For those of you that trade/sell fish at your local fish stores, what is a fair rate?

[Surreal]

Since I started getting better at breeding, I've been looking for stores that would want to take some of my locally-bred fish off my hands. I contacted a store near me to see if they would be interested in some cichlids I had. Stores around the area sell these guys for $20ish dollars each, and they offered to give me $2 for each fish. I thought this was way too low so I rejected them, but now I'm wondering if this is the market standard? 10% of the final retail price?

I know dan's fish said in one of his streams that he takes fish from hobbyists for 20% of the final retail cost. Just curious what experiences you guys have had with trading fish in at your LFS's

[mynameisnobody]

20% but you pay shipping, 10% and they are out of hands immediately. What’s more important to you. The market standards are local to you. So what I get for guppies down in Florida is going to be very different than what you’d be offered for them. 

[GoofyGarra]

I've had mixed results selling/trading at my LFS.

 

An Albino Cory in my area is about $8.

 

The most I've gotten for fish was a $21 Pleco for 9 Albino Cories, this was after pushing the Owner who offered me $2 a piece in credit, the employees were very surprised at how this offer was. That being said I've also been given nothing for my Albino Cories, despite the fact that they were old enough to breed and the store was trying to breed them.

 

A platy in my area is about $4.

At least for platies I've had some more consistencies, where for a bag of 10-12, I can get $5.

 

TLDR of the situation is these days I use the philosophy of "If i wanted to make money, I wouldn't bring my fish to the LFS". I've sold fish to Local Hobbyists before, at about %30 retail cost and I make enough money to be happy and they get enough of a discount to be happy, but it can sometimes be a hassle. So although I generally dont get good prices from the LFS, having a consistent place that can take my fish, for me is a valuable thing.

[Windyfish]

My LFS will give me a dollar or two for a fish and they sell them for a minimum $10 usually more. If I need ti get rid of fish, I go to the LFS. If I want to make money, I ship them. 

[Solarpower]

Pictures and a print out/email price list may put you at a higher bargaining price, at the cost of additional effort 

Edited Friday at 03:08 PM by Solarpower

[AllFishNoBrakes]

My LFS and I have a pretty good relationship. I get 20-25% for my Panda Angels, but only $0.50 for cherry shrimp. 
 

To try find out what they need from you and then breed that. 

[TOtrees]

Who's doing who a favor? If the store is doing you a favor by taking the fish, and receiving them comes with risk (of disease, of not selling), or they need to get a tank ready to receive/hold your fish, then you can expect a low return. Maybe 10-20% of anticipated selling price. 

Ask yourself, what can you do to tip those odds towards you, so that you're doing them a favor by selling them your product? Can you become a regular provider? Offer a product at larger size, or in better health (less die off in tanks means more sales)? Sell in larger volume, because a tank with 100 fish will generate more interest than one with 10? 

Rarity is also desirable, as in if you provide something that is rarely available through other sources, they'll be more inclined to do business on your terms. 

Another thing to find out is what the store is paying wholesale, for the same fish. If you expect to see a higher price than what they pay wholesale, there needs to be a business case to support that. And you might have to match those low prices the first few times to generate trust in your product, just make sure it's clear that this are intro rates and the normal rate is higher. 

I've been successful consistently getting 40% of selling price with most of the stores I sell to. Though occasionally it comes back much lower, if things aren't aligned in my favor. But there's always a reason for it (eg I need to unload these now, or that time I sold >500 cherry shrimp a store to clean out a tank that had way more than I thought). 

[chadalca]

The trade in value I'm getting locally for guppies and platies is 1/5 their selling price.   They sell the quality mutt guppies as $10 a pair and i can usually get $2 a pair - but they have to be fairly mature maybe a good 4 to 5 months to get that much.  Sometimes though when they have full stock they'll take them off my hands as donation even if they feel they have no room to sell them.   I've been working with small volumes, so not interested in taking money and trying to make business.  The other store I work with can be highly inconsistent as they have many people running it, I stopped taking fish to them and have stopped buying from them as well as they don't seem to value my effort.  The one where the owner is also the operator and has full say in everything usually cuts me a fair deal and I choose to go to him for any dry goods or fish to buy.  He genuinely is interested in the stories of how I'm trying to raise these guys up on their own and provide some quality livebearers for fun

[Surreal]

16 hours ago, mynameisnobody said:

The market standards are local to you.

This is something I didn't really realize. Going through the rest of the thread, it seems like 20% is a fair asking price for taking fish from hobbyists.

 

9 hours ago, AllFishNoBrakes said:

To try find out what they need from you and then breed that. 

Next time I head to them I'll definitely ask this. I'll probably have a tank free soon that I'll want to start a new breeding project in anyway.

 

4 hours ago, TOtrees said:

Who's doing who a favor?

I think it's more mutually beneficial in this scenario. I've given the LFS 30ish of these fish for free sort of as a trial run and as far as I know all of them have sold and none have died. The LFS owner said he was surprised by the quality of fish/the way I packed them since people locally don't take the best care of their fish I guess? Either way, thank you for your comment, really appreciate all of the advice given.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. I've only ever been a part of local fish auction once, but I was successful in making a good amount of money selling things there. I think my course of action will be to wait for local auctions first, and then sell to an LFS if it's an off season. I'm not really in this to make money, for the most part I just want to make sure my fish are going to a good home, but at the same time I don't want to get taken advantage of. Either way, thanks everyone! Was nice to hear about everyones experiences.

[Matt B]

20% sounds about what I've gotten.  More for really dark red cherry shrimp. It really just seems to

depend on what's in demand at the time...🤔  Store credit is what we've settled on. 🤓 I'm  trading Endlers for crickets! 😆  Lizard food!   

[mynameisnobody]

@Matt B yooo endlers for crickets is a jackpot win, good deal. I don’t have reptiles, but I used to keep a ton of tarantulas and if someone would have offered endlers for crickets, I would have thought I won the lotto.