand from people with a little too much money to spend and maybe don’t mind splurging extra for a specific brand.

 

I used to work for a larger electronic manufacturer.. Oh boy, you would be surprised of the mark up % and how people throw money at the assets because of the brand.

 

Demand feeds supply.

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25 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

What's your opinion on the most overpriced reef equipment / gadget available on the market today?  Product where manufacturing is probably cheap with a huge retail markup. 

 

Mine is ATO containers.  $75-$100 for a plastic container.  You can buy a similar volume ATO tank for around the same price.  Why?!?!  Material cost should be very low, just a few arcylic sheets.  What makes it so expensive to make?

Just going to play devils advocate here...........The more pricey ones (ocean box designs, trigger systems) are very likely hand made and take a significant amount of time to make and good craftsmanship go into them. A lot of these companies in the aquatics industry aren't HUGE corporations churning out things on an assembly line in a sweat shop in China. Thus being able to make them cheap. They are probably relatively smaller companies with not a whole bunch of employees. I could be wrong but that's just my thoughts on a reason why. 

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3 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

The demand from people with a little too much money to spend and maybe don’t mind splurging extra for a specific brand.

 

I used to work for a larger electronic manufacturer.. Oh boy, you would be surprised of the mark up % and how people throw money at the assets because of the brand.

 

Demand feeds supply.

From my experience with electronics you absolutely get what you pay for. Some of the off brand electronics quality is laughable. Some areas that come to mind are TV's and Car Stereos. Those are two areas where I've owned very cheap and very expensive and there is just no comparison. 

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8 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

From my experience with electronics you absolutely get what you pay for. Some of the off brand electronics quality is laughable. Some areas that come to mind are TV's and Car Stereos. Those are two areas where I've owned very cheap and very expensive and there is just no comparison. 

Oh absolutely. That being said, the mark-up from manufacturer to reseller to end consumer is not necessarily driven by the quality.

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Most of the bigger companies mark up their products by significant amounts- most businesses do.

 

So in my opinion, most of what we buy from wave makers, to lights, heaters, are all marked up.

 

That will not change because we continue to pay the prices set.

 

We often think that a brand means quality, like TV's, stereo's etc but most of the brand name companies own and make the cheaper brands. 

 

You often pay for a name.

 

Smaller businesses where products are handmade often don't have high mark ups, a small profit with a lot of overhead and work. 

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Thrassian Atoll

The most overpriced stuff seems to be lighting these days.  Reef equipment in general seems overpriced compared to other electronics.

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I agree, dosing containers are way overpriced too.  I actually don't mind paying $$ for lights because of the research / innovation companies spend on them.  Plus I don't mind paying for electronics because the parts / labor IMO costs more.  What I don't like paying for is $$ for plastic crap.  

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mitten_reef
30 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

I agree, dosing containers are way overpriced too.  I actually don't mind paying $$ for lights because of the research / innovation companies spend on them.  Plus I don't mind paying for electronics because the parts / labor IMO costs more.  What I don't like paying for is $$ for plastic crap.  

Why did you buy it then? 🧐 

 

I use a Red Sea bucket for my top off water. 

The followings are big rip off imo.  

Dosing containers!!

dosing tube holder!!!

light mounts!!!!

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20 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Why did you buy it then? 🧐 

 

I use a Red Sea bucket for my top off water. 

The followings are big rip off imo.  

Dosing containers!!

dosing tube holder!!!

light mounts!!!!

I didn't buy any ATO container =P.  I was close to buying one but decided to freeze my reef spending budget.

 

13 minutes ago, TILTON said:

Pretty much Apex anything is overpriced, but I own a bunch.  😂

Agree 100%.  And I have the previous gen Apex and the DOS dosing pumps.  Sigh.

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Thrassian Atoll
13 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

I didn't buy any ATO container =P.  I was close to buying one but decided to freeze my reef spending budget.

 

Agree 100%.  And I have the previous gen Apex and the DOS dosing pumps.  Sigh.

B5D046C4-F315-4282-9911-517BF20E3AAC.thumb.jpeg.cff638153456ce7ad1494f1a2d6f3de8.jpeg

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2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Most of the bigger companies mark up their products by significant amounts- most businesses do.

 

So in my opinion, most of what we buy from wave makers, to lights, heaters, are all marked up.

 

That will not change because we continue to pay the prices set.

 

We often think that a brand means quality, like TV's, stereo's etc but most of the brand name companies own and make the cheaper brands. 

 

You often pay for a name.

 

Smaller businesses where products are handmade often don't have high mark ups, a small profit with a lot of overhead and work. 

Yes but no.

 

This is a very very niche hobby. Items like iPhones and Samsungs have larger economies to scale and their name is also attached. Reef equipment is simply following the rule of economies to scale. It cost more to produce because demand isn't as high. 

 

How many people do you think own an MP10 or a Tunze Osmolator in the world? 

 

Also the quality of the name brand stuff has always and WILL always out perform knock off items. Can't think of non name brand reef items that out perform name brand.

 

Anyway, niche hobbies are where names count. 

 

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This guy is extra salty
3 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

I agree, dosing containers are way overpriced too.  I actually don't mind paying $$ for lights because of the research / innovation companies spend on them.  Plus I don't mind paying for electronics because the parts / labor IMO costs more.  What I don't like paying for is $$ for plastic crap.  

Lol 😂 i make dosing containers, tanks, ATO. Etc.. what kills me is the sumps 🤦‍♂️

54D0B7A6-D873-4296-98D0-1EEF92342215.jpeg

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Pretty much everything in this hobby is marked up higher then it would be in other markets in regards to what you get for your money. And it's because not only is it s niche market, but it's one in which there are a lot of people willing to spend. 

 

Light prices are crazy. I understand quality is going to cost more but lighting a larger tank with name brand leds can easily cost thousands. Controllers are also expensive for the tech you are actually getting. 

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I just picked up my dosing containers like two days ago.

 

I honestly felt for $2...they could have put a better tasting beverage inside. I suppose $2 with a subpar beverage is better than $200 and no beverage though.

 

IMG_20190328_053419.thumb.jpg.87bcf6d45872910150310abcaa9b11e5.jpg

 

 

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7 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

Lol 😂 i make dosing containers, tanks, ATO. Etc.. what kills me is the sumps 🤦‍♂️

54D0B7A6-D873-4296-98D0-1EEF92342215.jpeg

haha yea, brand name sumps are ridiculously priced too.  I thought maybe they are special in some way but nope, same as any other sumps.  Most come with bright colors though...reminds me of the old days of people putting racing stickers on their cars.

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This guy is extra salty
1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

haha yea, brand name sumps are ridiculously priced too.  I thought maybe they are special in some way but nope, same as any other sumps.  Most come with bright colors though...reminds me of the old days of people putting racing stickers on their cars.

I think next time I build a sump I’m definitely going to engrave some “go fast” flames on it 🤣

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