What's up with retail prices for Asian aros these days?

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i dont know what the exchange rate is CD$1500 sound very cheap to me and the grade of aro cant be that good

i have paid now and in the past

£1400 super grade red splendour xback 3yrs ago
£1600 24k gold xback 8 months ago
£1700 chilli red this week

if the price does drop then you will get lower grade fish yes i have paid alot of money for my aros compaired to what you are paying but just look how good the aros are hears a picture of the 24k gold if you can get a better 24k for a cheaper price i would like to see it

3may.jpg
 
right i have looked at the exchange rate the CD$ is near the same as the US$ to the £

so that means we are paying much more than you for aros if cd$1500 for a super red

we are paying double what you guys are paying over their does that mean our aros are much better than yours if money talks :D

like i said no matter how much you pay banjar green and RTG are fairly standard grade throw the world

but as we pay much more for higher end stuff then we should be close to japan :D
 
DragonfishExotics said:
It really gets back to, you get what you pay for. Nothing wrong for a new arowana owner to start with a 1.5 grade red or a RTG even a green. But it is already a sizable investment to get the large tank and equipment to keep your arowana, so my view is if you spent that much on getting setup why not pay a bit more for a better grade fish. Its a longterm purchase, arowanas can live for up to 25 years. And to answer your question. I believe Panada reds and xbacks are 1st grade or premium.
Click to expand...

Wow, you really feel Panda ranks as high as a first grade fish.
Maybe Panda can produce first grade arowana's but we are not getting the first grade stock.
I beg to differ. Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing purchasers of Panda reds in the past group buy but, I don't see them as being 1st grade premium reds.
I too started out with a 1.5 Red (banjar) and it did live for almost it's mid-teens but it was the cheapest red in the GTA @ around $1200.00 C$ in the late 80's. Back then that was alot of money for a fish. That would be equal to our 3-4,000 dollar fish today. When the Chili & Super reds came they started at $4,000 and up, no guarantees or certs either.
There were no guidelines or literature to go by.
The pictures from posters of Chili Red's and Blood Red's did not come out till the early 90's. I know some were keeping full grown RTG's at the time but no one really knew that they came from different parts of Asia. Alot of the books were in Chinese and they were being sold for around $125.00 each.

I have yet to see Reds that resembles the ones in Farm web sites, show tanks, or posters.
Are we all being led to beleive that the Arows in the show rooms, posters and web sites are what we are getting?
Should farms post a disclaimer that states that, "Your fish may not turn out exactly like this!"

For those that have red or deep orange fish this doesn't really concern you, I know you all paid more than $1500.00 C$ for your Aro,s.

If you really want to see the difference, go into the the Aro farms website and compare the quality of their "POSTER" or "SHOWCASE" Arowana's to the one swimming in your aquarium at home.
If you have a Panda red, compare them on the site pics. I am more interested in the CHILI & SUPER Red variety. Let me know how close they come in resemblance.
I'll talk more about RTG's and XB later.
 
if you ever think you are going to get a red like posted on the web in books or posters think again its not going to happen

ALL of the pictures are taken with nan light or red color enhanceing light

ask anyone in asia to show you pictures of their aro without the lights and they wont

if you want a sweet looking aro you can have it at the flick of a switch :D
 
thats y invest in lightings for my tank. Not to say that i buy low quality Arows either, and dont dream that someday my aro is going to come close to a showcase aro.
I just switch on the mood i'm in when i get home. Yellow lights to see the orange. Red or just plain bright to see its true color.
 
To those people who do not like this thread, I would say either skip reading it or else continue to seek out "feel good" posts on the many other sites out there dealing with Asian aros. I am not picking up any negativity here. As Eken notes, this thread has pulled in a lot of views in a short period...must be catching someone's interest! :) And Rulaifu, the thread did start from a post you made. As a moderator on this forum part of my job is to look for topics that promote reader interest. This one seems to work.

Concerning Panda's fish, they are NOT graded by Mr.Kan. The only grading that occurs is when either a buyer or Mr.Kan (or Han, the head floor manager), selects a fish from its tank of siblings for final sale. Many people here come to Panda after work to stare at the tanks for hours to choose their fish. One of the reasons Panda fish offer such value (in my opinion), is that you are not paying the premium for the grading. And as everyone knows (I think), provided you get a genuine fish of higher grade (genetically speaking), the rest is up to you - provide proper food and environment and the fish should turn out great.

Now, concerning the $1500 C figure I threw out...at 1.4 exchange to Sing $ that works out to $2100 S$. For that price, along with some hard bargaining and a LOT of searching....you can find a very good JUVENILE fish. Considering I have spent 24 hours over two days of non-stop travel around S'pore, along with another $200+ in taxi fare, I am of course not including my costs in my quote. However, having seen that $1888 is a popular going price for a nice average higher end fish, and assuming that I could bargain a slightly higher grade fish with an asking price of $2500 S down to $2100 S (not always possible of course), well...that is where I got my quote. This does not include shipping of course.

Were I a true businessman I would put a $ value on my time spent running around Singapore, plus my hotel, food, and taxi costs. And then my airfare. And then I would divide this cost amongst the fish I buy and add it to the final retail price...plus say 20%. And then I would add say 10% to the cost of the fish itself.

So, the $2100 S would go up by about another $1000 S. So now we have a fish that costs $3100 S, or about $2200 C (WHOLESALE COST). If you want to save time and money searching, just go to one of the high end shops or farms and make your purchase. I'd say $4000-4500 S ($3500 C should do the trick for sure), though again that would include hard bargaining. This route would take you to roughly double my original quote. Now, once that fish makes it to Canada for retail, it is going to go up by another 2 to 3 times in value, for a final asking price of say $5,000 - 8,000 C.

You want a larger high end fish? Well, the price goes up on the fish as time passes. This is where the INVESTMENT end of the hobby comes in. And yes, you can expect to double or triple or even quadruple the quote I provided on the juvenile fish! So now we are up to $10,000 plus!!

Keep in mind that the quotes I am providing above are based on local prices in S'pore, not Canada. Thus, I am sorry to be "mixing apples with oranges" here and can only hope that you can follow my logic ;)

I actually find this thread is helping me to translate all the facts and figures I am recieving here
into knowldege. I am beginning to see how prices that one might think are outrageous in Canada are actually quite fair when put in proper context. Thus, I am slowly but surely moving over to what I might call Rulaifu's philosophy! :)
 
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Crystal clear Cyrrus,
I get you 100%. Excellent break down on the price. I guess that will answer all the questions concerning price and Arowana quality.:D
 
Very well explained, even a dumb guy like me understood.

So... A Premium Quality 1500$ LFS Aro would in fact cost... 200-300$ ? :rolleyes:
 
That is over 150% mark up, I guess with all the reaching and the dealing in Singapore, I guess it explain the additional costs break down- I guess this fair; :eek:
 
Nice breakdown Cirrus. Your example is accurate in terms of sending a personal agent overseas to pick out fish for you. Normally you would contact a farm and it saves taxi fees, hotel and plain tickets etc. Your logic is fair and I do see if at high end should cost that much.
 
after looking at exchange rates $3000c is still a good price for a high end aro

if you think you are getting it cheaper than that think again

if you cant afford $3000c then buy a RTG its as simple as that

high end aro are not cheap so dont think because its a group buy you are going to get the aro for nothing

$3000c is a fair price and thats the sort of money i have pair for most of my aros

$700c is what we pay for RTG over hear so if they are cheaper than that its a bargin

i cant belive that everyone is moaning about price of asian aro you should just be greatful you can get them over their just think if you lived in the US
 
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